24/03/2005

Terry Loane’s Belfast drama Mickebo & Me will be used to try to attract other filmmakers into Northern Ireland according to Colin Anderson, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Film & Television Council (NIFTC).
During the film’s worldwide premiere in Belfast on 22 March, Anderson told the BBC that the NIFTC’ strategy is to develop the local film industry over the next three years and getting more filmmakers to shoot in the province could make a significant contribution to the local economy: “With the funding that we have, we are now in a position to attract some very serious investments into Northern Ireland to try to make it happen”, he said. “When we invest in a movie for perhaps about £600,000, what we are looking for is four times that to be reinvested into the Northern Ireland economy. If we are making four or five movies a year, we are returning millions into this economy”.

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Mickebo & Me was shot across Northern Ireland, from Belfast to the seaside towns of Portush and Donaghadee. The £3m film was produced by Working Title 2 in association with New Moon Pictures with funding from Universal Pictures, Studio Canal +, the Irish Film Board and the NIFTC.
The film is the feature film debut of Belfast-born writer/director Terry Loane who developed his project at the Moonstone Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs in 2001 and 2002. The film stars two young Irish newcomers Niall Wright and John-Jo McNeilll, chosen among 900 boys. In the film they play Mickebo and Johnjo, two friends fixated on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and their adventures during the summer of 1970 in troubled Belfast. Playing their families in supporting roles are a handful of established actors including Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds, Adiran Dunbar and Susan Lynch.
The film will be released tomorrow 25 March through UIP across Ireland and in the UK.