The Young Offenders creator searching for singers to star in new feature film
Peter Foott's next project 'Mary Man' is set to begin filming later this year
The creator of the hit TV show and film The Young Offenders is on the search for singers to star in his upcoming feature film, Mary Man.
Writer and Director Peter Foott, is casting a variety of singing roles in the upcoming movie set for release in 2026.
Producers are seeking lead, secondary, and background vocalists, aged 18+.
Mary Man, a story based on real events, is the inspirational tale of a Kerry woman with an incredible singing voice who is outcast from Irish society.
When she enters a singing contest, she brings joy and challenges the local community's perceptions of her.
Production is set to get underway in Co Kerry later this year.
Peter Foott (Getty Images)
News in 90 Seconds - May 13th
Castle Cove Pictures issued the casting call, requesting all applicants to submit a singing audition with their application.
I've wanted to make this film for some time now,' Peter Foott said of the project.
'I heard so many stories in the Castlecove, Co. Kerry community about this incredible person, and I wanted to bring Mary's story to life on the big screen.
'It feels joyful, musical, and very cinematic, and we're really eager to feature the best Irish talent possible in this exciting feature film,' he added.
'The Young Offenders' is part of RTÉ's comedy output
Foott's first feature film The Young Offenders was inspired by the 2007 multimillion euro cocaine haul in Co Cork.
Bales of the drug were left floating in Dunlough Bay after a gang bungled their operation to smuggle them into Ireland when they put the wrong fuel in their boat.
The film won numerous awards, including an IFTA and was eventually commissioned as a TV show.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Extra.ie
an hour ago
- Extra.ie
Inside Miriam O'Callaghan's family life as RTE presenter to release memoir
Miriam O'Callaghan is one of the country's most recognisable broadcasters. The RTÉ presenter, who's been with the national broadcaster for over three decades after working in the BBC, has worn many hats over the years — including hosting Saturday Night with Miriam, Sunday with Miriam on RTÉ Radio One, and Prime Time — making her one of the most well-known presenters on RTÉ. Now, Miriam has announced that she will be releasing a memoir in October, admitting that she is 'really nervous' about telling her story. Sharing the news on social media, she wrote: 'At first I planned it to be just about my work as a journalist, but I soon realised it was impossible to separate the personal and professional parts of my life, that's why it's about life, work and everything. 'In truth I am really nervous about telling my story, that's probably why it took me so long to write it. All I hope is that people will read it and find it interesting, authentic, entertaining and hopeful.' But what of her personal life? Miriam O'Callaghan at the IFTA Awards 2025 at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre. Pic: Brian McEvoy Miriam was born in Foxrock, Dublin in 1960, and is the elder sister of the Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan. Her younger sister Anne passed away from cancer, aged just 33. Her father Jerry was a civil servant in the Department of Energy, but tragically and suddenly passed away from a stroke in 1995. Miriam went on to study law in UCD, and completed a post-grad in European Law — qualifying as a solicitor in 1983. From there, she went on to work as a researcher for a production company after moving to London with her then-husband, poet Tom McGurk — with the pair sharing four daughters together before splitting in 1995. Miriam and her second husband Steve Carson met while working for the BBC, marrying in 2000 and sharing four sons. Pic: Eamonn Farrell/ After Miriam and Tom called time on their marriage, Miriam met her now husband Steve Carson when they both worked on BBC Newsnight — falling 'head over heels' for each other while working on a film about the Irish Potato Famine. However, Miriam ended up going back to Ireland to care for her sister Anne, while Steve remained in the UK — although he was more than understanding of why Miriam had to head home, as he had also lost his mother to cancer when he was a young child. The pair went on to marry in 2000, and after having four girls in her first marriage, Miriam and Steve had four sons — totalling eight children altogether for the broadcaster. Steve currently works for the BBC, with Miriam saying that despite the long distance relationship she wants her husband to be happy. Pic: VIP Ireland With Miriam's career thriving in the national broadcaster, Steve began working behind the scenes — becoming RTÉ's Television Director of Programs in 2009. He was then made the editor of current affairs, and Director of Video, before returning to the BBC where he became BBC NI's Head of Production. He was also heavily involved in launching BBC Scotland back in 2019, with Miriam admitting that a long-distance relationship was tough with her in Dublin and Steve in Scotland. 'I think what matters is that you both end up doing something that you love so that you feel fulfilled,' Miriam told RSVP at the time. 'You've only got one life and I don't want to be on my deathbed wondering what I did with my life. I want to fill every moment of it doing what I enjoy. 'I want my husband Steve to be happy to be able to do what he wants and we are back together before you know it, the week apart flies.' In 2021, Miriam became a grandmother for the first time — after her daughter Alannah McGurk welcomed her first child, a daughter named Éabha, into the world. Speaking on being a grandmother, Miriam said that Éabha was a 'magnificent little girl,' and revealed that Éabha's middle name was a touching tribute to her late sister. 'As you know I have always been careful not to talk about my children and I am conscious that she is not my child, but what I will tell you is that she is a magnificent little girl,' Miriam told VIP at the time. 'She is ten months old, her name is Éabha Anne; they named her Anne after my late sister, and she is divine. I absolutely love her.'
