Latest news with #AmongsttheWolves
The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
RTE legend's son could play mobster Gerry ‘The Monk' Hutch on big screen as top director reveals ‘key' development
REX Ryan could soon be playing The Monk on the big screen. 3 Rex Ryan will play The Monk in a new one-man play 3 Directors could make moves to develop a film about Gerry Hutch's life 3 Gerry Ryan's son could also bag a big screen role after his theatre show Credit: Chrispin Rodwell - The Sun Dublin And director Mark O'Connor revealed he is interested in turning the controversial production into a big screen biopic. He told The Irish Sun: 'I looked at 'I even had some talks with co-writers of mine about doing it. "It could be an interesting story that would span decades with periods in the 70s, 80s and 90s. READ MORE IN REX RYAN 'But what stopped me was you'd have to be in touch with The Monk and we didn't have that contact.' But the Mark, who previously made Cardboard Gangsters, said: 'Key to all this would be getting the approval of The Monk to tell his story so this is amazing news. I will be going to see this play.' And Mark, who gave MOST READ IN THE IRISH SUN He said: 'I would definitely love to see Rex in the role. I don't know Rex well but I've heard lots of great things.' Rex previously revealed he exchanged voice notes with The Monk about his play — and the mobster visited his theatre to discuss the script. Gerry Hutch leaves door open on political future as The Monk declares Dail run 'great campaign' & clashes with RTE star He told the Sunday Independent: 'I had written that his father was a mechanic. 'He said he was a docker. I got some names wrong and he corrected them.' CLONTARF CONNECTION Rex's original connection to The Monk came through Hutch's son Jason who Rex grew up with in Clontarf. Rex made a video call to Hutch while he was in Wheatfield Prison to tell him he wanted to play him and tell his story on stage. Rex said: 'What do you think of that?' He said: 'You do whatever you want, Rex. You have my blessing.' I said thank you. And that was that.' The play is set in the holding cell of the Special Criminal Court five minutes before Hutch is set to receive his verdict. Rex said: 'I have a beard and long hair and the clock is ticking. What happens next is, Gerry puts his hand on his head and beard and hair come off and the whole space changes. 'It is TV screens everywhere and we're in the mind of The Monk. It is like A Christmas Carol…I have a guardian angel on the stage. 'She is the angel of truth. She takes him to task about his whole life before he goes out to be judged by the Special Criminal Court.' Film director Mark's new movie Amongst the Wolves stars actor Luke McQuillan as former British army soldier Danny. Ex-trooper Danny ends up homeless after returning to Dublin and struggles to survive alone until he meets Will, portrayed by young actor Daniel Fee, a teenage drug dealer on the run from a gang leader played by Aidan Gillen. One US film website hailed the Irish movie 'as beautifully shot and rich in atmosphere' and compared director Mark to This Is England creator Shane Meadows. The Monk runs at The Glass Mask Theatre on Bestseller Cafe, Dawson Street, Dublin from June 10-21.
RTÉ News
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Amongst the Wolves director Mark O'Connor picks the must-see crime films that you may not have seen
"There's been a lot of films that have had an influence on me," says director Mark O'Connor by way of understatement as he sees his latest, Amongst the Wolves, arrive in cinemas. Watch: The trailer for Amongst the Wolves. The Dubliner joins RTÉ Entertainment via Zoom to pick the crime movies that have shaped his work but that he feels have been overlooked by a new generation - or are still stuck on the to-see lists of older viewers. " Bicycle Thieves was a huge film, but that's a different genre," the Cardboard Gangsters director continues as he lists off his influences. "The French New Wave, Italian neo-realism, and British cinema of Alan Clarke, Ken Loach's films. Films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - massive influence, love that film. So believable, so realistic. And then, of course, Shane Meadows's movies in the UK like This Is England and A Room for Romeo Brass." But with time tight (and a gun to his head), O'Connor picks these films from the crime genre: City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund, 2002) "You need more than guts to be a good gangster. You need ideas." The slums of Rio de Janeiro are the setting for this quadruple-Oscar-nominated tour de force. And when you get your breath back, there's a spin-off series and film - both called City of Men. Mark O'Connor: When City of God came out, it had a big impact on me. The way it was directed, the way it was shot, the pacing. It was very fast and energetic, and I loved that. It was so real, like, so believable. I know they cast kids from the favelas for that, some of them were involved in different stuff. That film definitely had an influence on me as a filmmaker. The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie, 1980) "It's my manor!" Bob Hoskins's big-screen breakout gave the crime genre one of its most iconic characters in Harold Shand, the London mobster whose empire comes crashing down over an Easter weekend. Helen Mirren is superb as Shand's other half, Victoria, and a young Pierce Brosnan makes his big-screen debut. Forty-five years on, The Long Good Friday's ending still ranks with cinema's best. Mark O'Connor: I think it's overlooked! Bob Hoskins's performance is amazing. It's so powerful, and it's just a real old-school crime film, like, classy crime film. It feels dated but in a good way. There's a big Irish connection in it with Pierce Brosnan at the end. And it's a great shot at the end, that last shot... The camera picks up so much, I've come to realise that over the years. The smallest details really, really matter. "You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets." The film that announced Martin Scorsese to the wider world was also a portent of what was to come from Robert De Niro - burning up the screen here as loose(est) cannon John 'Johnny Boy' Civello. Harvey Keitel plays Charlie Cappa, the mob protégé torn between the demands of his boss Uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), his feelings for his epileptic girlfriend Teresa (Amy Robinson), and his bond with childhood pal Johnny Boy. Mark O'Connor: I don't think that many people have seen it. Obviously, cinephiles and film people would have seen it, but that would be a definite one [that deserves a wider audience]. It's the mafia on the street level and just so Italian. I actually think it's probably Scorsese's most authentic film. Goodfellas is incredible, but I just think with Mean Streets there's an element of truth there that's just entwined in it. You can't replicate that unless you've lived in Little Italy. An unbelievable performance from De Niro. He's so wild and just raw - and unhinged! White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949) "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" White Heat marked James Cagney's return to Warner Bros after going out on his own - and he was back with a bang! Shamefully overlooked for an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, Cagney's performance as mammy-obsessed psychotic gangster Arthur 'Cody' Jarrett has influenced countless others in the decades since. Need another reason? Well, White Heat also has two of the best scenes in cinema history. Mark O'Connor: I was a big fan of the black-and-white gangster films. I used to have loads of VHS tapes and I had all those films. But if I was to choose one, you'd have to say White Heat. It's brilliant - Cody's relationship with his mother and everything. And that ending... Imagine if that was nowadays with the proper colour and sound?! James Cagney was an amazing actor. Humphrey Bogart was an amazing actor in his own way as well. He was such a smart and intelligent actor, but Cagney was the raw kind. La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) "How you fall doesn't matter, it's how you land." The landmark French movie that saw writer-director Mathieu Kassovitz win Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival also set a new standard in urban storytelling. La Haine (Hatred) follows pals Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) over a day and night as the hand of fate guides them to an unforgettable conclusion. Mark O'Connor: It's quite well known, but then again, it's not well known! It's 30 years ago and a lot of people nowadays wouldn't know it. Again, any film person's going to know it. That had a big influence on me. It was the performances - Vincent Cassel, it was him. I just thought he was amazing in that. He was kind of like a cardboard gangster in a way. I know myself and John Connors, that was a big influence on us when we talked about Cardboard Gangsters. I think the cinematography is really good in it. It's a very structured film in terms of the framing. It's not like Mean Streets, which is just kind of wild and loose and handheld. There are some amazing shots in there - the trumpet shot where they're standing on the balcony where you track in and you zoom out. The music as well, the whole hip-hop thing, was brilliant. And then the riots as a backdrop - love that. I love when you have a backdrop to a movie, something else going on in the background. Dead Presidents (The Hughes Brothers, 1995) "Well, that's Uncle Sam for you, baby. Money to burn." After their blistering debut Menace II Society, brothers Albert and Allen Hughes aimed for the epic with their next film. It's the story of Anthony Curtis (Menace II Society star Larenz Tate) who leaves Brooklyn for a tour of duty in Vietnam and then sees all the dominoes fall when he comes home. A great supporting cast includes Keith David, Chris Tucker, N'Bushe Wright, and future Sopranos stars Michael Imperioli and Tony Sirico. Mark O'Connor: Menace II Society is a brilliant film, but Dead Presidents is amazing. That's one that people need to see and I think that's probably a better film than Menace II Society. The soundtrack is amazing; it's got this soul vibe and funky grooves from the Seventies. Menace II Society was so raw and I think it sparked a lot of the other ones (movies), but I prefer probably Dead Presidents, just for the authenticity in some way. "I like the stink of the streets. It makes me feel good." Sergio Leone's final film is also the last part of his Once Upon a Time Trilogy, after Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Duck, You Sucker! (1971). Based on the Harry Grey novel The Hoods, it charts decades of US history through the lives of David 'Noodles' Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and Maximilian 'Max' Bercovicz (James Woods) - corner boys who become kingpins. Leone's original version was 269 minutes long. A 229-minute version was shown at Cannes in 1984 with a restored 251-minute version screening at the festival in 2012. Because of rights issues, the wait for the original 269-minute version continues to this day. Whatever you do, make sure you don't watch the hacked 139-minute version that was released in the US in 1984. Mark O'Connor: It's pretty well known, but I don't think that many people think of it [compared to The Godfather ]. Once Upon a Time in America is so epic and so nostalgic as well, there's something so incredibly powerful [about that]. It's about time and it's really sad. You're seeing De Niro's character's life flash before his eyes. He looks back on when he was a kid and now it's all gone - he's a very old man. There's something about time with me as well, it's just so tragic in some way. I find it hard to look at old photographs of my kids because I just get so nostalgic and sad. Looking back at my own films? Ah, I don't care about them! As he signs out of one Zoom interview to go to another, O'Connor says of his latest, Amongst the Wolves: "We made it for 16 grand and we're getting a release all around Ireland. It's going to be opening in the cinemas in America as well. It's so amazing for the cast and crew. Our producer, Jeff O'Toole, put the 16 grand in. [I was] Pulling in massive favours, cast and crew that were just so, so giving of their time. We wrote it in six months, shot it in 15 days, post-production two months. We had it done in less than a year. Sometimes you can literally spend three years on developing a script and it gets very, very frustrating where you're trying to find finance. We just said, 'Let's go and do this!'"
