John C.Reilly joins The Lobster

Principal photography has begun on The Lobster, the first English-language film by Yorgos Lanthimos, whose Dogtooth won Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2009 and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Beginning last week, the shoot will take place over seven weeks on location in Ireland.

John C. Reilly, Ashley Jensen, Michael Smiley and Jessica Barden join the previously announced Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Ben Whishaw, Léa Seydoux, Olivia Colman, Ariane Labed and Angeliki Papoulia. 

The love story is set in the near future where single people are arrested and transferred to the Hotel.  There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days.  If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into the Woods.  A desperate man escapes to the Woods where the Loners live and falls in love, although it is against their rules.

The Lobster is co-written by Lanthimos and his long-time collaborator, award-winning Efthimis Filippou.

It is being produced by Element Pictures, Limp and Scarlet Films. Producers on the film are Lanthimos, Lee Magiday, Ed Guiney and Ceci Dempsey, with Element’s Andrew Lowe and Film4’s outgoing Tessa Ross and Sam Lavender acting as executive producers. Isabel Davis is the lead executive for the BFI Film Fund, and Rory Gilmartin for Bord Scannan na hEireann/Irish Film Board.

Partnering on the project are Christos V. Konstantakopoulos of Faliro House in Greece, Carole Scotta of Haut et Court (who will be both the French co-producer and distributor of the film) and Derk-Jan Warrink, Joost de Vries and Leontine Petit of Lemming Films in Holland.

The Lobsteris being financed by Film4, Bord Scannan na hEireann/Irish Film Board, the BFI Film Fund (the first film through its minority co-production strand), Eurimages, Greek Film Centre, CNC, the Dutch Film Fund and Canal+.

Protagonist Pictures is handling world sales.