Comic book writer and filmmaker Mike McCarthy’s latest venture, Cigarette Girl, has its European Premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival.
“Cigarette Girl is a dystopian noir, a graphic novel come to life. It’s the story of a girl who gives up smoking and starts killing people 3 days later,” says McCarthy, who is also working on a graphic novel which will be packaged with the film. “I will be drawing the comic book myself – so I think I’m the first person to do all three.”
Cigarette Girl takes place in a bleak but stylish future where smokers are confined to the outskirts of cities, and the underworld profits handsomely from the illicit trade in cigarettes.
Is Cigarette Girl a superhero? Sort of. “She’s a woman. Just by being a woman she’s superior to man. She’s already somewhat built to survive.”
McCarthy is no stranger to underground filmmaking himself, and Cigarette Girl may well mark his rise to the big time.