Black Church Bay: Early Drafts Had a Different Man Going Missing
Early drafts of Black Church Bay had Barry going missing. The character who vanishes in the finished film is Jasper, and that switch shaped the story, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which interviewed the film's stars for a feature reported from the BFI London Film Festival.
The film is a Wales-set thriller and the feature debut of writer-director Rhys Marc Jones. Tom Cullen plays Barry, a closeted schoolteacher in his forties who lives in a sleepy fishing village. Barry begins a sexual relationship with 18-year-old Jasper, played by Joe Locke. While Barry sleeps on his yacht, Jasper goes missing.
The British Council's film project page describes it as a mystery-thriller about a man whose world unravels after an intimate encounter, and about the lengths someone will go to in order to hold on to what they have.
Jones grew up around the setting. His parents live in Church Bay, a settlement on the northwest coast of Anglesey, the Welsh island off the north coast of the mainland. The Hollywood Reporter says the island inspired the film, and that Jones first had the idea about eight years before the 2026 interview.
Cullen and Locke had never worked together before this production. Locke is also known for the television series Agatha All Along and for Elsinore, a feature shown at the London Film Festival. In the interview, the two actors discuss their work on the film with the trade paper.
The film has already found buyers and festival slots. Screen Daily reported in February that Vertigo Releasing had acquired UK and Ireland distribution rights, a deal that decides who will put the film in British and Irish cinemas. The Hollywood Reporter reported in September that Black Church Bay was one of 14 films competing for the Golden Eye at the Zurich Film Festival, and the film's production company, echo, said it would have its world premiere there.
It also appears in the BFI London Film Festival 2026 programme, which describes it as a tense and thought-provoking drama. The London festival runs in October, and the interview with Cullen and Locke was published on 21 October 2026.
For Welsh viewers, the setting may be the most familiar part of the story. For everyone else, the film is a clear example of how a single change in a script, moving the disappearance from one character to another, can alter who the audience follows for the whole film.
