DOWN District will once again be showcased to the world with the forthcoming premiere of a comic heist film shot in Downpatrick last summer.
Coney Island’s Island’s newly crowned Oscar director, who gave Killough and Coney Island priceless promotion in his award-winning short-film The Shore, has once again put the area at the heart of his work.
Terry George’s new film, Whole Lotta Sole, will be given its European premiere in Belfast on June 10, an event that Mr. George says is “for the people of Downpatrick.”
With the feature already opened to critical praise in New York, Mr. George hopes local people will appreciate the “typically Irish humour” that he first experimented with in The Shore, while once again enjoying the familiarity of the setting.
Whole Lotta Sole places American actor Brendan Fraser alongside Belfast actors Martin McCann and Conor MacNeil.
The movie opens in Boston where Joe Maguire (Fraser) is leaving a psychotically angry wife, whom the audience later discovers is the daughter of an Irish Mafia guy.
To hide from her and her father, he tries to lie low in an antiques shop in Belfast, only to find himself soon being trailed by young Jimbo, played by Martin McCann.
It soon emerges that Jimbo has problems of his own due to being indebted to Mad Dog Flynn.
Although the film is based in Belfast, Mr. George says it was made in Downpatrick because of the character of the area and self-contained nature of Scotch Street.
“Scotch Street was the perfect location because I needed to find a location that had the feel of Belfast’s Smithfield before it disappeared,” he said.
“There is a warmth and compactness about that street that was really great. That is why I chose it, and it also happened that I was from there.”
Filmed over a few weeks of glorious weather last summer, Mr. George said the local shopkeepers and wider community were helpful despite the disruption.
“Everybody got into the swing of filming, the cast loved it and of course for me being just five or six miles from home was a bonus,” he said.
“I am very pleased with how the film turned out, it is very funny and very reflective of Northern Ireland humour.
“It tells a fairytale with a bit of an edge.
“I am really excited about playing it to the Downpatrick crowd in Belfast. It is for them and it is their sort of humour.”
With industry friends like Daniel Day Lewis and Liam Neeson having contacted Mr. George about their appreciation for The Shore, he said a lot of the feedback he received centred on the “beauty of the place.”
“Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, film is the most persuasive media for spreading the word about a place and giving people a sense of what it is like to be there,” he said.
“I hope The Shore and Whole Lotta Sole will help the area and at the same time give people around the world a feeling for what the place is like.
“I am very fortunate that I am getting the chance the showcase the place that I love.”
Terry George, Brendan Fraser, Colm Meaney, Martin McCann and Conor MacNeil will be at the European premiere of Whole Lotta Sole at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Sunday, June 10.
Tickets to the gala premiere, which will be the closing event of this year’s Belfast Film Festival, are £8 and are available now from the festival office on 028 9024 6609.