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Support, don't star: rethinking the Arts Council's role
Theatremaker Dan Colley asks: Has the Arts Council of Ireland taken on too much 'main character energy'? I would like to propose a gear shift with the appointment of the next Director of the Council. The next Director should reorient the Arts Council into the role of supporting character in the story of the arts. It will take a really adept leader not to try and fix everything that's wrong with the organisation from within, but instead to follow. From the outset I want to acknowledge the many dedicated public servants who work at the Arts Council - people who care deeply about the arts and have served tirelessly through periods of huge change. Not least among them Maureen Kennelly, the outgoing Director of the Arts Council, who enjoys widespread support and respect among the community. Her commitment to artists, particularly during the pandemic, has been felt and appreciated. The Arts Council is the national agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland. The money it gets from Government to fulfil that mandate has gone from €75 million in 2019, to €140 million in 2025. An 86.5% increase in six years. It's a credit to the people at the Arts Council, and to the volunteer advocates at the National Campaign for the Arts, that they have helped bring greater public and political understanding of the arts—not just as an economic or reputational asset, but as an essential part of Irish life and a foundation of a healthy society. So why, when the Arts Council has more money than ever before, does it feel harder than ever to make theatre? I'm a theatre maker, and that question brought a group of my peers together last year - trying to make sense of an increasingly precarious sector. Theatre funding has effectively stagnated - rising only 5.8% since 2008 - an increase that's been outstripped by inflation. And yet the Arts Council more than doubled its staff since 2020. While additional capacity at the Arts Council may have been necessary, the lack of parallel investment in their clients has created a gulf between the people who produce art and the agency that manages the funding. No theatre has doubled its staff. No plays have doubled its cast. Over 800 artists signed an open letter calling for emergency investment in the sector which was delivered in December 2024. The feeling was widespread: theatre in Ireland is struggling, not because there's no funding, but because of how it's being distributed. The problem is not about people. It's about systems. The Arts Council is a public body with a wide remit, serving everything from festivals to literature, music, venues, visual art, as well as the more nebulous idea of 'promoting the arts in Ireland'. But its most essential function - getting funding to artists and the people who connect art with the public - is not working. If the Arts Council were truly attuned to the interests of artists, it would see the current delays in funding decisions as an organisational crisis. Radical measures would be considered - like redeploying staff or drastically simplifying processes - to get investment to artists in time. If it were more attuned to artists' interests, the fact that only 15% of eligible theatre applications are funded wouldn't be brushed off as "the competitive context." It would be treated as an emergency. The next Director should make the Arts Council a supporting character - one that enables, rather than directs. If it were aligned with artists' interests', the Council's budget submission to Government would not be built around what it thinks it can get, or what looks tidy on paper, but on the real cost of funding all the applications it has already judged to be worthy. They would base it on the real demand, no matter how big that number is. These are questions I've been asking, along with many others, not out of hostility, but out of necessity. These failures are not moral ones. They are systemic. Systems respond to power and, as it stands, the Arts Council responds most clearly to the pressures it is most exposed to - be they departmental, political, or bureaucratic. The artist's voice is still too faint in that chorus. That's why I've been part of a group that formed the Theatre Artists Assembly - an attempt to give the arts practitioners a unified, democratic voice. Not to shout louder, but to speak more clearly and together about what we need to do our work. I would like to see assemblies like this being integrated into Arts Council decision-making processes. I would like to see artist and practitioner-led groups taking power and responsibility over the decisions that affect them. Yes, even the difficult and unpopular decisions. We have seen in citizens' assemblies how groups of people can come together and, when provided with the facts, expertise, and time to digest them and come to a conclusion, they do so with remarkable civility and clarity. I think this could be an experiment in co-creation of state policy. This could be a way of making institutions work in ways that reflect the interests of its stakeholders. It could be something we so acutely need; a form of democracy that happens between elections. This approach could strengthen and renew the principle of the Arts Council's 'arms-length' from Government. This is the principle, established in the Arts Art, that keeps decisions about what kind of art to produce and who to fund to do it, out of the realm of party politics. This could be a way of affirming that distance from the political system, while establishing community-voice and democratic responsibility. The next Director should make the Arts Council a supporting character - one that enables, rather than directs. They should build models for democratic decision-making - not merely "consultation" but real decision-making power. It will take a deft leader to resist the urge to fix everything from within, and instead recognise that real leadership often means creating space for others to shape the path. In short, they should lead by following.
Irish Independent
3 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Kerry woman has triggered great interest in Irish dancing at elite English university
A Tralee woman has sparked great interest in Irish dancing in the unlikely surroundings of an elite English university.
