Lorcan Finnegan, whose sci-fi Vivarium premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019, is in town with wife and Lovely Productions partner Brunella Cocchiglia to meet financing partners and sales agents for his upcoming dystopian fable Goliath.
Set in the near-future, the subversion of the David and Goliath myth follows the inhabitants of a pig-breeding community next to a lake containing an island inhabited by a giant who according to legend ate the early settlers’ babies.
When the pigs fall ill, the head of the settlement orders a militia of youngsters to kill the monster. Before the group sets off, one youngster slips away by himself in the hopes of becoming the hero.
“It’s about creating monsters to start wars and steal natural resources,” said Finnegan of the Screen Ireland-backed project, which Cocchiglia is producing with France’s Alexis Perrin. Finnegan and the producers are preparing to scout European locations for the lake and will build a set for the wild, luscious island.
“It’s set in a time where climate change and war has caused displacement and this shanty town refugee camp has become this settlement. In the background is a walled city where the rich people live, who you never see.”
Finnegan and longtime writer Garret Shanley were inspired to make Goliath after they saw Orazio Gentileschi’s early 17th century painting David And Goliath in Dublin’s National Gallery Of Ireland.
The filmmaker has been storyboarding the Ireland-France-Canada co-production and wants to capture an aesthetic that combines elements of 18th century Romanticism with visual expressions of the collapse of capitalism in the 20th century.
Prior to Goliath, Finnegan is gearing up for a September shoot in Western Australia on The Surfer, a psychothriller starring Nicolas Cage which Mossbank is pre-selling here and Finnegan said is inspired by Australia New Wave cinema like Wake In Fright and Picnic At Hanging Rock.
Finnegan is represented by manager Peter Van Steemberg of XYZ Films in the US and Jack Thomas at Independent in the UK. He also directed 2022 Sitges selection Nocebo.
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