02/07/2021 - The new comedy, starring Oscar winner Olivia Colman and newcomer Charlie Reid in the lead roles, will be ready for a theatrical release in 2022

Actress Olivia Colman with her Oscar for Best Actress for The Favourite

Grierson-nominated and five-time IFTA winner Emer Reynolds, an Irish documentarian and editor, is now working on her first feature-length fiction project, entitled Joyride and set to begin filming in County Kerry, home of some of Ireland’s most iconic locations. The news was first reported by Screen International.

Reynolds’ documentary directorial debut, Here Was Cuba (2013), was co-directed with John Murray and screened at many festivals worldwide, whilst her most recent solo-directed non-fiction effort, The Farthest [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2017), garnered excellent reviews and had its international premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In Joyride, British star and Oscar winner Olivia Colman (Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite [+see also:
film review
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film profile], Florian Zeller’s The Father [+see also:
film review
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interview: Florian Zeller
film profile] and the Netflix smash hit The Crown) will portray Joy, who has a new baby but does not find that motherhood comes naturally to her, whilst newcomer Charlie Reid will play a 12-year-old boy who has grabbed a stash of cash from his conman father and steals a taxi in a bid for freedom. What he doesn’t expect is to find Joy on the back seat, hungover and holding a baby. The script was penned by Ailbhe Keogan (Run & Jump [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and was developed in partnership with Screen Ireland, the country’s film agency.

Joyride is being produced by Aoife O’Sullivan and Tristan Orpen Lynch (who have both worked on productions such as Horizon Line [+see also:
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film profile], The Other Lamb [+see also:
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interview: Malgorzata Szumowska
film profile] and Michael Inside [+see also:
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film profile]) for Dublin-based outfit Subotica. Ingenious Media and Screen Ireland are also backing the project. This week, Vertigo Releasing acquired the UK and Irish distribution rights from British sales agent Embankment Films. Previously, Sony Pictures Worldwide Entertainment secured the rights for the rest of the world, excluding the UK and North America.