Craig Russell stars as a former operative hiding behind a dog collar in “The Priest,” a British action thriller that has finished shooting on location in Cornwall, U.K.
The film marks the feature directing debut of Will Saunders.
Russell (“Protein,” “Queen Cleopatra”), repped by Felix de Wolfe, plays a parish priest whose buried past resurfaces when a woman from his old life arrives at his confessional. As a local crime lord tightens his hold on the town, the priest is drawn back into the violence he thought he had escaped.
Luca Matteo Zizarri (“Rogue Heroes,” “Peaky Blinders”), repped by Twenty-Nine Five Group, plays Vale, the crime boss controlling the town. Imogen Mackenzie plays Holly, whose return sets the story in motion; Sally Nash plays her younger colleague Angie, who gets caught up in the fallout. Munday takes on the role of Detective Emma Carter, a cop whose missing-persons case brings her into direct conflict with Vale’s operation and the priest’s hidden history.
“The Priest” was written by Maisie Davies, Sonny Barton, Zuzu Hanley and Jamie Moody. It was produced by Ethan Lee and shot by cinematographer Becks Bouron, both RTS Award winners. The production used cliff-top industrial ruins, working harbor settings and historic churches around Cornwall to build its atmosphere.
“‘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,” Saunders said. “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.”
Noel Goodwin, Martin McQuillan and Kingsley Marshall also serve as producers on the film, alongside Chee Keong Cheung of the British action studio Action Xtreme. Action Xtreme’s last Nigerian feature, “Son of the Soil,” landed a Netflix Africa deal and climbed to No. 1 on Netflix Nigeria.
“The Priest” is the first feature to emerge from the MA Feature Filmmaking course, led by producer Martin McQuillan, a post-graduate program based within Falmouth University’s School of Film & Television, where students partner with Action Xtreme to write, shoot and complete features within the action genre. With more than 15 years of production experience, the school previously worked with director Mark Jenkin, whose credits include “Rose of Nevada” and “Enys Men,” and on the BAFTA-winning “Bait,” as well as with production house Grasp the Nettle on Dean Puckett’s “The Severed Sun.”
Action Xtreme’s stunt unit was headed by coordinator Ermar Alexander, whose credits include “Bad Day at the Office,” “Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw” and “Marvels,” alongside Giedre Jackyte (“Star Wars: The Acolyte,” “Slow Horses”) and armorer Ty Hopkins (“Bad Day at the Office,” “Fast X”).
“‘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,” said Kingsley Marshall, head of the School of Film & Television.
Goodwin, an Action Xtreme executive producer who also oversees talent development and formerly ran the BFI Future Film Festival, said he was delighted to have wrapped the first feature to emerge from the course.
Action Xtreme’s upcoming POV action thriller “Bad Day at the Office,” directed by Cheung and starring John Hannah and Radha Mitchell, will debut at Edinburgh International Film Festival on Aug. 13, opening the Midnight Madness strand ahead of a U.K. and Ireland theatrical release on Oct. 30.
