‘Song for a Raggy Boy’ co-writer and co-producer, Kevin Byron Murphy is currently working on two upcoming projects. Through his production company, Titian Red Pictures, the filmmaker is to shoot two films next year, ‘Reconstruction of Warriors’ with Oscar nominee, Lajos Koltai (Malèna) and Northern Irish drama, ‘Paperboy’. IFTN spoke to him about the upcoming films, the use of beer for holistic purposes and giving Northern Irish drama a positive spin.
Cameras will roll next April of the set of ‘Reconstruction of Warriors’, a feature film from Irish screenwriter Kevin Byron Murphy which will look at the work of New Zealand plastic surgeon, Archibald McIndoe. A topic that seems a strange choice until explained further by Kevin: “During the second world war Archibald was appointed to the RAF and he was basically presented with these terrible injuries that no-one had hitherto ever come across. New machines and guns were creating unforeseen injuries and these young guys would have spent their lives in institutions were it not for him. He introduced a holistic approach to treating them and did it in a realistic way – for instance, to make reluctant soldiers drink lots of water he watered down beer.”
Described by Kevin as “‘Top Gun’ meets ‘The English Patient’ meets ‘The Battle of Britain,’”the feature is being produced by Kevin and directed, as mentioned above, by ‘Evening’ director and Academy Award nominated cinematographer, Lajos Koltai. Asked how Lajos became involved with the project, Kevin explains that: “We went to the Gersh Agency who represent Bruce Beresford because we really wanted a director from either New Zealand or Australia and they passed on the script to him - but then Lajos Koltai’s agent said that he was interested in the project. So I spoke with Lajos and he was amazing and days later he had the job.” Quite the win-win situation, as is the cast attached to the project: “Topher Grace (In Good Company) is down to play the part of the injured soldier Michael,” Kevin tells us, “he spoke to Lajos and loved the project and then Ashley Judd (Heat) is going to play an Irish character, Nurse Mullins.”
‘Reconstruction of Warriors’ comes from a book of the same name by Emily Mayhew – which underwent an elaborate adaptation project involving Lesley Manning (director, The Agent), Andy Walker (Se7en, Sleepy Hollow), Emily Walker herself with Kevin and Steven Goldsmith. The story is set in south east England and the crew are currently faced with a decision: “Yes,” Kevin says, “at the moment the problem that we have is – do we shoot here in Ireland or do we shoot in the UK?” The project will consist of a 12 week pre-production and a ten week shoot and Kevin is confident that Ireland would work well for the film. “All of it could easily happen here,” he says. “Everything that we need is here, we’ve even found the perfect hospital!” A twenty week post production period is expected following the shoot to allow for the CGI effects necessary “because we’re crashing aeroplanes” as Kevin so aptly puts it. The film has a £10.5 million budget most of which has come from American investors.
Kevin is also currently working on ‘Paperboy’, a Belfast based film about a 12-year-old Protestant who becomes a paper boy on the Shankhill Road. The film is described by Kevin as “one of those delightful films about Northern Ireland that is fun. It’s a drama but there are some very funny bits – machine guns in his aunt’s umbrella stand when soldiers visit etc.” The screenplay for the film has been adapted by Steven Goldsmith from Tony Macauley’s novel of the same name. It will shoot in September 2011 and cast, crew and budget details will be confirmed at a later date. One thing that is certain is the film’s location: “It has to be Belfast,” Kevin tells us fervently, “there’s no question, it can’t really be recreated as a location I think!”
