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hibernia | irish eye on hollywood
By Tom Deignan
McDonagh and McDormand Head to Missouri
or two decades now, playwright Martin McDonagh has been dazzling theater and movie audiences with Irish plays like The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Cripple of Inishmaan. More recently, he has written and directed critically acclaimed movies (with Irish as well as nonIrish characters) such as 2008’s In Bruges and 2012’s Seven Psychopaths. Back in the spring, McDonagh’s latest star-studded effort (with yet another odd title) began filming. Entitled Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, McDonagh’s latest film stars Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell. In the film, McDormand (best known for the film Fargo) portrays a mother who fights a war against the police in her town after her daughter is murdered. Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage, and John Hawkes have also signed on to the cast. The title of McDonagh’s film refers to billboards McDormand’s character Frances rents to send a message. Judging by the bloodMcDormand and Martin shed in McDonagh’s past films, the billboards McDonagh must have quite a few choice words on them. (inset)
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The Irishman Gives Final Word on Jimmy Hoffa
artin Scorsese’s next foray into ethnic warfare is quite simple, at least to judge from its title. Slated to star Robert DeNiro as well as Al Pacino, the film is called The Irishman. The film is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa. The book, by Charles Brandt, claims to be the final word on the whereabouts of mob-corrupted union official Jimmy Hoffa. Sheeran was an Irish American hitman who claims he was the one who killed and disposed of Hoffa, who made many enemies in his day, up to and including the Kennedy family. (“Painting houses” is a code word for killing people.) The Irishman (not to be confused with the film Kill the Irishman, about Cleveland Irish gangster Danny Greene) will be
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directed by Scorsese and written by Steve Zaillian, who has written numerous top flicks, including Gangs of New York and Moneyball. (Zaillian is currently one of the creative forces behind the excellent new HBO drama The Night Of.) The Irishman should be ready for a Christmas 2017 release. Until then, Scorsese is still working on his 17th century Japanese religious epic Silence, starring Liam Neeson and Ciaran Hinds. Neeson will also voice the October animated release A Monster Calls, based on a book by Patrick Ness and inspired by Siobhan Dowd.
Martin Scorsese
Galway Film Fleadh Crystalizes Irish Aesthetic
he 28th annual Galway Film Fleadh, held in July, featured a diverse array of Irish films that should be trickling to American screens in the coming months. One of the most highly-anticipated screenings in Galway was director Richie Smyth’s Jadotville, a Netflix production which features Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan. As Variety recently reported, Jadotville “tells the true story of the 1961 siege of a 150-member Irish U.N. battalion under Commander Patrick Quinlan (Dornan) by 3,000 Congolese troops, led by French and Belgian mercenaries working for mining companies.” Also earning praise at the Galway fleadh was Darren Thornton’s drama A Date for Mad Mary, about a woman who returns to her home in Drogheda after a stint in prison. A Date for Mad Mary shared Best Feature honors with director Peter Foott’s The Young Offenders, a comedy set in Cork which, according to the Irish Times, “was greeted with ear-shattering hoots.” But for all of the hype surrounding the Irish film industry – spurred by the recent Oscar nominations for Room and Brooklyn – the Irish Times also noted that “the do-it-yourself aesthetic is still strong,” as evidence by other films at Galway. This was a reference to Paul O’Brien’s Staid, based on the Wexford writerdirector’s own play. Staid cost just €300 Euro to produce, according to the Times. Staid has already won best foreign feature at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. O’Brien received help from an old pal, Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer, who served as Staid’s executive producer.
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