IRELAND'S GREATEST ACTORS: DERRICK O'CONNOR

Dublin-born actor with an impressive British filmography: Blood on Satan's claw (recommended), Jabberwocky, Time bandits, Brazil, Hope and glory.
Hollywood titles include: End of days and Daredevil.

IRELAND'S GREATEST ACTORS: GERALDINE FITZGERALD

Another Dublin actress who appeared in several well-known Hollywood productions: Wuthering Heights, Dark Victory, Watch on the Rhine, Pawnbroker, Rachel Rachel (Paul Newman movie), Last American Hero, Arthur, and Easy Money (with Rodney Dangerfield!).

IRISH DIRECTOR FOR THOR 2?

According to Variety news another Nordy director, Brian Kirk, is due to direct Thor 2. Best of luck to him but won't be watching that rubbish! Still, can't be any more far-fetched than Middletown?

IRELAND'S GREATEST ACTORS: OLIVER MACGREEVY

Instantly recognisable bald actor from Dublin. Appeared in several famous titles from the '60s: Leather boys (in the penultimate scene), Girl with green eyes, Ipcress file, Modesty Blaise. Also appeared in later famous titles: Ruling class, Four musketeers, and Flash Gordon.

RADIO DOCUMENTARY ON BRIAN DESMOND HURST

Good radio documentary on the RTÉ website for Irish director Hurst. Interesting life: born beside the Belfast shipyards, family was working there when the Titanic got built, directed about 30 features (including the best version of Scrooge and several Irish titles in the '30s), gave Roger Moore his first break, and died penniless in the 1980s. Interestingly, he tried to set up an Irish film industry here back in the 1950s. This was a decade before John Huston tried the same. Not sure if he was Ireland's most prolific director, Herbert Brenon maybe?

TEN IRISH FILMS YET TO GET MADE!

Here's a list of ten movies that really should be made here instead of the festival fodder or mainstream rubbish we produce.

KILL THE IRISHMAN DVD?

According to XtraVision's free magazine the movie Kill the Irishman is coming out on DVD soon. So that means no cinema release?

LAST WEEK'S SINDO

Another article about how 'great' the Irish film industry is. This time it's last week's Sunday independent newspaper. Lots of new titles on the way, but the problem is that none are of much interest. Haywire is a Hollywood movie made here, Albert Nobbs is another. Byzantium is Neil Jordan's latest but his best work is long gone. Shadow dancer seems to be some kind of Irish movie with international leads? At swim-two-birds is actor Gleeson's pet project and no doubt will impress those who've not read the book! Can a song save your life? is Carney's new movie but is not Irish. Parked is the latest Colm Meaney vehicle. Asterix 4 is shooting here too, nothing Irish about that one! That's it (for the big-budget ones anyway). No doubt one or two will be good and the rest rubbish and straight to DVD?

CHEERS ECUADOR!

Another far-away country has accessed this blog. So cheers Ecuador!

CALLBACK QUEEN

Great news, the director of Anton is back. This time he's making another challenging film - in the romcom(!) genre. It's about an actress who goes for auditions, no doubt based on people the director knows in London. Left Ireland for some reason and I hope it wasn't because of the negative feeback for Anton? Recall his criticising another jobbing hack, Shimmy Marcus, on some webpage after Headrush got made. What goes around came around?

CROSSFIRE

Though not an Irish movie this claustrophobic noir starring three Roberts (Ryan, Montgomery, and Mitchum) has a remarkable scene where a detective discusses his grandfather. He moved from Ireland to America and bought land but was then persecuted for his nationality and murdered. The movie mentions the parallel with racism towards the Irish and its anti-semitic theme. Worth noting!