TV shoots build up local base
BBC's Belfast branch lures projects into province
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Three network shows have shot there in the past year -- "Messiah," an inhouse BBC detective drama; comedy-drama series "The Invisibles" from indie Company Pictures, in which Portaferry in County Down stood in for a Devon village; and "Fairytales" from Hat Trick, modern retellings of the Cinderella, Rapunzel, Emperor's New Clothes and the Billy Goats Gruff stories.
TV projects can get up to $1.6 million from Northern Ireland Screen. "TV drama can be a much better building block than film in terms of allowing you to provide opportunities for local directors, writers and actors to get steady work," says NIS chief exec Richard Williams.
Shooting started last month on the most prestigious commission yet from BBC NI and NI Screen: "Five Minutes of Heaven" is a telepic written by Guy Hibbert ("Omagh"), starring Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt and directed by German helmer Oliver Hirschbiegel ("Downfall").
It starts out as a dramatic reconstruction of true events that took place in 1975, when Alistair Little, a 17-year-old member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, murdered a 19-year-old Catholic man, Jim Griffin, witnessed by Jim's younger brother Joe. Little served 12 years in prison for the crime.
The rest of the film fast-forwards to today, with a fictional account of how Alistair (Neeson) and Joe (Nesbitt) come to terms with what happened, dramatized by Hibbert in close collaboration with the real Little and Joe Griffin.
Like "Bloody Sunday," another Troubles telepic starring Nesbitt that launched the feature career of Paul Greengrass when it won at Berlin in 2002, "Five Minutes of Heaven" will be distributed as a theatrical movie in the international market. Pathe is handling sales.
It's produced by Eoin O'Callaghan for Big Fish Films and Stephen Wright for the BBC, with Paul Trijbits exec producing for Ruby Films.
