Martin McDonagh, the writer and director of In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin, brought his Easter Island comedy to a Gala at the Royal Festival Hall.
Martin McDonagh, the director of The Banshees of Inisherin, brought Wild Horse Nine to the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank on Friday 9 October 2026. The film, a Gala of the seventieth London Film Festival, stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell.
McDonagh was born in Camberwell in 1970 to Irish parents, and his first plays are set in the Galway of his childhood holidays. The Beauty Queen of Leenane opened there in 1996 and reached Broadway two years later.
He holds three Olivier Awards, and his short film Six Shooter won an Academy Award. In Bruges, his first feature, cast Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as hitmen in Flanders in 2008.
Wild Horse Nine is a comedy set on Easter Island as Augusto Pinochet prepares to take power in Chile. Three CIA agents bicker there while they wait for the order to move on a coup.
Malkovich was in London for the Gala and for an onstage conversation about his career during the festival. Searchlight Pictures distributes the film.
Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey complete the principal cast. Rockwell and Waits both return from McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths.