Wildcard's Irish Indie Slate: Kneecap to Hansen-Løve
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- Wildcard, rebranded from Wildcard Distribution in 2023, made its production debut with Rich Peppiatt's 'Kneecap' — acquired by Sony Pictures Classics at Sundance 2024, Oscar International Feature shortlisted, and BAFTA-winning, with Michael Fassbender in a supporting role.
- Wildcard followed with Aislinn Clarke's Irish folk horror 'Fréwaka,' acquired by Shudder after Locarno and London festival runs and financed entirely through domestic Irish funding on a low budget.
- Wildcard has two films premiering this summer: Rebekah Fortune's 'Learning to Breathe Under Water' (starring Rory Kinnear and Maria Bakalova), which earned rave reviews at Karlovy Vary, and the Irish Christmas heist comedy 'You'll Never Believe Who's Dead,' both set for the Galway Film Fleadh.
- Wildcard is co-producing Mia Hansen-Løve's Mary Wollstonecraft biopic 'If Love Should Die' starring Renate Reinsve — a portion to be shot in Ireland, where Wollstonecraft once lived — marking the company's first major European auteur project.
- Wildcard's development slate includes Lance Daly's historical action-thriller 'Cranńog' (billed as ''Apocalypto' meets 'The Northman''), Ellius Grace's politically-charged body horror 'Halfcast,' and a Bram Stoker 'nightmare biopic' called 'In the Blood.'
- Wildcard served as service producer on the St. Patrick episode of Fox Nation's 'Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints' — a TV gig managing director Patrick O'Neill conceded was 'not in our business model' but 'hard to resist.'
Why it matters: Wildcard's pivot demonstrates a viable new model for Irish production companies: leveraging domestic distribution expertise to greenlight smaller, more daring indie features (often from first-time directors) that can travel internationally — 'Kneecap' cost roughly $5 million, and 'Fréwaka' was financed entirely from Irish sources. The Hansen-Løve co-production signals that Irish producers are now being courted for prestigious European auteur projects as creative partners, not merely service providers on Hollywood shoots like 'Evil Dead Rise' and 'Blue Moon.'
