In the wake of his Oscar win for Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy has added another role to his increasingly busy slate – the period drama Blood Runs Coal.
With the odd exception, Oscar-winning actors don’t tend to be short of work in the wake of winning the coveted gong, and the same seems true for Cillian Murphy. In fairness, the actor’s schedule was already pretty busy, but he’s added another project to his slate that will see him produce and star in another take on a non-fiction story.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Murphy has signed up to star in Blood Runs Coal, an adaptation of the book of the same name. Universal is backing the project, which has been penned by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth who previously co-wrote Edge Of Tomorrow together. No director has been named yet.
Here’s the synopsis for the story:
Based on the 2020 book Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America. Author Mark A Bradley’s book follows the 1969 murder of mining union organiser Joseph “Jock” Yablonski, who was killed at home with his wife and daughter. The killings followed Yablonski campaigning against a corrupt union leader, and sparked a lengthy investigation that unveiled shady dealings within the coal industry.
Murphy’s slate was already pretty packed before the addition of this new project. He will lead the cast of Steven Knight’s planned Peaky Blinders movie and he’s also agreed to return to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s follow-up to the beloved British horror, 28 Days Later. Then there’s his planned take on Claire Keegan’s acclaimed novel, Small Things Like These. That one’s being backed by Artists Equity, the production company formed by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
Murphy is an actor who’s always been all about the work, and that looks set to continue given the range of these projects. Not that there was ever any danger of him falling into the trap of some Oscar winners and searching for an awards-baiting project to mount a campaign for a second statuette, but even so, the range of projects he has coming up present something for us all to look forward to over the coming years. When we get an idea of what order they might be coming in, we’ll let you know.
