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hibernia | irish eye on hollywood
By Tom Deignan
Gleeson
A Colorful Career for Saoirse he Affleck family just can’t seem to get enough of Irish American novelist Dennis Lehane. Hollywood’s latest Batman, Ben Affleck, is going to get back in touch with his more gritty side (The Town, Good Will Hunting) by bringing one of Lehane’s Joe Coughlin novels to the big screen as a director. Entitled Live by Night, the book is the second in a trilogy of books set in the early 20th century revolving around a Boston Irish gangster named Joe Coughlin. The stellar cast for Live by Night, thus far, includes celebrated Irish actor Brendan Gleeson as well as
Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, Chris Cooper and Elle Fanning. This is not the first time Ben Affleck has directed a movie based on a book by Lehane (whose parents were Irish immigrants). Back in 2007, Affleck directed Gone Baby Gone, a book in Lehane’s popular Kenzie-Gennaro series. The film even starred Affleck’s brother Casey. Look for Live by Night around the fall of 2017, when movie studios begin to roll out their prestige pictures for Oscar consideration.
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Assassin’s Creed, Alien Covenant & More
peaking of Brendan Gleeson, the busy thespian is also teaming up with fellow Irish actor Michael Fassbender in not one but two upcoming movies. The dynamic duo will team up for Assassin’s Creed, the action adventure film based on the popular video game. Assasin’s Creed is currently slated for a Christmas 2016 release. (Brendan’s son Brian is also in the flick.) Then Fassbender and Gleeson will appear in the upcoming British crime drama Trespass Against Us. Directed by Adam Scott, Trespass Against Us also stars Rory Kinnear and Sean Harris. Incidentally, the latter British-born actor, best known for 24 Hour Party People and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, was also slated to star as an Irish character named “Mad Sweeney” in the upcoming TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s popular epic fantasy novel American Gods. But Harris has bowed out. Replacing Harris as “Mad Sweeney” is the (not-particularlyIrish) Pablo Schreiber.
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Michael Fassbender
16 IRISH AMERICA JUNE / JULY 2016
t’s fitting that Michael Fassbender is working with Brendan Gleeson these days because Fassbender’s schedule is nearly as packed as Gleeson’s. Fassbender was in the spring blockbuster X-Men: Apocalypse. And in September, look for Fassbender opposite Academy Award winner Alicia Vilkander in The Light Between Oceans. Then there is the long-awaited Terrence Malick movie Weightless, the Norwegian crime thriller, based on Jo Nesbo’s novel, The Snowman, and finally, in 2017, Alien: Covenant.
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lien: Covenant, in fact, is also an Irish collaboration of sorts. The film was written by longtime screenwriter, playwright, and producer John Logan, whose parents came to the U.S. from Northern Ireland. Logan has had a long, glittering career in Hollywood, writing the screenplays for Oscar-nominated films such as Hugo and The Aviator. Logan also wrote the screenplay for Gladiator (which was also nominated for a writing Academy Award), Any Given Sunday, Rango, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Logan’s most recent works are the film Genius, about the life of literary editor Maxwell Perkins, as well as the Showtime TV series Penny Dreadful, which Logan created.
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Rhys Meyers In Roots
Jonathan Rhys Meyers had a major role in the updated version of Roots, the epic mini-series about slavery which made a big splash on several cable channels back in May. The Dublin actor played Tom Lea, a North Carolina slave owner whose children are central to key plot conflicts in the story. Up next for Rhys Meyers are a rock-n-roll film and a thriller – London Town and Shadow. In the former, Rhys Meyers will play Joe Strummer, frontman of the legendary rock band The Clash. London Town also stars Dougray Scott as well as Natascha McElhone. Rhys Meyers will also appear opposite Brit Shaw and Michael Biehn in the suspensethriller Shadow.