A new, high-octane Irish thriller, Traders, from the team behind the Oscar nominated Room, will hit Irish cinemas this March.
Starring Love/Hate's Killian Scott, it comes with a delicious premise - a literal fight to death where the winner takes all.
Scott's character has all the trappings of success, including the fancy apartment and car, but when his employer goes bust things start to spiral downhill. He's offered a solution by a character played by Game of Thrones actor John Bradley, who has masterminded a diabolical scheme based in the Deep Web, called Trading.
Two strangers empty their banks accounts, sell their asset and put their entire worth in cash into a green sports bag. They travel to a remote location and fight to the death. Winner buries the loser and walks away twice as rich. Simple, no?
There's definite shades of an early Danny Boyle both in the storyline and frenetic direction - and if the trailer is anything to go by, Killian Scott has been hitting the gym in earnest for the role.
Oh, there's also the now obligatory spot-the-Love/Hate actors game to play. Apart from Scott, Peter O'Meara (the blundering dentist), Caoilfhionn Dunne (Darren's assassin) and Barry Keoghan (the cat killer) all make an appearance.
Traders is being distributed by Element Pictures who are behind the multi-Oscar nominated Irish co-production Room. The movie's directors, Peter Murphy and Racheal Moriarty, said they are thrilled to have them on board.
“We are delighted that Element Pictures are releasing Traders and Irish audiences will get a chance to enjoy the film on the big screen. They've released some of our favourite Irish films in the past few years, so it's a real thrill for us that they're distributing our first film."
The Survivalist and Strangerland go on release in February
Cinema audiences are certainly being spoiled for choice over the next couple of months when it comes to Irish made thrillers.
Apart from Traders, which is released on March 11, there's also Strangerland, starring Oscar winner Nicole Kidman. Out on February 5 it tells the tale of a couple who's teenage children go missing in the remote Australian outback.
A week later The Survivalist, which was filmed in Northern Ireland and is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, arrives on the big screen.
