3 Minutes
New period revenge drama explores fierce Irish migrant women
Margot Robbie's LuckyChap Productions is backing a bold historical drama that reimagines a volatile chapter of 19th‑century New York through the eyes of Irish migrant women. Titled for now as Bad Bridgets, the film will star Daisy Edgar‑Jones (Twisters) and Emilia Jones (CODA) in a story of survival, scandal and retribution set against the chaos of a rapidly changing city.
Cast, creative team and industry backing
Bad Bridgets will be the second feature from director Rich Peppiatt, whose debut Kneecap made waves on the festival circuit and earned an unusually large haul of awards for a first feature. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international sales while WME Independent manages U.S. distribution — a sign that the project is already positioned for a global festival and market run.
The production has attracted high‑profile craft talent: Oscar‑winning production designer James Price (Poor Things) and costume designer Kate Hawley (Crimson Peak) are among those on board. Filming is slated to begin in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in spring 2026, after an advanced pre‑production phase.
From true‑life book to cinematic revenge tale
The screenplay draws on the nonfiction book Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem, and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women by Eileen Farrell and Lynn McCormick, developed with support from Queen’s University Belfast. The source material chronicles a surprising and often overlooked phenomenon: Irish migrant women in 19th‑century America who, by the standards of the day, were labeled unruly or criminal — so much so that at times women outnumbered men in certain jails.
In the film’s premise, a mysterious letter upends a young woman’s life, pushing her from famine‑scarred Ireland toward New York City. There she finds the Irish Bridgets, a band of women who become an insurgent force in the urban underworld — equal parts sisterhood and payback.
Comparisons and context
Bad Bridgets sits at the intersection of historical drama and revenge cinema. Think of it as Brooklyn-meets-Gangs of New York, but with a distinctly female, insurgent core. Where Jim Sheridan and Scorsese explored immigrant masculinity and street politics, this film promises to center the stories of women often sidelined in period epics. It also rides a broader industry trend: recent appetite for feminist revisionist histories and vivid period pieces that pair prestige filmmaking with genre energy.
Trivia: producer Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap has a track record of nurturing female‑led, auteur‑driven projects; pairing that with Peppiatt’s momentum makes Bad Bridgets one to watch at next year’s film markets.
"Peppiatt has a knack for marrying punk energy with historical specificity," says cinema historian Fiona Byrne. "If Bad Bridgets matches Kneecap’s urgency while expanding into richer period detail, it could shift expectations for how immigrant women are depicted on screen."
Whether Bad Bridgets becomes a festival darling or a mainstream breakout, it already signals a renewed focus on untold stories from film history — told loud and unflinching.
Leave a Comment