Paddy Considine dons director's hat

British actor prepping 'Tyrannosaur' drama

By ALI JAAFAR

LONDON -- Paddy Considine, the Brit thesp sometimes described as a British Robert De Niro following a string of pics such as "In America, "A Room for Romeo Brass" and "The Last Resort," is taking a leaf out of his Gotham counterpart's book and turning his hand to directing.

Considine is prepping "Tyrannosaur," a drama about a woman's struggle to escape an abusive relationship.

The $2 million project is being developed with Film4 and U.K.-based shingle Warp Films. Olivia Coleman of UK TV skein "Peep Show" fame will play the lead role. Lensing is set to begin next year.

"The title comes from this idea of facing a kind of fear or monster, be it a physical or mental thing," says Considine. "It's about this woman's journey to find the strength to leave this abusive relationship and the repercussions she has to live with afterwards."

The thesp, who has worked with some of the cream of the U.K. and Ireland's helmers from Jim Sheridan and Paul Greengrass to Shane Meadows and Pavel Pawlikowski, has already won a Bafta and the Venice film fest's Silver Lion for his short "Dog Altogether."

First up for Considine, however, is a reunion with Meadows ("This Is England," "Dead Man's Shoes") on boxing biopic "The King of the Gypsies," the real-life tale of Bartley Gorman, the undefeated world champion bare-knuckle fighter who hailed from Considine and Meadows' native Midlands.

Considine and Meadows are co-writing the script, with the thesp also set to take the lead role. Lensing on that project is set to begin before the end of the year.

And while Considine admits to being bitten by the directing bug, he's not ready to hang up his acting gloves just yet.

"Directing feels as right as acting and if anything, it's an extension of it," he says. "I was spoilt early on working with good directors. When I work with a director who just points the camera and wants me to do 'my dark thing' that doesn't work for me. It's all about building relationships between the director and the actors. I've never cared about technicalities. All I really care about is characters."