Rupert Friend, Evanna Lynch Set For James Joyce Film ‘James & Lucia’

Rupert Friend and Evanna Lynch Getty/Courtesy

EXCLUSIVE: Homeland and Death of Stalin actor Rupert Friend is set to star alongside Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch in James and Lucia, a biopic of celebrated author James Joyce which will focus on the Irish writer’s relationship with his daughter.

Written and to be directed by Robert Mullan (Mad to be Normal), Motus Studios is presenting the movie to buyers this week at the EFM in Berlin.

Based on the the final decade of Joyce’s life, firstly in Paris then in Zurich, the film highlights his struggles with his fading eyesight and, centrally, his attempts to protect his beloved daughter Lucia. Once treated by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, Joyce was diagnosed as schizophrenic in the mid-1930s and institutionalized in Switzerland and in the UK.

Joyce, a towering figure in 20th Century literature, is known for works including Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Finnegans Wake, and Dubliners.

Pic will be produced by Rupert Hollier and Gaby Whyte Hart. Simon Fawcett is executive-producing for Filmtrax Media, and Emanuele Moretti is producing for Motus. Shooting is due to take place in Italy in April of this year.

Robert Mullan said: “James & Lucia is less a story about literary genius and more about a father’s deep love for his daughter – as he protects her from unsuitable lovers, enthusiastic psychiatrists and, most importantly, her own demons.”

Friend is coming off Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jay Roach’s Apple series High Desert. Upcoming movies include Wes Anderson movies Asteroid City and The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar and Pierre Morel action pic Canary Black. Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter franchise, last starred in 2019 feature Madness In The Method.

Joyce’s Dubliners inspired John Huston’s Oscar-nominated 1987 drama The Dead, starring the director’s daughter Anjelica Huston.