The last time writer/director Steve McQueen and actor Michael Fassbender got together they produced the remarkable Hunger, the story of IRA inmate Bobby Sands’ hunger strike protest. And now they’re getting back together for Shame, the tale of a man whose sex life gets out of control.
Co-written by McQueen and Brick Lane’s Abi Morgan, Shame will follow Brandon, a 30-something living in New York who can’t seem to fight his lustful urges. But forget the idea that this’ll be a cheap sex romp – McQueen’s plan is to explore the nature of need and how people react to the experiences of their lives. According to Hanway Films chief Tom Haslam, who will be handling the sales and marketing, the film “will tell a modern story that is deeply honest and provocative.”
We’re expecting big things from the both of them, since Hunger went on to win the Camera d’Or at Cannes and the Gucci Prize at Venice.
Their latest collaboration will start shooting in January, since McQueen will have to wait for Fassbender to finish work on Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, in which he’s playing Erik Lensherr, the man who will be Magneto. And while it means McQueen delaying work on his planned biopic of Afrobeat star Fela Kuti(which had Chiwetel Ejiofor lined up to star), hopefully he'll get back to that once Shame is finished.