The 28-year-old, who originally hails from a border village in Co Monaghan, studied film at Queen’s University, Belfast where he began what would become the basis of the drama that tells the story of a disillusioned hitman (Neeson, inset below) who comes out of retirement for one last job when an IRA member on the run arrives at a quiet Irish village. “At the very end of the programme a portion of the script was performed aloud by actors to a room of producers and insiders from Belfast and the UK,” he tells the . “And in that room was [ director] Terry Loane, and he was interested in the Western flair that was in the script and we became co-collaborators on it.
It was through him that the script made its way to his producing partner, Geraldine Hughes from Prodigal Films. “And it was through Geraldine Hughes that it got to Liam, so there is that domino effect in how it got from NWF to Hollywood. And I want to highlight that because it was all those steps that got it where it is.
” Set and filmed in Donegal, cast also includes Colm Meaney, Ciarán Hinds, Kerry Condon, Jack Gleeson, Sarah Greene, Desmond Eastwood, Conor MacNeill, Seamus O’Hara, Valentine Olukoga and Mark O’Regan. The film’s release has been met with critical acclaim, with EmpireOnline calling it “a solid old-fashioned Irish Western”, and it comes as the annual NWF scheme reopens. As the most recent recipient of the programme, Mark is keen to stress how important the scheme has been to his c.
