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‘The Crown’ Star Olivia Colman to Headline ‘Joyride’ – AFM

The Crown” star Olivia Colman, Oscar-winner for “The Favourite,” will play the lead in “Joyride,” the first dramatic feature film from Emmy-wining documentary filmmaker Emer Reynolds (“The Farthest”).

Colman will play Joy, a train-wreck who is on an adventure but ready to give away her new-born baby to her best friend. What she can’t anticipate is that a cheeky street urchin is also along for the ride. Both are on the run; two diamonds in the rough forming a riotous pair.

Dublin-based Subotica (“Michael Inside”), led by Aoife O’Sullivan and Tristan Orpen Lynch, is producing. The film is set to shoot in 2021 along the Wild Atlantic Way in West Ireland.

The U.K.’s Embankment is on board as executive producers and will be selling the film worldwide at AFM. The script was written by Ailbhe Keoghan. The screenplay was developed in partnership with Screen Ireland.

Producer Aoife O’Sullivan said: “We’re thrilled to be bringing this highly original, emotional and hilarious story into production with Emer Reynolds at the helm. Writer Ailbhe Keoghan is a true talent and having Olivia Colman as our lead character Joy is a dream come true.”

Reynolds said: “We’re thrilled to have the wonderful Olivia Colman, an artist of such incredible talent, intelligence and depth – not to mention comedic brilliance. It’s going to be a pleasure harnessing her rawness and her comedy and, vitally, the profound bravery that is visible in all her work.”

Colman has said about the character: “Once I met her, I couldn’t get her out of my head.”

Embankment’s Tim Haslam described the film as “a feel-good foul-mouthed fairy-tale.”

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