Producer Marc Furmie reflects on premiering Anton Corbijn‘s A Talent for Murder at TIFF and why being in Toronto feels so special.
Australian filmmaker Marc Furmie, driven by creativity, works across shorts, features, music videos, and major international productions. In 2015, he made his feature debut with the sci‑fi film Terminus, followed by In Like Flynn (2018) and Netflix Australia’s Sweet River (2020). He is the co‑founder of Rezistor Films, and his next feature, Viper starring Cas Anvar, is set for release this fall.
Furmie also produced the wickedly thrilling A Talent for Murder, which premiered at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival as a Gala Presentation. A Talent for Murder was adapted from Joanna Murray-Smith’s 2014 play, Switzerland. Directed by Anton Corbijn, the film follows Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich), a New York publisher who travels to Switzerland to visit renowned author Patricia Highsmith (Helen Mirren) to write a final installment of her famous Tom Ripley series, while his motives take a dark turn. In this exclusive interview, Furmie reflects on premiering the film at TIFF and why being at TIFF feels so special.
Kristin Ciliberto (KC): What made you want to sign on as a producer?
Marc Furmie (MF): It was actually because of a relationship I have with another producer named Jim Robinson, who is the originating producer of the project, and he’s Australian. He sent me the script after seeing the play, and after Screen Australia funded the screenplay’s development, Joanna Murray-Smith, an Australian playwright, wrote the play. It’s called Switzerland, and it’s about Patricia Highsmith meeting Edward Ridgeway, a young publisher from her publishing house, who tries to convince her to write one last Ripley novel, and she puts him through a psychological torture process. He had Screen Australia pay for the screenplay’s development so Joanna, the original playwright, could rewrite the script and adapt her work into a screenplay. He sent that to me; I gave him some development notes, and then I took it to, but it was really good. It was in top shape, so I took it to a gentleman named Chris Chard, the former CEO of Village Roadshow Australia and a board member of FilmNation, and he brokered the deal to set up the film with a production company called Brew Ha Ha. It’s Gabrielle Tana, Andrew Mason, and Troy Lum. She’s a British American producer, and they are 2 Australian producers. They brought Helen Mirren and Anton Corbijn onto the project, and the rest is history. So I was a crucial cog in the wheel, but that’s how it came to me, and I wanted to support the project because the story was phenomenal.
KC: What was it like working with Anton? Was he collaborative with all the other producers?
MF: He’s phenomenally collaborative, a beautiful human being, and is very generous in spirit. I never got the chance to be on set to observe his work, but from what I hear from the other producers, he’s a dedicated, meticulous artist, and it goes back to his music video work. I remember discovering him back in the late 80s and early 90s with his YouTube videos and Radiohead videos. He’s always been a phenomenal artist with a compelling visual style, but because he’s such a deep humanist, he’s excellent at extrapolating detailed character studies, and that’s what this story needed; it needed somebody who could really dive deep with these two characters and mine the nuance.
KC: I love the cast! Olivia Cooke, Oscar winner Helen Mirren, and Tony Award winner Alden Ehrenreich all star in the film. What was it like seeing them cast?
MF: I think you couldn’t have made this film without someone like Helen Mirren playing Patricia Highsmith, because she was such a force of nature, and she was a very biting, nasty person; she could be nasty, right? So, acquiring someone like her to encompass, not just him, the empathy for that character – somebody as cold and as malevolent as she, you know, tried to be and I think there’s definitely a vulnerable side to that character. But if you didn’t find somebody as powerful as her, I don’t think the movie could have been made. I don’t think it would have worked. I think it would have fallen over before it even got going. And then to have somebody as talented and as generous as old and playing opposite her, you know, he had to hold his own. The powerhouse like Helen Mirren, and I’ve always felt Alden was a phenomenal talent, seeing him in Hail, Caesar! (2016), the Cohen brothers’ movie, and being in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), and, like, Fair Play (2023), and he’s just a super-talented and underrated actor, so he definitely holds his own against Helen. Then Olivia Cooke is equally as powerful and brings a sensitivity to the film. I don’t think this thing could have been made without that cast coming together.
KC: So now this is going to be a two-part question: why are you excited for audiences to see A Talent for Murder? And what do you hope audiences take away after watching the film?
MF: Well, I’m excited to see them be surprised, because I don’t think audiences expect what’s coming or where it goes. I won’t spoil anything, but it has a slight meta twist. So I’m excited. Some of my favorite films, you know, have a kind of existentialism to them, so I think audiences will come away excited by how it throws them for a loop.
KC: Murder mysteries are always intriguing. They have such wide appeal. What are your favorite murder mysteries, and did any of them influence the film?
MF: I can’t speak for how they influence the film. I will say there are traces of that talent in this, but my favorite murder mystery has to be the Korean film Memories of Murder (2003), hands down, and similar films like Zodiac (2007), but Memories of Murder, I think, is the quintessential murder-mystery film for me.
KC: What does it mean to be showing A Talent for Murder at TIFF?
MF: It’s phenomenal! I have never been to Toronto before, and I’ve fallen in love with it immediately. I’m from Sydney, Australia, so it reminds me a lot of Sydney, and people are very down-to-earth and open here, like Australians. So it feels like home, but this is such a phenomenal festival. It’s a bit emotional for me, because Sian Heder, whose film Being Heumann opened the festival. She and I had shorts 19 years ago; we both had shorts in a festival called Method Fest in 2007. She won best short, and our short won best actor, and I got to know her at that festival, and just seeing how far she’s come, and that she’s here at this festival with the opening night film, she’s so talented. It’s kind of an emotional moment for me, because it’s like life coming full circle and seeing, you know, if you stick at it long enough in this business, hard work does pay off.
The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) runs September 10–20, 2026
