Break Out Pictures has confirmed that it will release ‘Animals’ across Irish Cinemas on August 9th.
Award-winning director Sophie Hyde (‘52 Tuesdays’, ‘Life in Movement’) helms the feature adaptation of author-turned-screenwriter Emma Jane Unsworth’s best-selling novel ‘Animals’, an unconventional female-driven comedy starring Holliday Grainger (‘Tulip Fever’, ‘My Cousin Rachel’) and Alia Shawkat (‘Arrested Development’, ‘Search Party’).
Grainger and Shawkat star as Laura and Tyler respectively, best friends and drinking buddies whose hedonistic existence falls under the creeping horror of adulthood when Laura gets engaged to Jim — an ambitious pianist who decides, unfathomably, to go teetotal.
Speaking about the upcoming release, Nell Roddy of Break Out Pictures said:
“We are thrilled to be working with Picturehouse Entertainment on the release of the wild and utterly hilarious ANIMALS, it went down a storm in Sundance earlier this year and we hope Irish audiences will enjoy it as much as we did when it hits Irish cinemas later this summer.”
‘Animals’ shot in Dublin early last year, after secured production investment from Screen Ireland and Screen Australia in association with the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) and the Adelaide Film Festival.
British actress, Holliday Grainger’s credits include ‘My Cousin Rachel’, Disney’s live-action film ‘Cinderella’, and Emmy® Award-winning drama series ‘The Borgias’. Alia Shawkat is an award-winning actress best known for her work on cult TV series ‘Arrested Development’ as well as roles in ‘Search Party’ and Amazon’s Emmy® Award-winning series ‘Transparent’.
The film made its European Premiere at Sundance Film Festival: London late last month
Sophie Hyde is also producing alongside Rebecca Summerton for Closer Productions, BAFTA-nominated Sarah Brocklehurst (‘Black Pond’), and Cormac Fox for Vico Films, who featured among the EFP 2019 Producers on the Move at Cannes Film Festival in May. Emma Jane Unsworth wrote the screenplay based on her novel which was first published in 2014 in the UK, followed by editions in the USA, Canada, Germany, France, and Spain.
‘Animals’ marks the sixth official co-production to date from Australia’s co-production treaty with Ireland, signed in 1998. ‘Animals’ is the first feature film drama made under the treaty, which has produced one TV miniseries, two children’s drama series, one feature-length documentary, and one documentary series thus-far. The Competent Authorities tasked with administrating the Co-production Program in Australia and Ireland are Screen Australia and the Screen Ireland, respectively.