News

Irish filmmaker is known for directing ‘Hotel Rwanda’ and writing ‘In The Name Of The Father’.

Oscar-winning Irish filmmaker Terry George is to direct war action thriller Riverman and is preparing to shoot the feature in Saudi Arabia’s Neom and the UK.

Inspired by war diaries written during the war in Afghanistan, the story will follow a Royal Marine who is recruited by a private arms dealer and descends into a world more dangerous than the battlefield.

The script has been written by George, director of Hotel Rwanda and The Promise, who also wrote the screenplay for 1994’s In The Name Of The Father.

Los Angeles-based physician and producer Eric Esrailian, who recently received a medal from Pope Francis for his philanthropic activity around awareness of the Armenian Genocide, is developing a TV series entitled “Ceasefire” about the Northern Ireland peace process.

Oscar-winning Irish writer-director Terry George (“In the Name of the Father”) is attached to direct.

“Ceasefire” is to depict the dynamics and diplomacy that facilitated the historic Good Friday peace agreement of April 1998, which helped transform Northern Ireland after decades of bitter conflict, in hopes that it can help similar political situations.

“You look at the events around the world and you say: ‘Where has there been a successful brokering of peace between two hostile opposing forces?'” Esrailian said, citing other political flashpoints such as the Israel–Palestine conflict and the civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

“If you read more about the ceasefire between Loyalists and republicans in Northern...

Ellie Bamber stars, with Owen McDonnell and Michael Shea.

Principal photography has begun in Northern Ireland on Stranger With A Camera, the debut feature from Oscar-winning producer Oorlagh George.

Written and directed by George, the project was developed through the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting and Directing labs. The filmmaker won an Oscar for producing short film, The Shore, directed by her father, Terry George, whose feature credits include In The Name Of The Father and Some Mother’s Son.

Stranger With A Camera stars Ellie Bamber (BBC’s Les Misérables) with Owen McDonnell (Killing Eve), Michael Shea (Derry Girls) and Brian Milligan...

Ellie Bamber stars, with Owen McDonnell and Michael Shea.

Principal photography has begun in Northern Ireland on Stranger With A Camera, the debut feature from Oscar-winning producer Oorlagh George.

Written and directed by George, the project was developed through the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting and Directing labs. The filmmaker won an Oscar for producing short film, The Shore, directed by her father, Terry George, whose feature credits include In The Name Of The Father and Some Mother’s Son.

Stranger With A Camera stars Ellie Bamber (BBC’s Les Misérables) with Owen McDonnell (Killing Eve), Michael Shea (Derry Girls) and Brian Milligan...

Ellie Bamber stars, with Owen McDonnell and Michael Shea.

Principal photography has begun in Northern Ireland on Stranger With A Camera, the debut feature from Oscar-winning producer Oorlagh George.

Written and directed by George, the project was developed through the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriting and Directing labs. The filmmaker won an Oscar for producing short film, The Shore, directed by her father, Terry George, whose feature credits include In The Name Of The Father and Some Mother’s Son.

Stranger With A Camera stars Ellie Bamber (BBC’s Les Misérables) with Owen McDonnell (Killing Eve), Michael Shea (Derry Girls) and Brian Milligan...

There are two movies fighting for control of Terry George's attempt at a "topical" historical epic. The first, a scalding dramatization of the Ottoman Empire's 1915 genocidal annihilation of its Armenian citizens, is everything you expect from the heartfelt committed director behind films like Hotel Rwanda and Some Mother's Son. The second – the one that reduces the promise of The Promise to an old-fashioned, overblown Hollywood melodrama – is the fictional love triangle that trivializes a profound subject and drowns it in a tide of hokey sentiment.

Credit the producers, including...

The Sceal 2 development scheme which gives Irish-language writers the opportunity to develop a script into a short film has been launched. The scheme is based on the previous series 'Sceal', which is currently in post production with editors Sean O Caollai, David O Brien, Ronnie Quinlan, John Paul Shortt and Breege Rowley. Industry experts such as cinematographer Ciaran Tanham (Raw), actor Eamonn Draper (Jack Taylor: The Pikemen), and camera man Ken Byrne (Some Mother's Son) assisted with the productions. This series will air on TG4 in 2013.

