‘Mad Men’ actress Jessica Paré is to begin shooting ‘Standby’, the debut feature from IFTA-winning Irish directors Rob and Ronan Burke, in Dublin and Luxembourg today (August 16).
Paré will play the lead female role in the low-budget romantic comedy, which is an Irish and Luxembourg co-production involving Ireland’s Black Sheep Productions and Luxembourg’s Paul Thiltges Distributions.
The Canadian actress, who is best-known for playing Megan Draper in the fourth and fifth series of ‘Mad Men’, will star opposite Irish actor Brian Gleeson (Love/Hate).
Gleeson will play Alan, a 28-year-old worker at Dublin Airport who bumps into a long lost love of his life, Alice (Paré), who is waiting, on standby, for a flight back to the US. The screenplay was written by Pierce Ryan, a long-time collaborator of the Burke brothers.
The four-week shoot gets underway this morning (August 16) in Luxembourg for two weeks before returning to film in Dublin for a further fortnight. John Wallace is producing for Dublin-based Black Sheep Productions and David Grumbach (The Road Uphill) for Luxembourg’s Paul Thiltges Distributions.
The co-production follows the signing of a co-production treaty between Ireland and Luxembourg in 2011, with ‘Standby’ receiving funding through the Irish Film Board and through Luxembourg’s Audiovisual Tax Certificate Programme. The feature was offered a production loan of €600,000 from the IFB last November.
Other Irish cast attached to the feature include Ian Lloyd Anderson (Love/Hate, Raw, The Clinic), who will play the role of Jimi. Irish crew members include production designer Emma Lowney (Dollhouse); cinematographer David Grennan (King of The Travellers); boom operator Alan Scully (Runners); editor Tony Kearns (Citadel) and Paddy Hanlon (Savage) as on-location sound mixer.
Directors Rob and Ronan Burke won an IFTA in 2010 for their short film ‘Runners’, which starred Aidan Gillen (The Wire) and was written by Ryan and produced by Wallace for Black Sheep Productions.
They won their second IFTA last February for ‘The Importance of Being Whatever’, a youth drama series which took a modern twist on Oscar Wilde’s classic play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. The serialised drama was broadcast on RTÉ.
