EXCLUSIVE: Aisling Walsh’s upcoming bio-pic Lucia, starring Maya Hawke as the titular Lucia Joyce, has sold into two major European territories within hours of being announced by sales company The Veterans.
ARP Sélection, which is in Cannes with Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, has acquired French rights, while Vertigo Films has taken Spain. Its Cannes titles this year include Exit 8 and Young Mothers.
Walsh’s psychological drama biopic Lucia, stars Hawke as the troubled figure of Lucia Joyce opposite Rhys Ifans as her father, the celebrated Irish writer James Joyce.
Born in Trieste in 1907, as the second child of Ulysses writer Joyce and Nora Barnacle (later Nora Joyce), Lucia Joyce spent her early childhood in the cosmopolitan port city as well as Zurich, before the family moved to Paris in 1920, where she pursued her dream of becoming a dancer.
With a screenplay written by Michael Kinirons, the film will follow Lucia as she struggles to fulfil her personal ambition to become a professional dancer, while navigating her complex relationship with her father as his muse and confidant.
Walsh has a track record in exploring the lives of artists and writers, with films such as the 2014 Bafta-nominated work A Poet in New York, starring Tom Hollander as Dylan Thomas, and Maudie, starring Sally Hawkins as Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis, opposite Ethan Hawke as her husband.
Her other feature credits include Joyriders and Song for A Raggy Boy, while more recently she made BBC-backed TV dramas Miss Austen, the critically acclaimed adaptation of Gill Hornby’s novel, and Elizabeth is Missing, for which Glenda Jackson won a Best Leading Actress Bafta.
Casting is by Amy Kate Dolan (The Pope’s Exorcist, Juliet and Romeo, Costiera). The film is developed and produced by John Kelleher Media and EZ Films (Ireland) with the support of Screen Ireland.
