European pay TV platform Sky has released the trailer for Sky Original film “Dance First,” ahead of its world premiere at San Sebastian Film Festival on Sept. 30.
The film is directed by BAFTA and Academy Award winner James Marsh (“The Theory of Everything”) and written by BAFTA winner Neil Forsyth (“Guilt”). “Dance First” will be released in movie theaters in the U.K. and Ireland in November, on Sky Cinema in those countries in December and on Sky Arts and Freeview next year.
In “Dance First,” Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne (“The Usual Suspects”) plays Samuel Beckett with young Beckett played by Fionn O’Shea (“Normal People”) in a sweeping account of the life of this 20th century literary icon. Parisian bon vivant, World War II resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband and recluse, Beckett lived a life of many parts. In this playful film the audience sees his life through his mistakes and fraught relationships with James Joyce (Aidan Gillen – “Game of Thrones”), his wife Suzanne (Sandrine Bonnaire – “Vagabond”), and his lover Barbara Bray (Maxine Peake – “The Theory of Everything”).
“Dance First” is produced by 2LE Media, Sky and Creative UK. Producers include 2LE Media’s Michael Livingstone and Tom Thostrup, alongside Viktória Petrányi of Hungary’s Proton Cinema, Belgium’s Umedia and Fabien Westerhoff of Constellation Productions. Julia Stuart (Sky Cinema), Philip Edgar-Jones and Tilusha Ghelani (Sky Arts), Paul Ashton from Creative UK and Richard Mansell are executive producers. The film was developed from a Sky Arts Urban Myth.
Upcoming Sky Originals in the U.K. and Ireland also include Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” and Todd Haynes’ “May December,” which are both released in movie theaters later this year.