“The Falling” filmmaker Carol Morley is collaborating with Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire”), Monica Dolan (“A Very English Scandal”), Gina McKee (“Phantom Thread”), and Jane Campion on her next feature. Production on “Typist Artist Pirate King” is currently underway in Yorkshire, Deadline reports, and Metro International is presenting it this week at the American Film Market.
Starring Macdonald, Dolan, and McKee, and executive produced by Campion, the film tells the story of “forgotten artist” Audrey Amiss. Drawn from her archives, “Typist Artist Pirate King” “is a road movie of her life, using real events and actual dialogue from Amiss’s letters and diaries to create an imaginary trip. The film explores the growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in an electric car looking for endings and reconciliation,” the source summarizes.
Morley will direct from her own script. While researching the project, she came across Amiss’ archives and discovered the artist’s “life was changed by a mental breakdown.”
Morley and Cairo Cannon’s Cannon and Morley Productions will produce the film alongside Ameenah Ayub Allen, and Anne Sheehan joins Campion as an EP. Agnès Godard will serve as director of photography, and Janey Levick will handle production design.
“The dynamic between Monica Dolan and Kelly Macdonald is electric, funny, and joyous. Carol Morley’s distinct direction strikes the perfect balance between the humor and the realities of Audrey Amiss’s life,” Cannon said. “Thanks to our superb cast and collaborators, Morley’s ‘Typist Artist Pirate King’ is set to be a must-see British road movie.”
“Out of Blue,” “Dreams of a Life,” and “The Alcohol Years” are among Morley’s other films. She received a BAFTA nomination for the latter and a British Screenwriters’ Award for “The Falling.” In an interview with Women and Hollywood, Morley advised women directors to “resist being pigeonholed.” She explained, “There are so many stories to be told – and so many ways to tell them. There is not one ‘strong’ female story to tell, nor should you feel responsible for the burden of underrepresentation in the past.”
Macdonald was last seen in U.K. police drama “Line of Duty.” She won an Emmy for “The Girl in the Café” and scored a BAFTA nod for “No Country for Old Men.” “The Dig” and “Days of the Bagnold Summer” are among Dolan’s recent credits. She took home a BAFTA TV award for “Appropriate Adult.” McKee’s more recent credits include “Black Narcissus” and “Catherine the Great.” She received a BAFTA TV Award for “Our Friends in the North” and nominations for “The Street” and “The Lost Prince.”
Campion’s first feature in over a decade, western “The Power of the Dog,” opens in select theaters November 17 before hitting Netflix December 1. The first woman director to win Cannes’ Palme d’Or, and one of the seven women to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar, Campion’s counts documentary “Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story” and trans coming-of-age drama “They” among her producing credits.
