29 March 2024 The Irish Film & Television Network
     
‘Cowboys & Angels’ Released This Week
22 Jul 2004 :

Vincent and Shane in 'Cowboys & Angels'

Seven years in the making, David Gleeson’s feature ‘Cowboys & Angels’ finally hits Irish screens this week. Starring red-hot Irish talent Michael Legge, Allen Leech and Amy Shiels; this uplifting, coming of age comedy is a treat for Irish and world cinema fans alike. IFTN spoke to the film’s writer/director about the production.

It’s early morning in Dublin, and the premiere of one of the hippest films made in Ireland of late, ‘Cowboys & Angels’, has just taken place in Limerick two days before. Not exactly Mann’s Chinese Theatre, but it was a homecoming for the cast and crew and a glorious return to where they shot their film nearly two years ago. The festivities and rigorous promotional campaign, described by director David Gleeson as "a wedding without the hassle", have taken their toll and eyes are looking a little bloodshot. However, it is delightful to see that enthusiasm expels exhaustion once talk turns to the film and you can sense an undeniable passion for a movie that could well become the feel good Irish film of the year.


Michael Legge, Amy Sheils and Allen Leech at the Premiere in Limerick. (Courtesy of the Limerick Leader)

‘Cowboys & Angels’ is a comedy drama based upon two young characters in their early twenties. Shane (Michael Legge) is a naive country boy who moves into a city apartment with flamboyant gay fashion student Vincent (Allen Leech). Having just lost his father, Shane is confused and unsure of what to do with the rest of his life and Vincent helps him discover

some of the things modern Ireland has to offer: fashion, women and an exciting nightlife. Yet Shane still feels very much confused and soon finds himself in trouble and way over his head.

Director David Gleeson began work on the ‘Cowboys & Angels’ script almost seven years ago during a filmmakers’ workshop in New York. Now an accomplished filmmaker, the director is keen to emphasise the lack of formal training he has received. He says, "I never went to film school. I left school in 1985, when Ireland was a cultural desert. No Irish Film Board, no Irish movies, well maybe one every four years, but nothing, hardly any jobs. I couldn’t get into college so I worked for a year in the Dept of Agriculture, like Shane in the movie, then I worked for the Health Board. I knew I wanted to be a film director since I was 14; that’s all I wanted to do." With this intention David moved to Aberdeen to study film, which he describes as a "completely useless course" and after two years was offered a job on an oil rig in the North Sea. Here her remained "in golden handcuffs" for five years before he decided to head for New York.

In New York met his wife and producer Nathalie Lichtenthaeler during a workshop session. "Nathalie actually read the script in New York, I didn't know her at all…we were in a classroom environment reading each other’s scripts and she was like 'yeah, this is really really good, you should write it as a feature film!’ So I was like, ‘Okay, eh, thank you; who the f**k is she?’ (laughs) She asked if she could produce it, so I was like ‘absolutely’, I was thrilled. So then she asked ‘when do you think I can have the first draft?’ I said six weeks and about a year later I handed her the first draft (laughs again)."

The film was shot over a 6 week period on location in Limerick using Super 16 film that was later blown up to 35mm (Gleeson defies anyone to tell the difference). Funding was generated from the Irish Film Board, S481, Sale and Leaseback and The Hamburg Film Fund. A provision of the Hamburg funding meant 150% of the grant given
David Gleeson on Set in Limerick

must be spent in Germany so a 50:50 German/Irish crew was used, equipment was supplied by German lighting companies and post production was carried out in Germany. Gleeson believes this proved to be a great advantage to the film in the way it was produced and eventually sold around the world.

"Once they give you money they (Hamburg Film Fund) do like to see some German Heads of Department on the shoot and I have absolutely no problem with that, because I was thrilled to have that choice. There is a huge talent base to choose from there and I have worked with one of the best DP’s in the world, Volker Tittel." "The advantage of always having a partner outside of Ireland is that it forces you to think internationally, it forces you to keep in mind a market outside of Ireland and ultimately, but not always the case, you end up making a more marketable product. A film that will appeal to a broader marketplace in Europe and the English speaking world,” he adds.

It seems audiences all over the world have been warming to the film’s universal story and ‘Cowboys & Angels’ has proven to be exceedingly market friendly. Over the next eight months it will open theatrically in 15 territories including: Germany, Spain, the UK and the USA.


Michael Legge as Shane

Gleeson is confident the film will travel well all around the world. "I’ve seen it in most of these countries at film festivals and I know it works in almost every culture. We’ve had standing ovations in the States, we had such an amazing screening in Philadelphia that we were mobbed for autographs after the Q&A session and they had to open the fire exit and rush us straight to our car. Then even in the car park we were stopped for autographs, it was crazy, it felt like we were Elvis or something," he said.

David and Nathalie are currently developing their second feature, a suspense thriller about an African immigrant, entitled ‘The Front Line’ with production scheduled for 2005 and are currently in talks with a major Hollywood star to take the lead.

‘Cowboys & Angels’ is released nationwide on the 23rd of July 2004.

Next Week: The young stars of ‘Cowboys & Angels’ lend some advice on how to break into the Irish Film and Television Industry.

By Tanya Warren

News Extra: The short film 'Waterloo Dentures', written and directed by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy, is on release with 'Cowboys and Angels'. The short film, a story of doomed love, the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte and a gruesome tale from ancient history, stars Michael McElhatton, and was produced by Catherine Munro.





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