05/10/2012 - Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd star in dark comedy

Following his smash hit feature debut The Guard [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: John Michael McDonagh
film profile], writer-director John Michael McDonagh has begun principal photography in Sligo on Calvary. Brendan Gleeson (photo), Chris O’Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Marie Josée Crozé, Isaach De Bankolé, Domhnall Gleeson, Pat Shortt and David Wilmot are amongst the stellar cast.

Gleeson is playing Father James Lavelle, flipside to his character of Sergeant Gerry Boyle from The Guard. A good man intent on making the world a better place, Father Lavelle is continually shocked and saddened by the spiteful and confrontational inhabitants of his small country town. After being threatened during confession, he must battle the dark forces closing in around him.

McDonagh said, “It is with great excitement, bordering on tumescence, that I am looking forward to collaborating once more with Ireland’s greatest actor, Brendan Gleeson, and working with the finest ensemble cast ever assembled in the history of Irish cinema. I would like to thank the Irish Film Board, and the BFI, for their continuing support for filmmaking that seeks to escape from the tiresome, rarefied confines of Dublin 4. Up the West!”

Chris Clark and Flora Fernandez Marengo of Reprisal Films and James Flynn of Octagon Films are producing with backing from the Irish Film Board. Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales and Momentum Pictures will distribute in Ireland and the UK.