Guy Pearce and director Andrew Baird are teaming up once again for Bottle, an upcoming Irish thriller that marks their fourth collaboration. The film will shoot on location in Ireland.
Guy Pearce plays Jimmy, a pub owner with a violent history who traps a troubled young man named Cillian after he breaks into the bar simply looking for a pint. As the night stretches on, Cillian fights to survive while slowly piecing together exactly why Jimmy is holding him captive, turning a minor act of trespassing into a tense, closed-door confrontation.
Speaking about the project, Andrew Baird said Bottle brought to mind classic 1970s crime films, specifically citing Peter Yates’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle and John Hillcoat’s The Proposition, the latter of which also starred Pearce. He described the film as inherently Irish, set in a dark, traumatic and bruised version of the country that he knew growing up, adding that this particular version of Ireland has never quite been captured on film in this way before.
The screenplay for Bottle is written by Roberto Forte and Eamonn O’Brien. The production involves FJ Productions and Samson Films, with Marco Gomez serving as executive producer. Pearce is represented by Independent Talent Group and Creative Artists Agency, while Baird is represented by Source Management + Production.
Bottle continues a working relationship that goes back several years. Guy Pearce and Baird first collaborated on Zone 414, a 2021 sci-fi thriller in which Pearce played private investigator David Carmichael, investigating a missing-person case in a futuristic city populated by both humans and humanoid robots.
They reunited for Sunrise, a 2024 horror thriller in which Pearce starred alongside Alex Pettyfer, Crystal Yu and William Gao as a mysterious man whose violent past catches up with him after arriving in a small town. The pair also worked together on The Marshal, an upcoming conspiracy thriller in which Pearce plays Iraq War veteran Clay Mercer, set for release in 2027.
Guy Pearce most recently starred in Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars alongside Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin. Despite costing more than $80 million to produce, the film brought in just $8 million domestically during its opening weekend, making Bottle’s smaller-scale, character-driven premise a notable change of pace for the actor.
With Bottle marking their fourth film together, Guy Pearce and Andrew Baird continue to build a creative partnership rooted in dark, genre-driven storytelling. No cast members beyond Pearce have been confirmed, and a release date has not yet been announced.