One of Scotland’s most prolific actors Brian Cox (Troy, Running with Scissors, The Bourne Identity) will be in Dublin on Wednesday 11th June to attend a special IFTA screening of ‘The Escapist’ and participate in a post screening Q&A with Irish Film & Television Academy members.
‘The Escapist’ is a tense prison escape thriller set within the subterranean tunnels beneath London. Directed by Rupert Wyatt, who co-wrote the script with Daniel Hardy, the film was shot in Dublin for four weeks in 2007 and features familiar Dublin landmarks including Connolly Station and Kilmainham Jail.
In ‘The Escapist’ Brian Cox plays Frank Perry, a lifer, thirteen years into his sentence and institutionalized who finds out his estranged daughter is in hospital and close to death. Desperate to make his peace with her, Frank develops a plan to escape, but he can¹t brake out alone and enlists an ensemble of escapists.
The film also stars Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), IFTA winning Irish actor Liam Cunningham (The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Hunger), Seu Jorge (City of God), Dominic Cooper (The History Boys), Steven Mackintosh (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers).
The IFTA screening will take place at Dublin’s Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield, with John Maguire, film critic for the Sunday Business Post and Today FM's Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show, leading the Q&A with Brian Cox. Irish cast and crew members are also expected to attend the exclusive IFTA Academy event.
‘The Escapist’ was produced by Alan Moloney of Parallel Films (The Clinic, Breakfast on Pluto) and Adrian Sturgess of Picture Farm. The film received finance from the UK Film Council and the Irish Film Board with Goalpost Film handling international sales. Vertigo Films will release ‘The Escapist’ through the UK and Ireland on the 20 June 2008.
The Irish Film & Television Academy is the all-Ireland organisation whose mission is the stimulation of original and creative production work, and the encouragement of excellence through recognition, education and leadership in film and television. Open to all industry practitioners in Ireland, full details about IFTA and membership are available at www.ifta.ie.
