Cillian Murphy returns to screens in school drama Steve

RTÉ News​

24-06-2025

Cillian Murphy is reuniting with Small Things Like These director Tim Mielants and co-star Emily Watson for Steve, a school-based drama that is coming to select cinemas in September and Netflix on 3 October.
Steve is described as "a reimagining" of Max Porter's best-selling novel Shy. The British author has written the screenplay and is also the film's executive producer.
"The film follows a pivotal day in the life of headteacher Steve (Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy) and his students at a last-chance reform school amidst a world that has forsaken them," says Netflix.
"As Steve fights to protect the school's integrity and impending closure, we witness him grappling with his own mental health.
"In parallel to Steve's struggles, we meet Shy (Jay Lycurgo), a troubled teen caught between his past and what lies ahead as he tries to reconcile his inner fragility with his impulse for self-destruction and violence."
Joining Murphy, Watson, and newcomer Lycurgo in Steve are Tracey Ullman (The Tracey Ullman Show, Mrs America) and Simbi Ajikawo (Top Boy) aka rapper Little Simz.
Having launched their company Big Things Films with the acclaimed adaptation of Claire Keegan's bestseller Small Things Like These, Murphy and his production partner Alan Moloney are releasing Steve as their second feature.
Murphy and author Porter previously collaborated on the stage adaptation of Porter's Grief is the Thing with Feathers and the short film All of This Unreal Time.
"I just adore Max's writing and the thing his writing does for me, which Claire Keegan's writing does as well - and it's something I've always chased down in writing - is something that has an actual visceral effect on you, an emotional effect," the Cork actor told entertainment trade publication Deadline when Steve was first announced in February 2024.
"I remember reading Foster, Claire's short story, I remember actually crying reading the book and having to put my hood up on the train to try to hide, I was so embarrassed.
"And then Shy was also that book. Max gave me that book in a proof edition before he finished it, and again it just broke my heart. They're the sorts of things I love as a reader and as a performer, so I really wanted to do something with him."