Can He Fix It? Yes He Can

After writing and directing Cowboys And Angels and The Front Line, David Gleeson (right) will leave the script duties to A. Nother when he takes on Chuck Wachtel's novel Joe The Engineer; that A. Nother is none other than Wachtel himself, who debuts to adapt his own debut.

Tagged as a 'blue collar novel', the plot follows the titular character, a meter reader for a water company, who, after a tour in Vietnam, is tired of his meaningless life and tries to figure out what is going on on this crazy planet. Brad Renfro (Apt Pupil, The Jacket) is rumoured to play the lead.

Reviews for the book have been good ("a great, rough, sympathetic ode to real people"), but one worrying critique was that "the reader isn't it in for the plot" (that review can be read here). After two linear-plotted movies, is Gleeson about to direct an (whisper it) arthouse film? What is strange is that Wild Eye, David's own production company, are not behind it (that role falls to US house Toulillian Films), elbowing long-time partner Nathalie Lichtenthaeler into the cold. Oh, is there trouble in the Dutch camp?

You can catch David's interesting 'Writer's On Writing' interview with Irish Playwrights And Screenwriter's Guild here.

No One Will Sleep Through This Alarm

You've a better chance of finding your baggage in Lockerbie than seeing a decent psychological thriller set in Ireland but lo - there's one on its way. Not for another year, however...

Guiltrip and About Adam director Gerry Stembridge has just finished a five week shoot of Alarm. The plot sees a young woman, Molly (Ruth Bradley - Love Is The Drug), who moves from her idyllic suburban Dublin life to a housing estate way outside the city and her life begins to unravel.

Co-produced by Venus Film And Television, the film will star Owen Roe (Intermission), Tom Hickey (Garage), Anita Reeves (Adam And Paul, The Butcher Boy) and Emmet Bergin (Veronica Guerin).

Although shooting has wrapped, the film is unlikely to hit our screens until late 2008/early 2009. Now TToH will admit that we don't know a lot about post production, but surely a mentally-retarded snail would edit the film faster than that. Come on, guys - get the finger out.

An Irish Opera? And It's A Comedy? Starring Ronnie Drew? You're On A Giraffe!

So obscure IMDB don't even have it, O'Donoghue's Opera was made in 1965 but it wasn't seen until veteran filmmaker Tom Hayes restored it ten years ago.

Directed by Kevin Sheldon and starring Ronnie Drew (right) and The Dubliners, the comedy is based on the ballad The Night That Larry Was Stretched and sees Ronnie in a hangman's noose for being the best burglar in Ireland.

With nods and winks to all sorts to beat the band, the 37 minute O'Donoghue's Opera will screen in the IFI from Tuesday 11th December.

Oh Wow, Sir...It's A ...Oh, It's A Grammy

We all remember The Simpsons parody (The Barbershop Quartet one), which brought to light that the Grammys aren't the most respected award a musician can receive, but it's just one more string in the bow for John Carney's Once, the little film that could.

Once has been nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack while the song Falling Slowly is nominated for Best Song. Written by The Frames's Glen Hansard and Czech diminutive singer/songwriter Marketa Irglova, it sounds like a tune The Grammy's would go for; James Blunt won last year.

With Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan shutting up shop and heading out west when they made it big, will John Carney be seen this side of the water again? And if not, would you blame him? Please post your thoughts below.

Falling Slowly, with some visuals from the film, can be heard below...

"I'd Bloody Love It If We Beat Them, I'd Bloody Love It...

....and they still got to go to Sundance next month and get something...." Martin McDonagh's In Bruges will open Sundance this year, but it won't be the only Irish entry to the festival...

Simon Fitzmaurice's short The Sound Of People has joined the 19 titles (whittled down from 5000) for the Dramatic Shorts selection. Produced by Noreen Donohoe and starring Martin McCann, the story sees an 18-year-old connect with both his past and his future while dealing with his own impending death. Fitzmaurice: "I am absolutely over the moon about getting into Sundance. Everyone worked heart and soul on this film and this is a wonderful response."

In the Documentary Shorts section, Ken Wardrop has two entries: 'Farewell Packets Of Ten' sees two women discuss the pros and cons of smoking and 'Scoring' documents the power of the kiss.

TToH are still waiting on word for their own documentary - Doggin' Into Some Young One Down The Back Of The Cinema. Hopes are still high.

