Local hero: James Nesbitt
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Neeson and Nesbitt may team up for new Troubles TV drama
Friday, May 09, 2008
By Maureen Coleman
Northern Ireland's best known actors James Nesbitt and Liam Neeson are
expected to team up to star in a one-off BBC drama about the Troubles.
Nesbitt has already confirmed that he will return to Belfast this month to
start shooting Five Minutes in Heaven, as revealed in the Belfast Telegraph
yesterday.
But it is understood Hollywood superstar Liam Neeson has been approached
about the drama, which explores aspects of Northern Ireland's troubled past
and the challenges the future holds in coming to terms with it.
If Oscar-nominated Neeson does agree to sign up, as expected, it will be a
major coup.
Five Minutes in Heaven, written by Guy Hibbert, who also penned Omagh, is a
fictional work of drama based on real life events.
It centres around the story of 17-year-old Alistair Little, a member of the
UVF, who murdered 19-year-old Catholic Jim Griffin in Lurgan in 1975.
Little was arrested two weeks later along with three others involved in the
shooting and convicted. He served 12-and-a-half years in prison. Jim's
murder was witnessed by his 11-year-old brother Joe Griffin and the impact
of Jim's death destroyed his family.
Murphy's Law and Midnight Man star Nesbitt will play Joe Griffin in
adulthood, while it is understood Neeson is being lined up to play Little as
a grown man.
Filming is due to start in Belfast later this month. The drama is being made
by Big Fish Films, in association with Ruby Films for BBC2, with
co-financing from Northern Ireland Screen. It will be directed by Oliver
Hirschbiegel, whose move Downfall, about Hilter's last days, was nominated
for a Best Foreign Film Oscar.
Patrick Spence, Head of Drama for BBC NI, said: "Northern Ireland is a
society emerging from conflict. We wanted to develop and produce a single
film, which, in a responsible way, marks part of that transition.
"We have done this by recording powerful personal testimonies of the
two individuals whose lives have been determined by the Troubles."
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