Michael Fassbender to star in film about Irish language rap group Kneecap – Belfast Telegraph

The Irish actor has been announced as the lead for an upcoming Kneecap biopic, which will be directed by Rich Peppiatt, who has also directed a music video for the band.

Eponymously named “Kneecap”, the film has been billed as a raucous, anti-establishment comedy and will star real-life band members Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí as heightened versions of themselves.

The film is a co-production between Mother Tongues Films and Fine Point Films, with Jack Tarling of Mother Tongues Films and Trevor Birney of Fine Point Films producing.

Birney said he had been “fascinated” by the band’s “anarchic approach to life”.

“The band may cause controversy but their antics belie an intelligence that is beyond their years and an amazing ability to lyrically convey what life is like for young people growing up in post-Troubles Belfast,” he told Variety.

Filming on the project wrapped up in May 2023, with Kneecap telling Variety they were “buzzing” to showcase their home city.

“We’re buzzing to show people a side of Belfast that isn’t about guns, bombs and death,” they said.

“To give an insight into the youth culture that has been born out of that madness – we all needed a break from it and there’s revenge in our laughter.

“This is the North of Ireland and the importance of culture and community in the 21st Century.”

Director Rich Peppiat said: “For those who already know Kneecap as musicians, I promise this will be a film true to their hedonistic and anarchic soul. And for those who haven’t yet heard of Kneecap, well, buckle up.”

No date has yet been confirmed for the film’s release.

The band have continued to raise eyebrows in their home city. Murals unveiled over the last two years on Hawthorne Street have caused controversy with some of their messaging.

Their latest mural – unveiled in summer 2023 – features the slogan “England Get Out of Ireland”.

A hand extends from a partitioned map of Ireland to grip an arm adorned with a Union flag as it places a Northern Ireland-shaped piece of land into place.

Both land masses are depicted in the colours of the Irish flag.

Last year they caused outrage in some circles by unveiling a mural featuring a burning PSNI landrover along with the caption “Níl fáilte roimh an RUC/The RUC are not welcome”.

The mural featured in a Dublin-based company’s latest Lego collection, with flaming landrover and mini petrol bomb accessories accompanying figurines of the three artists.

DUP Policing Board member Trevor Clarke said the release of the set is “particularly insensitive” and “sinister”.

‘‘At a time when police officers in Northern Ireland live under severe threat to their lives, no company should be seeking to profit from toys making light of this,” he said.

Creator Gianni Clifford – of Dublin Bricks – said he wanted to “squish this unlikely pairing” of building bricks and the Belfast group together to “offer fans of both something really unique”.