Farrell among stellar cast to film £3.6m movie at Castle Coole
Meadhbh Monahan • Published 7 Mar 2013 13:00
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FERMANAGH is set to get a taste of Hollywood glitterati when Colin Farrell, Jessica Chastain and Samantha Morton are to arrive to shoot a period film at Castlecoole.
The Dublin-born heart-throb and the leading ladies will star in a screen adaptation Miss Julie, originally a play by Swedish playwright August Strindberg.
Set over the course of a midsummer night in Fermanagh in 1890, an unsettled daughter of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy (Chastain) encourages her father's valet (Farrell) to seduce her.
Samanthan Morton (who starred alongside Farrell in Minority Report) will play a poor Irish cook engaged to Farrell's character. One other actress, who will play Miss Julie as a child, is yet to be cast.
Directed by Liv Ullmann, a Norwegian actress turned director, Miss Julie has a $5.5 (£3.6) million budget and most of the action will take place within the stunning 18th-century mansion. It will be produced by Synnøve Hørsdal of Oslo-based Maipo Film, with the support of co-producers Teun Hilte of London-based The Apocalypse Films Company Ltd and Rita Dagher's Paris-based Senorita Films.
Speaking to The Impartial Reporter, the producers revealed that Fermanagh was chosen for "its beautiful natural setting."
"After an extensive search across Europe, we selected County Fermanagh for its beautiful natural setting. It will form the perfect backdrop to Liv Ullmann's much anticipated adaption of Miss Julie and we look forward to presenting it to worldwide cinema audiences in all its glory," they stated.
The news is another major coup for Fermanagh, which will also host the leaders of the world's eight most powerful countries in June.
Castle Coole - the neo-classical family home of the Earls of Belmore which was designed by James Wyatt and completed in 1798 - is the perfect backdrop for the 18th century tale of class, love, lust and the battle of the sexes.
Miss Julie was written in 1888 and this is the first high-profile production to move the setting away from Sweden. The film is due for release in 2014.
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 07 Mar 13
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