Gadzooks! Odds And Innards! Politician Comes Through On Promise

The proles have spoken; the falcon has heard the falconer; the squeaky wheel gets the grease; you can put a cat in the oven, but that don't make it a biscuit; you can't make a silk purse out of toilet roll inserts (stop us - we're in a loop!).

In yesterday's budget, Minister for finance Brian Cowen has promised to invest €245m in the arts with The Film Board seeing an increase of 18% in its funding (good news for TToH as we've applied for a First Draft Loan. Get in, my son). Also, Section 481, the tax relief scheme for film and television production, is to be extended until 2012.

Sitcom Will Be A Hit - And That's A Red Roarin' Fact

Post production on new Irish two-part TV sitcom The Roaring Twenties has begun and should hit our screens sometime in January.

Set in Rathmines, Dublin, the plot sees a group of - you guessed it - twenty somethings as they go through the trials and tribulations of everyday life.

Produced by Adrian Devane (Speed Dating) and Brian Willis (Short Order) of Igloo Productions, the mini-series was written by Steven Stubbs (It Happened One Night) and co-directed by him with 24-year-old debutant Ray Sullivan. The cast will include newcomers Jason Healey, Diarmaid Murtagh, Darryl Kinsella and Amy Kirwan.

The Roaring Twenties promises to be a hit along the lines of Pure Mule. TToH will have a review next year.

Abrahamson Sacks Turin

Like Hannibal, Abrahamson's Garage has taken a while to get to Italy, pillaging the French villes of Chatenay-Malabry, Monte Carlo and Cinnesonne in its wake.

Last Saturday, his movie took Best Film at the 25th Turin Film Festival with a prize of €25,000. Will Abrahamson take his army north and face the Goths camped outside the Berlin Film Festival in February next year? Who's betting he won't? Behind that steely gaze, there's a hunger in his eyes - look. They will find tough opposition, though, as Anton's Commander-in-chief Graham Cantwell has his eyes on that prize.

The Secret Diary Of Adrian Dunbar Aged 49 3/4

Tuesday, 4th December, 2007

I saw Mr Lucas coming out of my mother's bedroom when I was leaving for school this morning. He said that my mother had 'an emergency that needed fixing right away'. I think my mother is being very unfair to Mr Lucas - she seems to need him every morning and it looks like real hard work because he was very red in the face and was sweating.

Pandora came around this afternoon. I touched her bust. Felt like I never felt before. Oh, I'm also directing a biopic of James Connolly.

Either TToH have lost their talent for picking up on news or Adrian Dunbar (right) is keeping the details close to his chest, but we hadn't heard anything about this until Sunday morning. Produced by Rascal Films, 'Connolly' is seen through the eyes of his daughter Nora and will star Peter Mullan in the title role with Susan Lynch and Patrick Bergin as Big Jim Larkin backing him up. The script will be penned by debutants Tom Stokes and Frank Allen.

The film is in preproduction so a release date is a long way off yet. Stay tuned...

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou Former Glory?

After 2002’s unremarkable In America and 2005’s underachieving Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, Jim Sheridan, the director of My Left Foot, The Field, In The Name Of The Father and The Boxer, plans to get back to winning ways with two movies in the pipeline.

Up first is Brothers - a remake of Dane Susanne Bier’s Brode (2004) - which tells the tale of an ex-con who comforts his wife’s brother and children when he goes missing in Afghanistan. The film will star Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire as the titular brothers and Natalie Portman (boy, she’s a sport) as the broken-hearted wife. The script will be penned by Troy scribe David Benioff.

After that, Jim will turn his attention to Emerald City, a sneaky peek into the world of Irish organised crime in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Irish? Organised? We reckon it must be fiction. The trailer for the original Brode can be seen below...

At Last - In Bruges Trailer Is Here!

After weeks of squinting at a shaky camera that shot a Ralph Fiennes scene from across the street, the In Bruges trailer is finally here. Woo-hoo! The black comedy will open Sundance and by the look of the trailer – and we don’t want to jinx it or anything - it’s odds-on to scoop at least one award. Definitely. No doubt in our minds. If it doesn’t, TToH will eat our hats. And we don’t own a hat – we’d have to go out and buy one. A Ten Gallon. Arrow and all. Check out Ralph Fiennes doing a hilarious Michael Caine-meets-Ben Kingsley’s-Sexy-Beast...