Jordan’ s Collins epic to provide wind fall

February 1995

BRAY’S burgeoning movie business is set to receive a New Year’s boost from two of Ireland’s top film industry names.

‘Schindler’s List’ star Liam Neeson is joining forces with ‘Interview with the Vampire’ director Neil Jordan for a prestigious multi-million pound feature on the Irish War of Independence hero Michael Collins.

And Bray’s Ardmore Studios look set to land the plum project, which is expected to go into production as early as April of this year.

On the heels of the roller-coaster success of his Tom Cruise picture ‘Interview with the Vampire, which has already netted more than 100 million dollars in the United States, and opened in Ireland just this week, Neil Jordan will return to Bray to film an adaptation of the life of ‘ the Big Fella,’ with Liam Neeson in the starring role.

Ballymena-born Neeson became one of Hollywood’s top stars with his towering performance in Stephen Spielberg’s academy-award winning blockbuster ‘Schindler’s List’ last year.

Confirming just recently that he would be playing Michael Collins in his next role, Neeson has just completed shooting a movie on the life of legendary Scottish rebel ‘Rob Roy.’

Ardmore Studios chief executive Kevin Moriarty says that discussions have been held with the producers of Michael Collins and space has been provisionally allocated for the feature between April and August of this year.

Mr Jordan also used to live in Bray and has previously shot movie scenes on location in the town.