 Colm Meaney to star in Kings |
Newgrange Pictures have announced their acquisition of independent production company Comet Films, and appointed Comet’s Lesley McKimm to their producing team. The company is currently in prep for their next production ‘Kings’ with Colm Meaney starring.
Established in March 2005, Newgrange has grown to become a player in Irish independent production industry, forming links with film funding agencies both in Ireland and the UK.
The company is currently in pre-production on the bi-lingual feature film, ‘Kings’, based on Jimmy Murphy’s play ‘The Kings of Kilburn High Road’. The screenplay was written by Tommy Collins, who is also to direct, and Irish actor Colm Meaney (The Commitments, Intermission ) is set to star. It has been funded by BCI, TG4, NIFTC and the Irish Film Board.
Comet Films was set up eight years ago by Lesley McKimm, to produce a mix of TV drama, documentary and feature film. Comet’s credits include the BBC/RTE TV drama series ‘Any Time Now’ which sold successfully worldwide and won IFTA’s for Susan Lynch, Ruth McCabe and Angeline Ball, and ‘No Tears’ – the four part drama series (with Little Bird) about the Hepatitis C scandal that rocked Ireland in the mid ‘90’s. Starring Brenda Fricker and Maria Doyle-Kennedy, it was one of the most watched dramas of recent years on RTE and went on to win the prestigious best drama award at the Monte Carlo Film & TV Festival.
As an independent producer, Lesley’s credit’s include the drama series ‘Relative Strangers’, the documentary series ‘In Search of Ancient Ireland’ and Stephen Burke’s multi-award winning short film ‘81’ about the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland.
“Newgrange is delighted to be working with Lesley as producer and acquiring Comet’s slate of projects”, says Jackie Larkin CEO of Newgrange Pictures. “It will establish a robust platform for growth for the company, which will help fulfil our aim of producing distinctive and innovative films, TV dramas and documentaries with new and established talent.”
