Wicka Wicka Wild West

I’ve no idea what it is they’re putting in the water over there these days, but the west coast of Ireland, if what we’re seeing on screen is to be believed, is going to hell in a hand-basket. RTE’s acclaimed TV series about a lone rural cop, ‘Single-Handed’, recently had its fourth run; Ken Bruen’s THE GUARDS was adapted as ‘Jack Taylor’, starring Iain Glen; now comes ‘The Guard’, which this week opened the Sundance Festival World Dramatic Competition. To wit:

‘The Guard’ is a thriller-comedy set on the west coast of Ireland where Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is a small-town cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to his door.

The film is written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, brother to playwright and film director Martin McDonagh (‘The Lonesome West’ et al, ‘In Bruges’), who doubles up here, along with Don Cheadle, as executive producer. The big attraction for me here is Brendan Gleeson, though, an immensely likeable and always watchable actor, and by all accounts a thoroughly nice bloke to boot. Variety likes him too, with the gist of its Sundance review running thusly:

“… it’s Gleeson who rightly owns the screen as a beer-swilling, crotch-grabbing, Derringer-firing crusader with one hell of a filthy mouth to go along with his heart of gold,” while the director John Michael McDonagh’s “filmmaking crackles with energy.”

According to Element Pictures, the movie will be getting a summer release here in Ireland. Should be a cracker.

Lo! ’Tis Technicolour Talkies Of Hibernia!

Suggesting that Technicolour Talkies of Hibernia is a ‘sister site’ to Crime Always Pays is to stretch the concept to breaking point, especially as your TToH host, Gavin Burke (right, in full-on ‘Heeeeeere’s Johnny!’ homage), is in fact the brother of CAP's Grand Vizier, Declan Burke. He's also a movie reviewer and screenwriter, both of which are high on his list of priorities, right there behind being 'genial but bearded bon viveur about town'. Anyhoo, less of the flummery: what’s it about? Well, it’s pitched as a one-stop info resource for all things Irish movies, with news, reviews and interviews making up the bulk of the posts. Up right now is an interview with director Anthony Byrne, whose HOW ABOUT YOU?, based on a short story by Maeve Binchy, opens this Friday, November 16 – although the CAP elves are far more interested in Byrne’s next project, SINGLE-HANDED, to wit:

“I just finished a two-part TV drama for RTE/Touchpaper TV called SINGLE-HANDED which we filmed in Connemara and it goes out on New Years Day. It’s a straight up rural cop drama and I think we’ve made a really great piece of TV drama. I’m really looking forward to getting it out. The script was great, the cast were fantastic. Owen McDonnell and Charlene McKenna are amazing young actors and it’s a big, cinematic drama that fits on your TV. I’m also working on another film with Noel Pearson called THE RUNNER that we hope to do later next year in South Africa and New York.”

A straight-up rural cop drama set in Connemara? Truly our cup runneth over …