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Posts Tagged ‘ben kingsley’
Exclusive: Director Kari Skogland talks about the making of Fifty Dead Men Walking
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking lit up audiences when it ran this past September at the Vancouver and Toronto Film Festivals. The film tells the true story of Martin McGartland (played in the film by Jim Sturgess), then a 22-year-old young man living in Ireland at the height of its civil war. McGartland infiltrated the IRA and fed strategic information about the Army to U.K. authorities (whose contact is played by Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley.) Skogland’s film chronicles Martin’s dark journey through this complex battlefield and of the constant level of fear and danger that he faced every hour of every day. Continue reading…
Posted at 2:50PM by Patrick
50 Dead Men Walking goes ahead at Toronto
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
As you may have heard and was reported by The Hollywood Reporter last Friday, the release of 50 Dead Men Walking at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival was in question. We here at MovieSet have been trying to get to the bottom of all the controversy by going directly to the source. This morning we were promised a statement from the production company regarding TIFF. Just moments ago we received this email from the PR firm for the film, and it’s good news:
LONDON - The co-producers of Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking, Future Films and HandMade Films International, have confirmed that the film will continue its planned World Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
In response to reports in The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s partners have confirmed that any queries relating to the legitimacy of the film are unfounded and that due process has been followed throughout the production. The film rights to the original source material, Martin McGartland’s titular autobiography, were licensed by the production. The film, although inspired by the contents, is not a representation of Mr McGartland’s.
Mr McGartland was consulted by the filmmakers during the production, read the script, and watched the film in advance of any public screening. He was also given the opportunity to have the name of the lead character replaced with a fictional character name, which he declined.
The World Premiere will take place as scheduled at 9.30pm on Wednesday 10 September at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall. Sir Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Kevin Zegers and the film’s director, Kari Skogland, will be in attendance.
Posted at 10:37PM by admin
HandMade’s 50 Dead Men Walking toward Toronto Film Festival
Thursday, August 14, 2008
HandMade Films, a company started in 1972 by Beatle George Harrison and famous for classics like Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, Time Bandits (a personal favorite) and the cult hit Withnail and I are screening a number of their films at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
50 Dead Men Walking starring Jim Sturgess (21, Across the Universe) and Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler’s List, Lucky Number Slevin, Elegy) will receive its International premiere during the festival by way of a Gala Screening at the Roy Thompson Hall. Screening times for the film are on the official TIFF page for the film.
50 Dead Men Walking, is inspired by Martin McGartland’s shocking real life story.
Martin is a young lad from west Belfast in the late 1980s who is recruited by the British Police to spy on the IRA. He works his way up the ranks as a volunteer for the IRA whilst feeding information to his British handler and saving lives in the process; until one day he is exposed, captured and tortured to within an inch of his life. He escaped dramatically by throwing himself from a tower block window and is still in hiding today. [from IMDb]
Posted at 5:05PM by admin
