Writer/director John Michael McDonagh returns to Sundance for the first time since 2011, when his cop dramedy The Guard made a strong impression by casting Brendan Gleeson as an unethical but perhaps highly moral police officer doing battle with violent drug runners and a by-the-book agent played by Don Cheadle. This year John Michael McDonagh brought with him a very different role for Brendan Gleeson, that of a Catholic priest trying to solve his own murder in the one week he has left to live, all while trying to save the souls of the increasingly detached, potentially dangerous members of his parish.
We sat down with John Michael McDonagh to ask him about the genesis of his partnership with Brendan Gleeson, the strong Catholic themes of Calvary, the tricky process of writing a murder mystery, why he initially hesitated to cast his star’s son Domnhall Gleeson, which part in the film was originally considered for the likes of Gabriel Byrne, and the unusual project in which he’s planning to cast Brendan Gleeson next.
Keep coming back to CraveOnline all this week for more videos, interviews and reviews from Sundance 2014!
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
