Brendan Gleeson’s adaptation of the classic Irish novel “At Swim-Two-Birds” by Brian O’Nolan is looking to being shooting this summer after faltering in its first attempt of production.
The project will hopefully boast an all-star, all-Irish cast including the likes of Colin Farrell, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Cillian Murphy and Gleeson himself but, in what is indicative of the state of things, still struggled to find financing in time for a planned March shoot (and note, all these actors are all “in talks” at the moment).
“You’d be terrified to say it will definitely happen,” Farrell recently told the Irish Times. “It’s very hard for films that don’t have special effects and have a literary core. Few films have more of a literary core than this. We tried to get it made in March, but the money wasn’t there. So, we’re hoping to get it together in the summer.”
“At Swim-Two-Birds” centers on the idea of fictional characters rebelling against their creator and follows a university student as he writes a novel behind closed doors that seemingly intertwines with characters in his own life. A closer look at the novel’s plot reveals very complex, meta-fictional tale that would seemingly be impossible to summarize, but it has been described as “a collision between Ireland’s literary, heroic past and its grimy, mundane present.”
If all goes according to plan, the film will be Gleeson’s directorial debut and will see him reunite with Farrell for the first time since their award-winning roles in Martin McDonaugh’s “In Bruges.” Add to that the eclectic bunch of Murphy, Rhys-Meyers and Byrne and the fact the novel is Irish masterpiece that featured on Time Magazine’s Top 100 Novels Of All Time… someone please make this happen.
