Kevin Macdonald travels to Black Sea and Eastern Europe

Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald is working with writer Dennis Kelly, writer of Matilda The Musical, on a project called Black Sea.
“I would describe it as The Treasure of The Sierra Madre in a submarine,” Macdonald said. Film4 is likely to back the film.
“Hopefully, it will be one of those hard, intelligent B-movies they used to make - dark, little vicious B-movies,” the Scottish filmmaker said.

Immediately after Berlin (where he premiered his doc Marley), Macdonald is heading to Eastern Europe to continue research for his forthcoming TV drama series with Haut Et Cour in France and Warp in London.

The drama, as yet-untitled, is set in post-Tito Yugoslavia. The story is told from the point of view of jewel thieves. “I am off to some meet some Pink Panthers later this week,” Macdonald said of the notorious gang.

As announced, Macdonald recently cast Saoirse Ronan on his forthcoming film How I Live Now, based on the Meg Rosoff novel. The love story is being produced by Film4, Cowboy Films and Passion Pictures, with Charles Steel as lead producer. Macdonald hopes it will be his next project to shoot.

“We are having a lot of difficulty finding a boy,” Macdonald said. “It was predicated on being a cast of unknowns but Saoirse came and read and was so fantastic…we cast her, which means we have someone who is a name and who is great.”