Ellie Kemper, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Oorlagh George, Terry George, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Wendi McLendon-Covey Bridesmaids' Ellie Kemper, Rose Byrne, Best Supporting Actress nominee Melissa McCarthy, Best Original Screenplay nominee Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Wendi McLendon-Covey pose with Best Live Action Short Film Oscar winners Oorlagh George and Terry George backstage at the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony on February 26. McCarthy lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to The Help's Octavia Spencer. Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris was the winner for Best Original Screenplay. The two Georges won the Oscar for The Shore. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S.) Below is a partial transcript of the q&a with The Shore director Terry George and producer Oorlagh George, courtesy of AMPAS. Q. … Terry, I just want to ask you first in your acceptance speech, you said you wanted to dedicate this to the people of Northern Ireland.

Terry George is no stranger to the Troubles. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1952 and lived in the embattled region until he emigrated to New York in 1981, the same year as Irish prisoner Bobby Sands's deadly hunger strike. "It dominated my life growing up," says George about living amidst the conflict between Protestant unionists and Irish Catholic nationalists, which lasted from the 1960s until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. "It was a pretty intense civil war, so your whole life was kind of built around that and determined by it." That includes much of his subsequent artistic life. George revisited the Troubles multiple times on film, as the screenwriter of "In the Name of the Father" (1993) and "The Boxer" (1997) and as the writer and director of "Some Mother's Son" (1996). His latest film, "The Shore," is his fourth as a director and his first short film. The 29-minute dra.

Fta award winning director Terry George's latest short film 'The Shore' is to be screened at the 8th Annual Bahamas Film Festival this year. 'The Shore', which is a 30 minute short written and directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, Some Mother's Son) and produced with the help of his daughter Oorlagh, tells the story of two boyhood best friends, Joe and Paddy. Their world and their friendship shattered by escalating conflict in Belfast...

Tuesday, DVD roundup day, is a fine day for taking a look at the new Summer 2011 issue of Cineaste, particularly since, among the online samplings this time around, DVD reviews outnumber all other types of articles combined.

To begin, Darragh O'Donoghue on Harun Farocki's Still Life (1997): "Five aphoristic essays on 17th-century Dutch still-life painting, of about three minutes each, bracket four documentary sequences of photographers creating modern still lifes for magazine advertisements. These two levels, though defined by opposites — stasis/motion, tell/show — are linked by visual motifs and rhymes, just as the modern products echo the subjects of the paintings. The documentary sequences have no commentary, mostly last ten to fifteen minutes, and take their cue from Farocki's earlier An Image (Ein bild, 1983). In that short, he recorded the shooting of a German Playboy centerfold spread, from the building of sets and the arrangement of props (including...

In the run up to his Acting Masterclass as part of the Belfast Film Festival, Irish film and television actor John Lynch caught up with Iftn to talk acting methodology, having more patience with writers and making a film with footballing legend Eric Cantona. Northern Irish actor John Lynch has barely stopped acting since receiving a BAFTA nomination for his haunting performance in the 1983 Irish film 'Cal'. Since then, he has built on his early success appearing in many Irish films including 'In The Name of the Father', 'Lassie', 'Best' and 'Some Mother's Son'. He has also starred in international projects such as 'Sliding Doors', alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, and 'The Secret Garden' with Maggie Smith.

Arthur Lappin, film and television producer of films such as 'In America', 'My Left Foot', 'The Field' and 'Some Mother's Son', will join the list of panellists participating in a debate entitled 'The Arts and the Economy' which takes place on Thursday, April 15th and is organised by Ireland's association of writers, Irish Pen. The debate will take place at the United Arts Club, Upper Fitzwilliam Street in Dublin and will see Lappin examine Ireland's arts and the effect of the economy thereon alongside Aidan Burke, Operations Director with the Arts Council; Gerry Godley, broadcaster and spokesperson for the National Campaign for the Arts (Ncfa); Claire Doody, Project Manager of Cultural Odyssey and Declan Kiberd, literary critic and Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at Ucd.

