This article is available as 'March News' on the new Merlin Films website.Merlin Chairman John Boorman produces and directs the Columbia Picturesfeature adaptation of John Le Carre's stunning novel "The Tailor of Panama". Pierce Brosnan heads an all star cast. Filming takes place in Ireland and Panama. Now in production at Ardmore.
Noel Coward's classic frolic "Hay Fever" comes to life in a hilarious
screen adaptation by Charles Crichton ("A Fish Called Wanda") and screenwriting guru, Robert McKee. Brian Skeet ("Misadventures of Margaret", "The Weekend") is slated to direct with Kieran Corrigan and Roger Peters producing. Principal photography will commence late summer.
Irish actor/writer Andrew Connolly is set to direct his own hilarious story "Riversend" which tells of a successful Irish crooner who returns home from Las Vegas for his mother's funeral and is forced to come to terms with a past romance he abandoned. Daragh O'Malley and Norman Siderow are producing. Offers are out to cast. Pre-production starts in May.
Merlin have attached acclaimed independent director Lizzie Borden ("Working Girls") to their project "Mary McGreevy", a screen adaptation of Walter Keady's novel, which tells of a woman who leaves the convent and returns to her home in an Irish village. Much to the chargrin of local bachelors she decides she wants to make a life for herself alone but all hell breaks loose when she decides she also wants to be a mother!
Merlin is represented at AFM by Norman Siderow, Daragh O'Malley and Chief Executive Kieran Corrigan. Merlin is interested in meeting reps of companies at AFM who have some ingredients of their projects in place. With a current premium of 25% on the Irish punt against sterling, added to the 12% finance available to producers under the Irish Governments Section 481, the benefits to filming in Ireland have never been so obvious. Call the Dublin office of Merlin on 353 1 6764373 to schedule an appointment.
Hummingbird, Merlin's Music division, are very advanced on their music based feature, "Beautiful Mistake" which chronicles the whirlwind worldwide success of Welsh rock music. Hummingbird are also working on another exciting project, "Freedom Highway", another feature, this time outlining the influence music had on history, and vice versa, over the past hundred years.
"Angela Mooney Dies Again" with Mia Farrow and Brendan Gleeson is now available on video.
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