Flush from its “Building on Success” launch earlier this week, the newly renamed Northern Ireland Screen will be co-hosting the Irish Pavilion (with the Irish Film Board), whilst keeping a keen eye on the feature films which received Northern Ireland Screen funding and which filmed in Northern Ireland, including Shrooms, Puffball, How About You, Waz and Kings.
WΔZ (known as WAZ) – is a taut, fast-paced New York-based thriller starring Stellan Skarsgård (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Dogville), Melissa George (The Amityville Horror, Derailed), Selma Blair (The Alibi, The Big Empty) and Ashley Walters (Get Rich or Die Tryin’, Bullet Boy). Belfast doubled as New York when the film shot there last year.
SHROOMS – teen horror/thriller written by Belfast man Pearse Elliott (Man About Dog; The Mighty Celt) and directed by Paddy Breathnach which was filmed in County Armagh and stars Jack Huston (grandson of the legendary John Huston).
PUFFBALL with a cast including Donald Sutherland, Kelly Reilly, Rita Tushingham and Miranda Richardson and written by Dan Weldon (from the book by Fay Weldon) and directed by the legendary Nicolas Roeg, the film is an atmospheric drama about a young couple who move to an isolated and mysterious valley to build a house.
HOW ABOUT YOU from a short story by Maeve Binchy, with a strong ensemble cast including Vanessa Redgrave, Imelda Staunton and Brenda Fricker, has already been bought by Sony Pictures Classics for the Canadian and North American territories. It is produced by Noel Pearson (Oscar-nominated for My Left Foot) and shot in County Down in Rostrevor and surround.
Expectations are also high for KINGS, the Irish language drama written and directed by Tom Collins, featuring Colm Meaney.
