Fergal Costello - Director

January - Being a Wild Thing.

Adapted D. Gilson’s amazing poem ‘Where The Wild Things Go’ into a short film starring my favourite Irish actor John Morton and the INCREDIBLE Clare Monnelly. Seriously, I’ll work with Clare Monnelly until I die. Film will be out soon, very proud of it.  

February - Thoughts on Shitting or Getting off the Pot.

Above is a cool Frank Miller drawing. I love Frank Miller drawings. I thought one day, what if that guy from the above drawing was a mute, the star of his own movie where the IRA execute him and his wife, but he survives the bullet, is mortally wounded, and has maybe an hour to kill everyone that wronged him in a weird, fantasy dreamland of a film. So yeah. I’m making that this year, first feature film, Ben Wheatley ‘Down Terrace’ job. Time to go, basically. Oh, and it’s called ‘The Dead Man’.

March - Resting.

Mad personal shit this month. Took time off my own stuff and just worked on my day-job. Sad.

April - Writing and Commercials.

A lot of writing and pitching on stuff this month. Wrote a pilot script for a series based on my short “Lost and Found” which I reckon could be really cool if anyone would like to give me a series order. That’d be fab. Quite a bit of “FILMMAKING IS FUTILE” moments this month, but I’m in a transition phase so leave me alone. Booked myself back into therapy. I’ll recommend therapy until the day I die. Moved into a new house. It’s nice! Solid month. Excited to debut the new shorts “Where The Wild Things Go”, “Stephanie”, and “Something Doesn’t Feel Right”, this year. Just gotta keep grinding. Finding I don’t enjoy days off, unsure if that’s a good thing or bad thing.

May - Commercial Shooting.

Directed a new campaign for Skoda which will be out soon. Was super duper fun. Shot by film brother Philip Blake where we finally acquired film-symbiosis and didn’t really communicate verbally the entire shoot. Shorthand’s guys, I’m tellin’ ya. Prepping a sketch show now with some awesome people. I miss Irish sketch shows goddammit! Be the change you want to be and all that. If that doesn’t go, because life is pain, I’ll make something else. Read a cool interview with Peter Jackson where he said adversity fuels him and his creativity often comes from a place of anger. Word.

June - BBC

Literal insanity this month. Pitched to direct on a pilot for BBC Comedy and got it. Crazy.

July - BBC Shoot

Spent three and a half weeks in pre-production, casting and test-shooting a new comedy short for BBC 2. Got to work with an incredible cast and crew over a three-day shoot of production, then straight away into an edit to turnaround the piece in just over a month from when I came onboard.

The piece is called ‘Brain in Gear’, and was written by the awesome Gbemi Ikumelo who I’ll take a bullet for and produced by Inez Gordon who’s an angel sent from heaven. Was fucking insane working as a director for a BBC Comedy and I had to concentrate on not losing my shit every now and again. You can check out the short on the BBC iPlayer, but if you can’t see it there, hit me up on the email and I’ll send you a link.

August - Back to the Writing Board

After a whirlwind summer of shoots and getting to work with the BBC, I’m back developing my own projects, one’s a monster-of-the-week series I love called ‘Spookytown’ that’s a bit like Indiana Jones meets Scooby Doo. Then, the other is what I’d hope would be an awesome film that’s half in Gaelic and half in English called ‘Dead Man’s Sack’, a western comedy about two hapless bounty hunters who are hunting someone who only ever aims for the dick. ART. Hope to shoot my little horror film ‘The Wight’ in September now too, been putting that one on the backburner for too dang long. FILMS ARE CLASS. Here’s a list of my favourite ones ever!

1. LOTR Trilogy - Unmatched, colossal achievement.

2. Goodfellas - Maybe the best directed film ever.

3. Raiders of the Lost Ark - Action film nirvana with the greatest hero in cinema.

4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - The sense of awe this creates is still incredible.

5. The French Connection - As brutish and bruising an action film as ever. Friedkin’s best.

6. Kramer vs. Kramer - Makes Fergal go ‘Boo hoo!’

7. Mad Max Fury Road - Miller reminding the masses who’s boss.

8. The Dark Knight - Glorious, tense thriller with the best antagonist in film history.

9. District 9 - Terminator 2 level ‘Holy shit!’ the first time you watch this movie.

10. Se7en - Or ‘Hopelessness! The Movie!’

September - Ups and Downs

Didn’t get funding for the sketch show. Shit. Did, however, get picked to direct the Channel 4 thing. Not shit.

October - Thick As…

At the end of September I had a sit-down chat with writer Ciaran Bartlett and BBC Producer Luke Mason in Belfast to discuss Ciaran’s amazing Channel 4 Comedy Blap script ‘Thick As…’

We met in Belfast and had a good hour and a half chat about what the piece should be and feel like and I essentially ended the meeting by going ‘SO AM I DOING THIS???’

They said they’d let me know. We laugh about it now.

I got it! Then moved to Belfast for the best part of a month to prep, audition, rehearse and shoot ‘Thick As…’ which was an incredible experience. I wanted it to feel like a Shane Meadows comedy, or if Ken Loach did slapstick, super real and gritty world, populated by super fun characters. Lead by the amazing Tara Cush and Chloe Hodgens, pictured below! I’ll be doing a big making of later in the year when it comes out, so stay tuned!

November - Not Much Work. Much Personal Life.

Took it easy and hung out with my girlfriend which was awesome. Went to the cinema A LOT. Thought Knives Out was sick, Rambo 5 was insane and super nasty but carried by Sly’s sheer star power and The Irishman was a piece to bow before. My good God, Scorsese is just on another level.

Rehearsed some on the next short film “Starlight” shooting in January, check out the teaser poster below:

Craving the Christmas holidays so I can finally PLAY VIDEO GAMES AGAIN. Think Jedi Fallen Order will be first on the list.

December - Tiredness.

Exhausted after the year. Lay-down a lot. Was good. What a year guys, what a year.