Though he's never had acting aspirations of his own, casting director Michael Testa feels a special kinship with actors. He loves the energy they bring into the audition room and the variety they bring to his job. "Each day's very different, and each day you meet a ton of actors," he says. "I guess I'm a blabbermouth. I like to talk to people." As a co-owner of Shaner/Testa Casting, he currently works on the CBS procedural "Cold Case" and the ABC Family dramedy "Make It or Break It." Other credits include the TV shows "Roswell" and "Moonlight," the films "Kiss the Bride" and "Moonlight Serenade," and more than 70 TV movies.Self-StarterI answered an ad in Variety a long time ago to be a casting intern at a TV production house. I was never an actor, I never wanted to be an actor, but I studied film for years and...

This review was written for the festival screening of Hotel Rwanda.

Following on the promise of his 1996 directorial debut, Some Mother's Son, writer-director Terry George delivers a compelling dramatization of a Rwandan man's quiet heroics in the midst of his country's 1994 civil war.

Both tough and tender, the movingly rendered production often strikes a devastating chord without resorting to any of the manipulative string-pulling known to accompany movies about "men who made a difference."

But the film's biggest secret weapon is a commanding turn by the always-reliable Don Cheadle as selfless hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina. Required to appear in virtually every scene, Cheadle impressively carries the entire picture, delivering the kind of note-perfect performance that's absolutely deserving of Oscar consideration.

With the right kind of marketing, Hotel Rwanda has the crowd-stirring potential to generate solid awards season business.

When we first meet Cheadle's Rusesabagina, the eager-to-please manager of a posh hotel caters to his important guests with precision hospitality. He knows whose checked briefcases should be returned containing a couple of bottles of good scotch, just in case he may need a little assistance down the road.

Paul is required to cash in on those stockpiled favors a lot sooner than anticipated when tension between his country's Hutu extremist and Tutsi populations erupts into an all-out blood bath.

Amidst all the slaughter (three months later one million people would be killed), Paul turns the luxurious, Belgian-owned Hotel Mille Collines into a shelter not only for his own wife and family, but also to shield hundreds and hundreds of Tutsi refugees who were being hunted down and massacred.

Only slightly less shameful is the general indifference his country's plight is met with by the rest of the world, leaving Rusesabagina to call upon his rapidly dwindling resources to save as many lives as he can until a promised United Nations rescue materializes.

Despite the socio-political context, the film also functions as an effective romantic drama centered around the moving relationship shared by Rusesabagina and his wife Tatiana (equally well-played by Sophie Okonedo), a woman of similar resolve.

Rounding out the fine performances are Nick Nolte as a sympathetic but essentially powerless UN officer and Joaquin Phoenix as a photojournalist who becomes emotionally involved with a Rwandan woman.

Reminiscent of The Killing Fields in its blend of unflinching realism (actually staged in South Africa) and human drama, Hotel Rwanda also calls to mind the work of Jim Sheridan, with whom George collaborated on In the Name of the Father and The Boxer.

Those production values are reinforced by the immediacy of Robert Fraisse's cinematography and by Andrea Guerra's evocative, multi-layered score.

United Artists

A United Artists presentation in association with Lions Gate Entertainment

A South Africa/United Kingdom/Italy co-production in association with The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa

A Miracle Pictures/Seamus production in association with Inside Track

Credits:

Director: Terry George

Screenwriters: Terry George, Keir Pearson

Producers: Terry George, A. Kitman Ho

Executive producers: Hal Sadoff, Martin F. Katz, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe

Director of photography: Robert Fraisse

Production designer: Johnny Breedt

Editor: Naomi Geraghty

Costume designer: Ruy Filipe

Music: Andrea Guerra.

Cast:

Paul Rusesabagina: Don Cheadle

Tatiana: Sophie Okonedo

Jack: Joaquin Phoenix

Colonel Oliver: Nick Nolte

Running time -- 110 minutes

MPAA Rating: not yet rated...