The latest big screen adaptation of the classic children’s tale ‘Lassie’ is released across Ireland and the UK this weekend. Shot on location in Ireland, IFTN talks to the film’s star John Lynch about why he wanted to help re-make the movie, over 50 years after the release of the original film.

The story of ‘Lassie’ is based on a 1938 short story written by Eric Knight. Originally set in pre-WWII England, the adventure tale was expanded to become the much loved novel ‘Lassie Come Home’, which was then adapted for the screen in 1943 by US studios MGM with Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowell in starring roles.  That movie’s success spawned ten feature films and over 675 episodes of a TV series. 

This latest re-telling of Lassie brings the adventure back to its roots. Set in a small Yorkshire town in the run up to World War II, the Lassie story was brought to Ireland for production during the Spring of 2005.  Written, directed and produced by Charles Sturridge ( Gulliver's Travels, Brideshead Revisited), Irish producer Ed Guiney (Adam & Paul, Omagh) is on board as co-producer through his company Element Films. 

With a budget circling €8million, production was predominately based in Dublin’s Clancy Barracks, where the Yorkshire Village set was built.  The production was assisted by the IFB’s popular Film Dublin partnership and other locations were North Great George's St., King's Inns, The Masonic Hall in Dawson St., Kilruddery House in Wicklow and Stradbally House in Laois. Lassie’s 19 day shoot in Ireland was followed by a stint in the Isle of Man and some 2 nd unit landscape shots in Scotland.

Lassie is the beloved pet of young Joe whose father and mother (played by John Lynch and Oscar nominated actress Samantha Morton) are struggling to make ends meet. When Joe’s father loses his job at the local mine, the family have no choice but to sell Lassie to the rich Duke and his granddaughter.  The story follows Lassie’s journey home… Lassie’s Irish flavour is heightened by the inclusion of legendary Irish actor Peter O’Toole playing the Duke. 

John Lynch became involved in the production after he was approached by director Sturridge,  with whom John worked in 1984 in his stage debut ‘Seagull’.  Lynch is one of Ireland’s most successful actors with screen credits for ‘Cal’, ‘Angel Baby s', ‘ Some Mother's Son’ and ‘Sliding Doors’.  In 2000 he co-wrote and starred in the George Best biopic ‘Best’ which was directed by his wife Mary McGuckian (Rag Tale, The Bridge of San Luis Rey).  John is a graduate of the Central School of Speech and Drama and is the brother of actress Susan Lynch. For Lynch, i t was the opportunity to work with Sturridge and O’Toole that sealed his involvement in the project. “I said to Charles on the phone ‘who’s going to be in it?’ and he said “well at the moment we’ve got Peter O’Toole” so I said, ‘well yeah!’”

Lynch was also interested in re-addressing the Lassie story which he says, over half a century later, still retains it’s credibility and appeal: “I was intrigued as to how Charles was going to do it… There are certain perceptions about what Lassie is about, what the dog’s about, and I just thought it was an unusual and challenging project… I think it taps into that connection that every child and subsequently every adult has. 

I mean, every child has had a pet that they related to, that made a big difference in their lives.  Lassie deals with all those things; like loyalty; commitment; never giving up; always trying to the bitter end to reach the ones you love, it’s that unconditional love.”

Lassie encounters a number of characters on his homeward travels’ played by some familiar faces; Peter Dinklage (Elf, The Station Agent); Steve Pemberton (League of Gentlemen); Kelly McDonald (Nanny McPhee, Trainspotting) and Nicholas Lyndhurst (Only Fools and Horses). John spent most of his time in Lassie working with is fictional wife and son, played by Samantha Morton and Jonathan Mason.  Having worked with Morton back in 1997(before her days with Spielberg and Sheridan) starring alongside Morton again was a delight for John: “She’s grown more, like hopefully we all do. It was fantastic to see her again as when we worked together on This Is the Sea she was just starting out. She has great presence and it was great to play her husband. We had great fun and it was a fun shoot in general.  We all had a great laugh, and we both adored working with Peter and also with Jonathan, the kid. It was just great fun to be doing another film together. I think she’s incredibly talented.”

In his first feature film role, the young actor at the centre of the story, Jonathan Mason, gives a fine performance. Lynch credits the twelve year old as a talent to watch. “Charles spent a lot of time looking for what he thought were the right children and Jonathan’s got something special, you could see that on the set.  In that scene whenhe comes home from school

and says ‘I waited for Lassie today outside the school gates but she wasn’t there, where’s Lassie?’, Samantha and me, we couldn’t look at him. He’s too cute and it was heartbreaking!”

Before shooting began on Lassie, John Lynch had completed work on the low budget Irish thriller ‘Isolation’, directed by Billy O’Brien and also produced by Lassie producer Ed Guiney.  Prior to that, Lynch had taken an 18 month hiatus to write his debut novel ‘Torn Water’ which has just been published to a positive critical response.   It’s a fine time for Lynch and one he is glad to have spent the majority of working in Ireland. ”I think I’d forgotten how good the crews were,” he says reflecting upon his work here over the past year. “The crews [in Ireland] are tremendous. We’d a really hard, hard shoot on Isolation, I mean it was ridiculously difficult, and the crew were fantastic. They were so together and on-time.  The crews are great, locations are great and there are a lot of really interesting young filmmakers in Ireland now who are trying to tell very different stories to the ones that I grew up with.”

John plans to work with more Irish talent in the New Year with the Northern Ireland feature ‘The Journeyman’s Daughter’ in the pipeline.  In addition to his on-screen work he has also begun work on his second novel and is contemplating directing and starring in a big screen adaptation of his debut novel “but it will take a little while,” he says.

With such an impressive CV, what advice does John offer any rising Irish actor? “Work on language and go for good stories; try and come up with your own language and write.  I think there’s often a taboo for actors around writing, that it’s not something that they should do, but I think that’s important. Actors are drawn to language, they work with language and I think they should come up with their own stories.” 

And has Lynch ever been given advice from a fellow actor that struck him as good advice? “I have yeah, a long, long time ago,” he says. “I was very lucky to meet Lawrence Olivier and he said something nice about me, and then I went red! And he looked at me and he said ‘if you’re going to be an actor, always learn how to take a compliment.’ So hopefully since then I’ve learned how to take a compliment.”

‘Lassie’ opens across Ireland from the 16th of December and is released through Entertainment Film Distributors.