Writer/Director John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard has begun a six-week shoot on location in Connemara, Spiddal, Barna and County Wicklow. McDonagh earlier wrote Gergor Jordan’s Ned Kelly.

The film stars Brendan Gleeson (Perrier’s Bounty) as an unconventional Irish policeman who teams with strait-laced FBI officer Don Cheadle (Traitor), to bring down a drug-smuggling gang. The cast also includes Liam Cunningham (Hunger [trailer, film focus]), Fionnuala Flanagan (The Invention of Lying) and Pat Shortt (Garage [trailer, film focus]).
The Guard is a Reprisal Films and Element Pictures production in association with Prescience, Aegis Film Fund, UK Film Council and Crescendo Productions and with the participation of the Irish Film Board (IFB). International sales are being handled by Metropolis Films and Optimum Releasing in the UK and Element Pictures Distribution in Ireland will release the film.

Martin Cullen, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, said, “The choice of both Wicklow and the west by Element Pictures and Reprisal Films demonstrates that Ireland remains an attractive and also a cost effective base for local and international film and television production. Ongoing indigenous and international features enable the Irish film industry to maintain jobs and build on the excellent international reputation that Irish crews have. The announcement is a boost to our film industry and an extremely positive endorsement of the Irish acting and production skills within this important and much valued sector.”

IFB CEO Simon Perry said, “The Guard is a quintessentially Irish take on crime and policing, a combination of sharp observation and wild comedy that should please both audiences in Ireland and further afield.”