London [UK], August 6 (ANI): British actor Craig Russell is set to star in the upcoming action thriller ‘The Priest’, which has completed filming on location in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Will Saunders, with Russell playing a former operative hiding behind a priest’s collar, according to Variety.
The actor portrays a parish priest whose violent past resurfaces when a woman from his old life arrives at his confessional, forcing him to confront the life he thought he had left behind, according to Variety.
As a local crime lord tightens his grip on the town, the priest is drawn back into the violence he once escaped.
Luca Matteo Zizarri plays Vale, the crime boss controlling the town, while Imogen Mackenzie stars as Holly, whose return sets the story in motion. Sally Nash portrays Holly’s younger colleague Angie, who becomes caught in the aftermath, and Munday plays Detective Emma Carter, whose missing persons investigation brings her into conflict with Vale’s operation and the priest’s hidden history.
Written by Maisie Davies, Sonny Barton, Zuzu Hanley and Jamie Moody, The Priest has been produced by Ethan Lee and shot by RTS Award-winning cinematographer Becks Bouron. The production used Cornwall’s cliff-top industrial ruins, working harbours and historic churches to create the film’s atmospheric setting.
Speaking about the film, director Will Saunders said, “The Priest began with a tension that I found impossible to ignore: a holy man who has turned the page on a life of violence, and the question of what happens when the past refuses to stay buried.”
“For me, the film is about the distance between who we have been and who we want to become, and about the cost of trying to build a new self on unstable ground,” he added.
Noel Goodwin, Martin McQuillan and Kingsley Marshall serve as producers alongside Chee Keong Cheung of British action studio Action Xtreme, according to Variety.
The Priest is the first feature film to emerge from the MA Feature Filmmaking course led by producer Martin McQuillan at Falmouth University’s School of Film & Television. The programme partners with Action Xtreme to help students create professional action genre features.
The film was made with a crew of more than 60 emerging filmmakers. Kingsley Marshall, head of the School of Film & Television, said, “The Priest* is exactly the kind of work this course was built to produce – a fully professional feature film, made to industry standards by a crew of over 60 emerging filmmakers who have earned every frame of it.”
Action Xtreme’s upcoming POV action thriller Bad Day at the Office, directed by Cheung and starring John Hannah and Radha Mitchell, is scheduled to premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 13 before its UK and Ireland theatrical release on October 30, according to Variety. (ANI)
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