Franklyn

Lore & Background

Franklyn had its world premiere at BFI London Film Festival on 16 October 2008, and was released in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2009, by eOne. The film stars Eva Green, Ryan Phillippe, and Sam Riley. In a comic book-like world, Jonathan Preest is the masked vigilante of Meanwhile City, where everyone is legally enforced to adopt a religion. Preest, the only atheist in town, learns that his nemesis, The Individual, has kidnapped a girl. In a reality like our own, Emilia is a troubled art student living in London, and Peter, a religious man, looks for his son David, who has become mentally unstable after returning from the war in Iraq. The Meanwhile City reality is actually a fantasy constructed by David after the trauma of both the war and losing his sister at a young age. The mask's design was primarily influenced by Rorschach from Watchmen, not The Invisible Man.

Reader's Guide

Franklyn received mixed reviews, with a 57% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Writer-director Gerald McMorrow wrote the original science fiction script as his feature debut, depicting a similar dystopia to his 2002 short Thespian X. The film had a budget of £6 million, of which £1 million was provided by the UK Film Council through its Premiere Fund. Production began on 24 September 2007 in and around London, and was completed by December 2007. McMorrow's visual inspiration for Meanwhile City came from the religious iconography he saw in Mexico City shopping malls. The film's significance lies in its ambitious narrative structure, blending multiple realities and exploring psychological trauma, though critics noted it lacked emotional payoff and coherence. Rights to Franklyn were purchased by Contender Films for the United Kingdom and Seville Pictures for Canada.

Did You Know?

• Eva Green plays a dual role as Emilia and Sally, with Sally described as 'full of life, very witty, big sense of humor.'
• Ryan Phillippe was the last to be cast, in what McMorrow termed a 'now or never' situation.
• The film's budget was £6 million, with £1 million from the UK Film Council's Premiere Fund.
• Preest's mask was primarily influenced by Claude Rains' film of H. G. Wells' novel The Invisible Man.

Narrative Architecture & Thematic Layers

The film weaves together several parallel storylines that initially appear unrelated before converging into a single devastating revelation. In a stylized, comic-book-inspired metropolis called Meanwhile City, the masked vigilante Jonathan Preest battles his nemesis The Individual while navigating a society where religious adherence is legally mandated. Simultaneously, in a London that mirrors our own, a troubled art student named Emilia documents her own suicide attempts as gallery installations, while a jilted groom named Milo hallucinates conversations with a childhood imaginary friend. A Cambridge church warden searches for his son, a soldier returned from Iraq in a fragile mental state. The film's central twist recontextualizes the entire Meanwhile City sequence as a fantasy architecture built by the son, David, to process the compounded trauma of combat and the early loss of his sister. His father's reassurance that her death served a divine plan became the seed of a lifelong resentment. The narrative ultimately collapses all these threads into a single apartment, where a stray bullet, a gas explosion, and a narrow escape from death bring the surviving characters into one another's lives for the first time.

Cast & Character Portrayals

Eva Green anchors the film in a demanding dual role, portraying both Emilia, a damaged art student who records her own would-be suicide attempts as installations for her degree, and Sally, the imaginary redhead Milo conjures from childhood. Green has drawn parallels between Emilia and real artists Sophie Calle and Tracey Emin, while describing Sally as brimming with life, wit, and a strong sense of humor. Ryan Phillippe embodies Jonathan Preest, the lone atheist and masked vigilante of Meanwhile City, bringing a grounded physicality to the comic-book-inspired role. Sam Riley, cast specifically for his portrayal of Ian Curtis in the 2007 biopic Control, plays Milo Franklyn, a young man shattered by being abandoned at the altar. Bernard Hill appears as Peter Esser, a Cambridge church warden searching for his wayward son across London. The supporting cast includes Art Malik as Tarrant, the head of the city's Ministry, and Stephen Walters in the dual capacity of Wormsnakes and Wasnik, bridging the fantasy and reality layers of the story.

Production & Creative Vision

Gerald McMorrow developed Franklyn as his debut feature, building on a dystopian world he had first explored in his 2002 short Thespian X. The project's early casting took an unexpected turn when Ewan McGregor, attached as the lead in October 2006, was forced to withdraw after fracturing his leg in a cycling accident during the second series of Long Way Round in February 2007. The roles were subsequently recast in September 2007, with Eva Green, Ryan Phillippe, and newcomer Sam Riley stepping in. Phillippe was the final addition, arriving in what McMorrow described as a "now or never" moment. The director recalled expecting a stereotypical blond Californian but instead encountered a deeply articulate actor from Philadelphia's working-class side, with the two talking nonstop for an entire afternoon. McMorrow's visual design for Meanwhile City drew directly from the religious iconography he observed in Mexico City shopping malls, imagining a theocratic capital modeled on Florence or Rome lifted three miles into the sky. Preest's delirium and fantasies, the director explained, are assembled from the religion surrounding him, the comics he read, and the films he watched.

Release & Festival Debut

Franklyn made its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 16 October 2008, marking Gerald McMorrow's introduction to audiences as a feature filmmaker. The British science fantasy, which blends comic-book aesthetics with grounded London drama, then received its theatrical release in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2009 through the distributor eOne. The festival screening positioned the film within a broader conversation about British independent cinema's willingness to experiment with genre, merging the fantastical architecture of a theocratic city with the intimate, often harrowing realities of grief, suicide, and post-war trauma. The film's structure, shifting between a stylized vigilante narrative and a slice-of-life London setting, gave festival audiences a distinctive viewing experience that resisted easy categorization. As a debut feature, Franklyn carried the weight of McMorrow's earlier work, including the 2002 short Thespian X, which shared its dystopian sensibility. The film's journey from a project originally intended for Ewan McGregor to a three-hander led by Green, Phillippe, and Riley underscored the unpredictable path independent productions often take before reaching screens.

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