Cillian Murphy said the highly anticipated Peaky Blinders movie is ‘close’ as he lifted the lid on the plans to bring the hit series to the big screen.
The popular TV series aired its last ever episode earlier this year, as bosses revealed that the Shelby family show will go on on a bigger cinematic scale.
And whilst no release date has been confirmed for the big movie screen debut, leading star Murphy, best known for playing Thomas Shelby, has confirmed he is ready and waiting to get back into character.
Read more: Peaky Blinders star to feature in new BBC series based on Magdalene Laundries
“I’ve still not read it (the script) but that’s the plan, the plan is to make a film and to continue the story but in the cinematic world rather than on the television,” he told Dermot & Dave on Today FM.
“The television part of the story is finished. If there’s more stories to tell, I’m there. I just haven’t read it yet but it’s close apparently.”
In the meantime, the Hollywood star, who hails from Douglas in Co. Cork has been busy working on a new project, a film called Oppenheimer, with acclaimed director Christopher Nolan.
"We finished shooting at the end of May," he said.
"That comes out next July. It was a fast shoot, we shot it really really fast.”
The film is the story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Cillian plays the leading role, alongside Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Kenneth Branagh.
And the 46-year-old said it is chillingly relevant in today's world.
He explained: “It’s a very ambitious project and I think sadly it’s a very relevant story considering what’s happening in the world today, particularly in Ukraine, but it’s a fascinating story about America in the twentieth century, it’s a fascinating story of this man and his life and how he got to this point in his life.
“Chris Nolan is challenging because he’s the best and that’s what you want as an actor. You want to be pushed. I don’t feel like I’ve properly worked unless I’ve been pushed.”
The acting star has also been pushing himself elsewhere, adding the title of 'author' to his already impressive CV.
His latest project 'Ionbhá: The Empathy Book for Ireland', is a book aimed at school children and young people which features a collection of thoughts, poems and essays from the Irish public.
These include some well-known names from Michael D. Higgins to Blindboy and Imelda May to Rachael Blackmore.
On the inspiration, he said: “The book was something that we had been talking about for ages, just to try and get this idea of empathy into the common vernacular/ vocabulary.
“We want people to start talking about it and we’re promoting this programme of empathy in schools. It’s already been rolled out in a lot of secondary schools across the country.
“The world is very fractious at the moment, and I think it’s a difficult place to exist, particularly as a young person now.
“Young people exist an awful lot of the time online and that takes great emotional demands from young people online. This whole thing about empathy is about connection, the most basic description is walking in someone else’s shoes or seeing someone else’s perspective.
“We’ve done studies on these kids in school that have actually been through the course and all the kids showed higher levels of empathy”.
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