‘Hardy Bucks: The Movie’ is to begin filming on-location in Ireland and mainland Europe from next Tuesday (June 5).
The feature-length version of the hit RTÉ series is currently in pre-production and will shoot over four weeks with a largely similar cast and crew to the series.
Mike Cockayne will direct and produce the feature for Hardy Films. Cockayne will also contribute to the script with series’ writers Chris Tordoff, Martin Maloney and Gerry Greaney.
The plot of the movie is being kept under wraps but IFTN understands that it will follow the regular Hardy Bucks characters as they make their way across Europe, possibly to support the Irish soccer team at the European Championships.
Highly-regarded Polish actor Daniel Olbrychski (Salt) will join regular cast members Tordoff, Maloney, Owen Colgan and Peter Cassidy in the feature length movie.
The film will begin shooting in Swinford, Co Mayo, on Tuesday for four days before the production moves to various locations across Europe for three weeks. The production will then return to Swinford for three days at the end of June.
Director of photography will be Rob Arrowsmith (Vera, The Hour).Robin Johnson (Xpose) will be the second camera operator with the film set to be shot on a Canon C300.
Post-production will be carried out by Eugene McCrystal (Citadel) of EMC Post Production with sound post to be carried out by Gorilla Post. Stephanie Clerkin (What Richard Did) is the production designer; Mairtín deBarra (The Importance of Being Whatever) is the production manager while Patrick Downey will be on location sound.
‘Hardy Bucks: The Movie’ will be partly funded by the Irish Film Board, who last month granted the project a €175,000 production loan.
