A brilliant surprise, Irish playwright’s debut feature film In Bruges was one of the highlights of 2008. The film managed to breathe life into the exhausted British gangster sub-genre (which Guy Ritchie ran into the ground). Since then, McDonagh’s film career was a little quiet as he continued his theatre life. But now details are emerging of his next project.

Currently in pre-production (according to Twitch Film), McDonagh’s next film is called Seven Psychopaths. It involves a struggling writer looking for inspiration, which he finds in his friends dog-kidnapping scheme which somehow gets entwined with a dangerous gangster. And although that sounds a little bizarre, what’s most heartening is the cast attached: Colin Farrell as the writer, Micky Rourke as the gangster, and Christopher Walken and the wonderful Sam Rockwell play the writer’s friends. With the film in prep, don’t expect to hear or see much of this until next year at the earliest.

And for those who can’t wait for that McDonagh brand of dark humour, Martin’s brother John Michael McDonagh wrote and directed The Guard, which is out now in cinemas