Principal photography is underway in Ireland on Silverback, the feature directorial debut from writer-director Steve Kenny.
The tense, character-driven thriller is being produced by Collie McCarthy’s Forty Foot Pictures, with support from Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland, in association with Bankside Films and Viewfinder Film. The film is currently shooting across locations in North County Dublin and Co. Meath.
Jason Isaacs and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor lead the cast in the two central roles. Vaughan-Lawlor plays Rob, an architect-turned-stay-at-home dad whose quiet suburban life is shaken when he strikes up a friendship with his new neighbour Terry, a notorious criminal played by Isaacs.
What begins as an unlikely bond soon curdles as Terry’s violent world starts to seep into the family’s ordinary existence.
Speaking as production got underway, Kenny said the film explores “the power dynamics of male friendship, the responsibility of fatherhood, and our capacity for violence,” adding that Isaacs and Vaughan-Lawlor are “two extraordinary actors” ideally suited to the material.
Silverback is produced by Collie McCarthy for Forty Foot Pictures, with Diarmuid Hughes as co-producer. Executive producers are Paul Grindey, Greg Martin, Stephen Kelleher, Sophie Green and Eimear O’Kane.
Kenny previously won critical attention for his short films, including Coil and Time Traveller, the latter of which premiered at Tribeca, qualified for the Academy Awards, and earned an IFTA nomination before being acquired by Disney+.
Forty Foot Pictures’ recent and upcoming slate includes I Used to Be Famous, Fran the Man, The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes and A Rare Breed.