"After every award that Cillian Murphy won, he would text me and say, ‘I really can’t wait to be doing Peaky.’ Confirming that none of this was going to change what we’re going to do next..."
— NME (@NME) April 25, 2024
Steven Knight on his upcoming big-budget #PeakyBlinders movie: https://t.co/avGZBz5QI9
He created Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? He got an Oscar nomination for writing 2002’s Dirty Pretty Things. And he turned Birmingham into the coolest place on the planet with Peaky Blinders. Now Steven Knight is back in Brum with This Town, his fictional BBC drama set in the world of ska and two-tone in the early 1980s. As the show reaches its final episode this Sunday on BBC One (April 28) , Knight sits down with NME to talk music and movies – including the forthcoming big-screen Peaky outing, his Maria Callas biopic with Angelina Jolie and his move into the Star Wars universe with New Jedi Order.
You’ve also written Maria, with Angelina Jolie playing opera singer Maria Callas. What drew you to that? She’s such an iconic figure…
“Maria Callas has such an incredible, profound story, where she was amongst all of the big moments of that period of history. You can’t shy away from it. I think it would be easy to be intimidated, but it’s best not to be otherwise you will only do stories that are small. Because you feel safe. I love to do different things and the more different they are from one another, the better it is.”
Do you think people will be stunned by Angelina Jolie’s performance?
“She’s such an actor. Wow. I mean, you’ll see in this… it’s absolutely captivating… I think it’s the best performance I’ve ever seen her put in.”
