Colin Farrell, Steve Coogan, Charlie Heaton, Domhnall Gleeson, Himesh Patel, Niamh Algar & Simone Kirby Join Rich Peppiatt’s Netflix-Backed ‘Bad Bridgets’

Rich Peppiatt’s highly anticipated Netflix-backed period tale has added a raft of high-profile cast members ahead of its shoot this July.

Colin Farrell (Banshees of Inisherin), Steve Coogan (Philomena), Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things), Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina), Himesh Patel (Yesterday), Niamh Algar (The Iris Affair) and Simone Kirby ((Kneecap) are joining previously announced leads Emilia Jones and Alison Oliver.

Inspired by the book ‘Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem, and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women’ by academics Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick, it follows a young Irish woman’s adventures when she seeks a new life in New York.

The logline reads: “When a mysterious letter offering escape leads a young Irish woman to 19th-century New York, she is pulled into the unruly world of the Bridgets, where mayhem follows in her wake.”

‘Bad Bridget” is a term coined by Farrell and McCormick for the impoverished Irish girls and women who travelled to the U.S. and Canada in search of a new life and often found themselves on the wrong side of the law as they struggled to survive.

Peppiatt, who won a Bafta for 2024 breakout Kneecap, is also producing under the Coup d’Etat Films banner, his joint Belfast-based company with producer Trevor Birney, with Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap. Cáit Collins is executive producing.

The feature reunites Peppiatt with Kneecap cinematographer Ryan Kernaghan. Production designer James Price (Poor Things) and costume designer Kate Hawley (Frankenstein) are also attached.

The project was developed with support from Queen’s University Belfast, is being produced with support from Northern Ireland Screen.

It will shoot on location in Northern Ireland and Ireland in mid-July 2026.