Projects matching: John Irvin

Synopsis

Every second Saturday in July the city of Durham is taken over by miners, trade-unions and the public for a major event known locally as "The Big Meeting". The Durham Miners' Gala is an annual celebration of noise, colour, culture, creativity, unity and endeavour. Attracting 200,000 people, banners and brass bands parade through the streets to honour their heritage. 'The Big Meeting' reflects the past, present and future of the Gala and labour movement, whilst following four protagonists over the course of this momentous working-class occasion.

Synopsis

The Garden Of Eden is based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Set in the jazz age years, prior to the Depression, the story follows a successful young American writer David Bourne and his beautiful wife, Catherine, on their extended honeymoon in Europe. Catherine soon becomes restless and starts to test her husbands's devotion, pushing him to the limits of her imagination. Already unsure of the games his wife is playing, David is both uncomfortable and curious when she brings a sultry Italian girl, Marita, to spice things up. As the erotic game reaches new levels, the events that follow will change their lives forever.

Synopsis

1939: Rome stands on the brink of the Second World War Europe’s political situation is a tense standoff between two blocks: the British and French liberal democracies against German Nazism and Italian Fascism.  Mussolini’s Italian government has signed ‘The Pact of Steel’ with Hitler’s Germany, before occupying Albania and passing racial discrimination laws. 
 
Despite this political and social tension, it seems to be business as usual in the world of Italian cinema: the producer DAVIDE RIETI (Alfred Molina), is making one of his major films with Cinecittà Studios: Tosca stars the German Krsitina Baumgarten (Catherine McCormack), the English actor James Clavel (Jonathan Pryce), the handsome Italian actor Alfonso Ligouri (Roberto Purvis), the gifted young Renzo Daverio (Rupert Friend), and a beautiful young girl named Maria Grazia(Surama De Castro), and is to be directed by the Hungarian Lazlo Molnar
 
During the Tosca film shoot the two actors,  Kristina Baumgarten and the English man James Clavel, as the personification of the two different European mentalities - face each other and finally fall in love. They both try to escape reality living inside a movie.  Shooting has to be interrupted as the banks withdraw their backing following the publication of a compromising article about the homosexual relationship between the Jewish Rieti and Renzo.
 
Making one final extraordinary effort to complete the film over one night.  Before the sunrise and before the War, Tosca is finished.  Kristina and Clavel return to their lives in Britain and Germany,  Rieti is arrested.  Months later, in a theatre crowded with critics and interested parties, Tosca is screened for the first time.

Synopsis

It's the late 60s. The English invasion has conquered the world! The Liverpool Sound tops the charts in every country - except Ireland! There, so called Ceili music - a form of traditional music - still reigns supreme. And they're about to hold the annual Ceili competition to determine who's the best band in the land.
 
But could the unthinkable happen? Could an upstart English band from Liverpool win the All Irish Championship for the first time in history? Transplanted Irishman Jimmy MacMahon (Colm Meaney) and his motley English crew have their hearts set on it.
 
Meanwhile, back in County Clare, Ireland, Jimmy's stalwart older brother, John Joe (Bernard Hill) and his fiesty local band are determined to win the trophy for the third year in a row.
 
The long-standing feud between the MacMahon brothers finally boils over as each tries to sabotage the other and win the first prize, by hook or by crook.
 
Wnen Liverpudlian Teddy (Shaun Evans), Jimmy's best flute player, falls head-over-heels in love with Anne (Andrea Corr), the beautiful young fiddle player in John Joe's band, her overly protective mother, Maisie (Charlotte Bradley), fears her daughter will end up heartbroken.
 
In an attempt to stop Anne from seeing Teddy, Maisie tells her daughter her own deepest, darkest secret - the true identity of Anne's father. He is none other than John Joe's rotten but charming younger brother Jimmy, who promised Maisie the world and then abandoned her once she was pregnant.
 
Now, 20 years later, a boldfaced Jimmy shows up - with no apparent regrets - throwing Maisie into a tizzy and infuriating John Joe who was in love with Maisie himself before John Joe stole her heart.
 
When all the blarney's said and done, blood is still thicker than water, but - when the time comes to play - who' s going home with the trophy?  Who's going home with Anne?

Synopsis

Billy 'Shiner' Simpson is determined that today is going to be his big day - his son is about to fight for a boxing world title and make him a millionaire. But Billy's dreams are shattered when his son is knocked out inside two rounds, and Billy becomes convinced that the fight was fixed and that his son took a dive - a suspicion that seems to be confirmed when the boy is shot dead soon afterwards.

So Billy - his dreams of becoming a big shot in tatters - sets out to discover who was responsible for the death of his son. Was it the rival promoter Frank Spedding? Spedding is a true big shot, American, successful and wealthy, everything Billy aspires to be. Was it his daughter Georgie who knows the family will lose everything if her half-brother loses - has she fixed the fight and bet money on the other fighter? Or was Billy's new bodyguard responsible? Why does he soon disappear after his son's killing?

And as if Billy doesn't have enough to contend with, the police are after him because they have evidence he ran illegal, bareknuckle fights and want to arrest him.

Shiner is the fast-moving, humorous, violent, tragic story of a man consumed by ambition - a man who passionately loves boxing - a man who's past catches up with him and who won't accept that he'll never make the big-time.

Synopsis

After his Academy Award-winning performance as a New England doctor in The Cider House Rules, Michael Caine is back on British turf for this thriller set in the boxing world. In Shiner, the actor's fourth collaboration with producer Geoffrey Reeve, he really does feel as if he's come home. "I've been preparing for Shiner all my life," says Caine. "I grew up in the Elephant & Castle area [in south-east London] and I know exactly who I'm playing - but I daren't give you his name because he'd come and kill me!"



Caine's character, Billy 'Shiner' Simpson, is a boxing promoter who has invested all his hopes in his son Eddie (UK TV star Matthew Marsden). But when Eddie is knocked out in the second round of a crucial bout, then shot dead soon afterwards, Billy's life falls apart. He sets out to discover who killed his son, but his efforts are hampered by police pursuing him for running unlicensed fights.



Playing opposite Caine, as rival promoter Frank Spedding, is a suitably heavyweight talent in the shape of Martin Landau, himself an Oscar winner for 1994's Ed Wood.



Shiner also marks a return to the UK for British director Irvin, whose most recent work is NBC & Hallmark's Noah's Ark. The film is the feature debut of writer Scott Cherry, who has extensive credits writing for British television and radio. It is also the first film from fledgling UK production and finance company Wisecroft Ltd.



Shiner is set to premiere at this year's San Sebastian Film Festival.