Dan Stevens says Gareth Evans' 'Apostle' is a 'brain-popping Brexit movie'

Dan Stevens has had an excellent 2017. He opened the year as the titular creature in Beauty and The Beast (finding time to go viral in his mo-cap suit), and he returns to cinemas this week as Charles Dickens in the impossibly charming The Man Who Invented Christmas.

The Man Who Invented Christmas is essentially Shakespeare In Love meets Dickens, as we follow the iconic Victorian writer as he struggles to write one of his most famous stories – A Christmas Carol. Stevens is brilliant in the role, capturing Dickens’ legendary manic energy with ease.

Both of Stevens’ big 2017 movies have essentially been large scale fantasy fairytales, but 2018 looks to be very different for the actor, partly because he has a film called Apostle on his slate.

Directed by The Raid’s Gareth Evans, Apostle tells the story of a mysterious man (Stevens) who travels to a remote island to rescue his sister (Sing Street’s Lucy Boyton) from a sinister religious cult, a cult which is holding her to ransom. Stevens plays the lead, and he seems extremely excited about the project.

“Apostle is quite extraordinary,” Stevens told Yahoo Movies. “Gareth Evans is an amazing filmmaker. I think I’m right in saying that he’s the only Welshman who, up to this point in his career, has only made films in Indonesia, largely kung fu movies, and a couple of horror shorts in there as well.”

“I’m part of his first British film, and I keep calling it my Brexit movie, you’ll see why next year. It’s really quite extraordinary. I’ve never done anything like it, and I don’t think Gareth has either. I hope it’ll pop a few brains.”

It certainly sounds like it might.

The Man Who Invented Christmas is in cinemas this Friday. Apostle will be released by Netflix next year.

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