Peaky Blinders stars like Cillian Murphy hit Brum red carpet for premiere of spin-off movie
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Irish actor Cillian Murphy at the premiere of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man in Birmingham, England, on March 2.
PHOTO: AFP
BIRMINGHAM – Oscar winner Cillian Murphy and other stars have descended on Birmingham for the Peaky Blinders movie world premiere, with England’s so-called second city in raptures over its signature show getting the Hollywood treatment.
The Irish actor was joined by co-stars Tim Roth and Rebecca Ferguson, rockers Fontaines D.C. and a host of Premier League footballers for the glitzy March 3 unveiling of the hit TV series’ spin-off film.
Murphy said that Birmingham – nicknamed Brum in Britain – was “the only place it could ever happen”, given the city was a “character” across the cult show’s six seasons from 2013 to 2022 and new big-screen offering.
The Oppenheimer (2023) star said getting compatriot Barry Keoghan – who features for the first time in the gritty historical crime drama as his wayward son in the movie – was “always the only choice”.
“I sent him a text on Father’s Day apparently – I’d forgotten it was Father’s Day! – and asked him did he want to be in it,” Murphy revealed on the red carpet. “We know each other... he’s just unbelievable on camera.”
Hundreds of fans, many dressed in the show’s beloved 1920s and 1930s attire, gathered near Birmingham’s famous canals for the premiere of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which lands in cinemas on March 6 and on Netflix on March 20.
Pulsing music by Irish band Fontaines D.C., which helps soundtrack the movie, blared out as the cast posed for photos in front of a Peaky Blinders sign set ablaze with pyrotechnics.
The city station’s famous mechanical bull statue boasted one of the series’ emblematic flat caps, as locals and visitors also wearing them had their pictures taken by photographers dressed as show characters.
The BBC series helped put Birmingham – and the working-class flat caps donned by its characters – back on the global map.
The name Peaky Blinders comes from the city’s notorious street gangs of the late 19th and early 20th century who apparently kept razor blades in the headwear.
The show chronicles the exploits of crime boss Thomas Shelby (Murphy) and his clan between the two World Wars.
The film – written by series creator and British writer-director Steven Knight – picks up the story during WWII, with Shelby returning to Birmingham from a self-imposed exile in the countryside as his estranged son Duke runs wild.
“I really wanted it to be set in the war,” Knight said. “In that time, when the bombs are falling, people become very hedonistic because they don’t know if they’re going to be alive the next day, so almost the Peaky Blinders ethos becomes a general ethos.”
Actress Rebecca Ferguson at the global premiere of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man in Birmingham, England, on March 2.
PHOTO: EPA
The movie’s director Tom Harper said throwing Murphy’s character back into wartime drama felt “fitting”, given he had been moulded by “the violence and the trauma of the First World War”.
“Just having that kind of explosive nature of the Second World War, echoing the explosive nature of the narrative, feels fitting,” he added.
The Immortal Man – which boasts several new characters including Roth’s Beckett and Ferguson’s Kaulo – could be the final chapter in the Peaky Blinders saga.
Murphy said he had not yet “fully processed” that it was over. “I think it’ll take a bit of time for me, you know.” AFP
