When setting up a production company, most filmmakers hope that the first feature out of the gate at least makes a little bit of noise.
Thankfully for Dublin-based Wildcard, “Kneecap” didn’t do anything quietly.
Rich Peppiatt’s rowdy, raucous, drug-soaked and politically-charged directorial debut, a comedy almost-biopic about the Northern Irish rap group of the same name, became the standout hit of Sundance 2024, where it was snapped up by Sony Pictures Classics. Starring the bandmates as versions of themselves and with Michael Fassbender supporting, the film would go on to make the Oscar’s International Feature shortlist, dominate the British Independent Film Awards and even win a BAFTA.
Not exactly a bad start.
Wildcard had hits before, but with other people’s films. Launching in 2013 as Wildcard Distribution, it released features across Ireland such as “The Young Offenders,” the comedy that spawned the hit TV series, Lance Daly’s Berlinale-bowing period drama “Black ’47” (starring a young Barry Keoghan and taking on the 19th century Irish Famine) and “Wolfwalkers,” the Oscar-nominated animation from Kilkenny’s pioneering studio Cartoon Saloon.
But in 2023 it ditched the ‘Distribution’ from its name and added production to its remit. “Kneecap” would be the perfect — if slightly foul-mouthed — way to let people know.
“What ‘Kneecap’ did, certainly in terms of an Irish context and among Irish filmmakers, was ping on a lot of people’s radars,” says Wildcard managing director Patrick O’Neill. “People who thought, we know Wildcard, they distribute a lot of the bigger Irish movies throughout the year, were like, oh, they’re in production now!”
Wildcard quickly followed on the heels of “Kneecap” in 2024 with Aislinn Clarke’s Irish folk horror “Fréwaka,” While the film may not have had the same headline-grabbing exposure or notoriety, it was hugely well received (Variety’s review described it as “expertly conducted atmospheric exercise”) and enjoyed a successful festival run, landing in Locarno and London before being acquired by Shudder.
“Considering ‘Fréwaka’ was made on such a low budget, through a domestic funding scheme and financed all out of Ireland, it showed how indigenous Irish film could travel outside the country,” notes O’Neill. “Because when we talk to filmmakers, we’re very clear that it’s our ambition for anything we produce, we really want it to connect with audiences and the market.”
O’Neill had previous experience producing, notably on Julian Temple’s Shane MacGowan doc “Crock of Gold.” But this was done through Wild Atlantic Films, Wildcard’s sister company, with whom they share office space and resources. And it’s Wild Atlantic Films that, over the last decade, has become one of Ireland’s most successful operations, producing local indie features, such as last year’s “Saipan,” plus “The Hole in the Ground” and “Black ‘47” while also serving as a local producers on numerous Hollywood productions shooting in Ireland, including “Evil Dead Rise,” “Blue Moon” and the recently-released “Young Washington.”
But with Wild Atlantic moving into higher profile projects with bigger budgets, it was felt there was space to support smaller, more daring indie features, often from first-time directors. “Kneecap” — which came to O’Neill through Belfast-based producer Trevor Birney, who was looking for a partner in the Republic — ticked the right financial box (a budget of around $5 million) while also tapping into the comedy, music and politics that had defined much of Wildcard’s distribution output previously.
“I think it really hit in terms of my own personal interests and that of the staff — it was something that we felt closely identified with the kind of films we wanted to do,” says O’Neill. “So there were a lot of touchpoints there. And a lot of the funding partners that were coming together were people we’d worked with previously, so just seemed like a very snug fit.”
More than two years on and while Wildcard continues to distribute many Irish titles (including both “Kneecap” and “Fréwaka”) its nascent production arm has done more than just gather steam, underlined by two films in this year’s summer festival season.
Rebekah Fortune’s tear-jerker “Learning to Breathe Under Water,” starring Rory Kinnear and Maria Bakalova, has just earned rave reviews from its world premiere in Karlovy Vary. It was shot in Galway on Ireland’s west coast, where this week it’ll have its Irish premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh (coincidentally where Wildcard’s “The Young Offenders” world premiered in 2016 and where “Kneecap” had its home debut).
Joining “Learning to Breathe Under Water” and getting its world premiere in Galway is another Wildcard production, the Irish Christmas heist comedy “You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead,” starring Peter Claffey, Michelle Fairley and Ardal O’Hanlon, and reuniting the company with “Kneecap” producer Trevor Birney.
There’s more to come, including supernatural horror “Hide and Don’t Speak,” starring Momona Tamada (“Avatar: The Last Airbender”) alongside Tanner Buchanan (“Cobra Kai”) Garrett Wareing (“The Long Walk”), Quvenzhané Wallis (Oscar nominee for “Beasts of the Southern Wild”), Kaitlyn Kemp (“Street Smart”) and John Hewson (“These Sacred Vows”). The film recently shot in Northern Ireland.
And while most directors are first or second-time feature filmmakers, a new project just over the horizon comes from one of Europe’s most celebrated names. Wildcard is among the co-producers on Mia Hanson-Løve’s upcoming Mary Wollstonecraft biopic “If Love Should Die,” which Renate Reinsve is attached to lead. A portion of the film will be shot in Ireland (where Wollstonecraft spent some time).
O’Neill says that Wildcard will always “look to international opportunities,” such as the chance to work on a Hanson-Løve project, but insists the company’s development slate has a “very Irish identity with Irish talent, which is what we’re passionate about.”
On that note, among several on the slate is the next film from “Black ‘47” director Daly in “Cranńog,” a historical action-thriller set in Ireland 2000 years ago that O’Neill describes as “’Apocalypto’ meets ‘The Northman’”. Then there’s Halfcast, a politically-charged body horror and feature debut of writer/director Ellius Grace, previously known for commercials and photography (he has portraits of both Shane McGowan and Sinead O’Connor hanging in Ireland’s National Gallery).
Rounding out the three projects Wildcard is hoping to get off the ground in the next year is a so-called “nightmare biopic” of Bram Stoker called “In the Blood,” written by David Turpin and Ciarán Foy (who is attached to direct). The story will dive into the origin story of the Irish-born “Dracula” author, who was friends with a man believed to have been Jack the Ripper and ended up marrying Oscar Wilde’s fiancé. “I always thought it was such a fascinating story that had never been told,” says O’Neill, who describes it as “’A Beautiful Mind’ meets ‘From Hell’.”
Despite being less than three years’ old, there’s now plenty going on at Wildcard’s production arm and with “Kneecap,” “Fréwaka” and “Learning to Breathe Under Water,” its first three films that have all had successful A-list festival bows. Given the usual route of Hansen-Løve, “If Love Should Die” could well add Cannes to the list.
There’s a definite through-line connecting Wildcard’s credits, but amongst the growing list is one title that stands out — Fox Nation’s docudrama series “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” about the lives of various Christian saints. Wildcard served as a service producer on the episode about St. Patrick.
“You know, it’s not really in our business model or business plan to necessarily do TV,” admits O’Neill. “But something with Martin Scorsese’s name on it is hard to resits. So I wouldn’t say we made an exception for that, but it’s definitely not bad to have on the CV.”