A few weeks ago, we shared the news that Outlander actor Graham McTavish has signed on to star in director Neil Marshall’s latest action horror survival thriller, Gunn, where Marshall will be working from a screenplay by Doug Rao, who is producing the film. We also mentioned that Rao recently made his own feature writing and directing debut with the mystery thriller Dirty Boy, which also happened to star Graham McTavish. Now, a trailer for Dirty Boy has dropped online, and you can check it out in the embed above!
Coming our way from Mystic Dream Story Studio and Stone Hill, in association with Saint Halo Productions, Dirty Boy will be having its UK Premiere at the 33rd Raindance Film Festival on June 22nd. It has already been nominated for four awards at the festival; Best Performance in a UK Feature (Graham McTavish), Best UK Feature, Best Director of a UK Feature (Doug Rao), and Best UK Cinematography. Here’s the synopsis: Raised in an oppressive cult, a reclusive schizophrenic discovers that he’s being framed by the cult leaders for a series of ritualistic murders and must prove his innocence by saving their next victim and destroying the evil sect from within.
McTavish is joined in the cast by Stan Steinbichler (Zero Chill), Susie Porter (Wentworth Prison), Alice Lucy (Mad Heidi), Ruaridh Aldington (Drained), Olivia Chenery (Penny Dreadful), and Honor Gillies (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes). Produced by Giles Alderson, Sarah Ann Grill, and Marek Lichtenberg, the film is being distributed by Raven Banner and Firebook Entertainment.
Rao provided the following statement: “Dirty Boy was written from a place of intense darkness – and I wanted to find the light and the humour within it. I want to explore the sense that complex understandings are often borne out of suffering. I wanted to experiment with identity as a fluctuating concept – can anyone really define themselves as one persona when there are so many versions of ‘the self’? Isaac in Dirty Boy has created an ‘alter’ that his subconscious has formed to process forgotten traumas – but which one is really him? As someone says of Isaac’s tendency to blame his alter for his bad behaviour: ‘He’s you, you asshole, he’s you!’ In Dirty Boy, we also explore both the beauty and the villainy that religious doctrine can inspire. I am delighted with the level of cast I have for my debut feature and getting to work in such a stunning place as the ‘Ausseerland/Saltzkammergut’ in Austria, famously used as a backdrop for The Sound of Music and Spectre adds unbelievable value to the look of the film – a paradisiacal backdrop to a dark fable.” Rao also had this to say about the Raindance premiere: “I’m thrilled that Dirty Boy is having its UK premiere at Raindance; it’s the perfect home for a film this strange, subversive, and emotionally unhinged. Raindance has always championed wild, independent voices, and Dirty Boy is certainly that. As star Graham McTavish dubs it, it’s: ‘The bastard offspring of The Sound of Music‘. To be screening in the heart of the West End, a million miles from the isolated world of the movie, feels strangely right. I can’t wait for the UK to finally meet our twisted little bastard offspring of a film.“
Does Dirty Boy sound interesting to you? What did you think of the trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
