Neil Jordan’s Byzantium cast grows; Tom Hollander and Jonny Lee Miller join

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Neil Jordan’s BYZANTIUM is a vampire tale starring the luscious Gemma Arterton and up-and-comer Saoirse Ronan as the loveliest pair of vampires you could ever want to know. While the film has been shooting in Ireland for some time, a couple of new castmembers have come to light, thanks to an article in the Daily Mail.

Jonny Lee Miller (pictured right), soon to be seen in the vampire-centric drama DARK SHADOWS, finds himself in the cast, as does Tom Hollander, whom most people will recognize as villainous Lord Beckett from the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN films (he was also the assassin in HANNA). Their roles in the Jordan flick are thus far unspecified.

The synopsis:
Two young women arrive in a nameless British small town. Their names are not their own. They don’t declare their ages. Their relationship with each other is not clear. Are they sisters, as their assumed identities declare? Or are they mother and daughter? The eldest, Claire, takes a job in a pub. The youngest, Eleanor, goes to school.

During a truth exercise in her drama class, Eleanor confesses that she has been alive for over two hundred years and has survived by drinking human blood. Her classmates think she is utterly crazy and Mint, her teacher, puts her in touch with the school counsellor. She makes one friend, Frank, a boy who has been home educated and is as much of an oddity as Eleanor. He tries to get to the bottom of her vampire delusion, thinking it an epic and compelling psychosis. Why would anyone want to be undead?

In addition to the folks mentioned above, BYZANTIUM stars Sam Riley, Daniel Mays, Uri Gavriel, Jeff Mash and Caleb Landry Jones.

Gemma Arterton