Ross White and Tom Berkeley, the filmmaking duo behind the Oscar and BAFTA winning short film “An Irish Goodbye,” have teamed up with Studiocanal, Working TitleParkville Pictures and Film4 for their feature debut and landed two hugely in-demand stars as their leads.
“The End of the World as We Know It” will see BAFTA winner Jack O’Connell (“Ink”) and BAFTA nominee Odessa A’zion (“Marty Supreme”) play a pair of star-crossed loners who meet on an epic pilgrimage to prove the earth is flat.
Described as an “unlikely adventure in truth and love,” the film is being written and directed by Berkeley and White, with production set to begin Canada in November. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner produce for Working Title Films, while producing for Parkville is Olivier Kaempfer (who previously worked with Studiocanal to produce the recent TIFF-bowing dark comedy “Everybody Wants to F— Me” starring Taron Egerton and with Working Title on the rom-com “Finding Emily,” released earlier this year by Focus).
“The End of the World as We Know It” is fully financed by Studiocanal. Film4 will co-finance and executive produce. Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern and Joe Naftalin will executive produce for Studiocanal. Katherine Pomfret and Thea Paulett will executive produce for Working Title. Amanda Drake of Notable Studios is EP. Studiocanal will release the film theatrically in its territories of the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Benelux, Australia and New Zealand, and is also handling worldwide sales.
“’The End of the World as We Know It’ is a story we discovered hiding in the strangest of places, but one that seemed to speak profoundly to our collective search for meaning, belonging and love in an increasingly disparate world,” said Berkeley and White. “We feel intensely lucky to have the inimitable Jack O’Connell and Odessa A’zion bringing these star-crossed loners to life and, with the backing of the wonderful teams at Studiocanal, Working Title, Parkville and Film4, we can’t wait to take audiences on their unique, cinematic journey.”
White and Berkeley’s short black comedy “An Irish Goodbye,” starring Seamus O’Hara, James Martin, Paddy Jenkins and Michelle Fairley, became an awards season smash after playing in more than 60 international film festivals in 2022 and 2023. Following two estranged brothers who reunite in rural Northern Ireland following their mother’s death, the film went on to win the 2023 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short, the BAFTA award for Best British Short Film and the IFTA Award for best short film.
Tom Berkeley and Ross White
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“End of the World as We Know It” sees Studiocanal reunite with long time collaborators Working Title following the recent global release of “Pressure.” Working Titles other recent releases including “Sense and Sensibility,” “Finding Emily,” “The Sheep Detectives,” “Crime 101,” “Goodbye June,” “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” “The Substance,” and upcoming title “Werwulf.”
Studiocanal’s upcoming slate includes Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” which opened the Venice Film Festival, “Elsinore,” starring Andrew Scott and already amassing predictions as an award season frontrunner, and “Everybody Wants to F— Me,” due for release in 2027. Alongside “Ink,” which launches in the U.S. on Dec. 11, Studiocanal also released the O’Connell-led “’71” in the U.K. in 2014 and produced “Back to Black,” in which he starred alongside Marisa Abela.
Enjoying something of career highpoint at the moment, O’Connell has several major titles incoming, including John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place Part III” opposite Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy, and Grant Sputore’s “Godzilla x Kong: Supernova,” the latest chapter in Legendary’s Monsterverse, alongside Dan Stevens, Kaitlyn Dever and the late Sam Neill. He represented by Conway Van Gelder Grant in the U.K. and UTA and Range Media Partners in the US
Since breaking out in “Marty Supreme,” A’zion landed a series regular role on Rachel Sennott’s HBO series “I Love LA” and will next star alongside Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, Dianne Wiest and Toby Wallace in Cody Fern’s directorial debut “Mother Courage,” and also in Justine Triet’s upcoming comedy “Fonda” alongside Andrew Scott, Allison Janey, Benedict Wong and Cherry Jones. She is represented by UTA, Luber Roklin, Granderson Des Rochers, and The Lede Company.
Berkeley and White are represented by Francesca Devas at Independent Talent and Craig Kestel and Marco Alvarez at WME.
Source: variety.com
