Neil Jordan returns to bloodsucking with Byzantium

by Naman Ramachandran

28/11/2011 - Seventeen years after 1994’s Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, and 27 years after 1984’s The Company Of Wolves that was based on Angela Carter’s bestselling novel, celebrated Irish director Neil Jordan (pictured) is set to return to the genre with Byzantium.

Principal photography will commence at UK locations in December and then continue in Ireland until February. Written by Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre [trailer]) and based on her own play, the film will follow a mother and daughter vampire duo that hunt as a pair.

IFTA-winning Irish actress Saoirse Ronan (Hanna [trailer]) and British actress Gemma Arterton (Tamara Drewe [trailer]) will play the leads. Sam Riley (Brighton Rock [trailer]), Caleb Landry Jones (X Men: First Class) and Daniel Mays (The Adventures Of Tintin) round out the cast.

The £8 million budgeted film is a co-production between Ireland’s Parallel Films and the UK’s Number 9 Films with backing from the Irish Film Board and the British Film Institute.

Parallel’s Alan Moloney (Triage [trailer]), Number 9’s Elizabeth Karlsen (Made In Dagenham [trailer]) and long time Jordan collaborator Stephen Woolley (Perrier’s Bounty [trailer]) are producing.

Moloney said, "The investment by the IFB in Byzantium will ensure that the project can be produced in Ireland, bringing with it international investment and ensuring Irish talent are attached to it. The Irish film and television industry has major potential for future growth and delivering a strong return to the Irish exchequer in terms of job creation."