Rupert Wyatt's debut feature The Escapist has begun filming in Dublin with a sterling cast of British and Irish character actors and stars.

The prison escape drama features, among others, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Liam Cunningham, Seu Jorge, Dominic Cooper, Stephen Macintosh and Damian Lewis. Goalpost Films is handling international sales on the project, which already has UK distribution through Vertigo.

Cox plays a 'lifer' 13 years into his sentence, who cooks up a plan to escape so that he can make peace with his estranged daughter.

The film will shoot on location for four weeks in Dublin and one week in London.

The Escapist is being produced by Parallel Films (Ireland) and Picture Farm (UK) and is an Irish-UK co-production. Parallel's previous credits include Intermission and Breakfast On Pluto. UK company Picture Farm previously co-produced the Irish feature film The Front Line (sold through High Point Films) and recently delivered The Baker which screens this week in the European Film Market for Bankside Films.

The Escapist is scripted by Rupert Wyatt and Daniel Hardy and was developed by Adrian Sturges through Picture Farm, the company he runs with Wyatt and Damian Lewis. It is financed by the UK Film Council and the Irish Film Board, and produced with the support of investment incentives for the Irish Film Industry provided by the Government of Ireland.

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