Irish Examiner
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Film review: Thunderbolts* is a superhero movie that tries to do something different
Thunderbolts* ★★★★☆ You know things are getting grim out there when the superheroes are questioning their motivations. Thunderbolts* (12A) opens with Yelena Belova, aka the Black Widow (Florence Pugh), in something of a funk, unfulfilled by killing bad guys at the behest of the OXE Group's Valentina de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and looking for a way out. As it happens, Valentia is only too happy to offer Yelena an exit: with the Avengers in a state of disarray, Valentina wants to mop up the few remaining superheroes — Yelena, the new Captain America (Wyatt Russell), the Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) — and replace them with the Sentry (Lewis Pullman), a single entity 'stronger than a whole team of Avengers.' But in corralling all her 'defective losers' into a vast incinerator and tasking them with annihilating one another, Valentina makes a fatal mistake: from a ragtag bunch of misfits she accidentally creates a crack team with a burning desire to stop the power-hungry Valentina in her tracks. The asterisk in the title is to remind us the Thunderbolt collective only exists as a placeholder for the squeaky-clean Avengers, or at least until a better squad of square-jawed do-gooders comes along, but Thunderbolts* suggests that Jake Schrier's take on the superhero flick is the way forward. Yelena, Walker and the Ghost (who are joined by Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and the Red Guardian (David Harbour)) might be a scruffy bunch of squabbling heroes, but there's a rough charm to their many foibles and failings. Arguably the most interesting thing about Thunderbolts*, however, is that it's a superhero movie that tries to do something different with the genre's narrative arc, and particularly in the latter stages, which tend to be ploddingly predictable. Here, and without giving away spoilers, our heroes find themselves battling an insidious foe that can't be zapped, crunched or punched into orbit. theatrical release Amongst the Wolves ★★★☆☆ Amongst the Wolves (16s) stars Luke McQuillan as Danny, an ex-soldier living rough on Dublin's streets. Taking to the woods to avoid being hassled, Danny encounters the terrified teenager Will (Daniel Fee), who owes money to local drug kingpin Power (Aiden Gillen) and is living in fear of his life. Danny has troubles of his own as he tries to maintain a relationship with his young son Tadgh (Manco O'Connor) despite his ex-wife Gill's (Jade Jordan) opposition, but will his conscience allow him to walk away and leave Will to face the wolf pack alone? Written by Luke McQuillan and Mark O'Connor, with O'Connor directing, Amongst the Wolves is a solid addition to the Irish crime thriller genre that's at its most tense when it demonstrates how quickly the innocent can become collateral damage when criminal conflicts spiral out of control. Aidan Gillen is reliably sinister and quietly manic as the gangster-in-chief, while McQuillan delivers a sturdy performance as the stoic, world-weary Danny. theatrical release Parthenope ★★★☆☆ A love letter to Naples from one of its most famous sons, Paolo Sorrentino's Parthenope (16s) stars Celeste Dalla Porta as the eponymous heroine, a young woman of 'disruptive beauty' born into gilded luxury in 1950. 'I don't know anything,' declares Parthenope as she soaks up everything life has to offer, 'but I like everything.' A febrile summer on Capri aged 18 changes her life forever, however, when the sudden death of her beloved brother Sandrino (Dario Aita) casts a long shadow across Parthenope's indolent existence, sending her off, as a student of anthropology, on an epic quest to discover meaning in academia, the world of cinema and Naples' social whirl. Sorrentino's cameras fairly ravish Naples and Celeste Dalla Porta, whose Parthenope embodies the city's many contradictions, but for all its shimmering elegance and sultry moods, the film is rather vacuous in its over-earnest attempts to intellectualise the love-hate relationship between Naples and its long-suffering citizenry. theatrical release Read More Louis Theroux: The Settlers a superb view of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians
RTÉ News
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Dublin gets a western showdown in Amongst the Wolves
When it comes to the evolution of the Irish crime movie as a genre in its own right - seemingly unthinkable as recently as the early oughts - Dubliner Mark O'Connor has done the state/slate some service. He's the writer-director of Between the Canals, Cardboard Gangsters, the TV series Darklands, and now Amongst the Wolves, another gritty-as-you'll-get look at the lives behind the headlines. Here, O'Connor's co-writer Luke McQuillan plays Danny, a former British Army soldier whose life has crumbled since his return to Dublin. Suffering from PTSD and now homeless, Danny befriends Will (Daniel Fee), a teenager who is sleeping rough after falling foul of local drugs boss Power (Aidan Gillen). With Power's gang closing in and Danny trying to keep his own violence in check, the stage is set for an urban western showdown. With its man-comes-back-to-town storyline, Amongst the Wolves keeps one eye on the door and another on Ireland's ills as it drives towards its bloody conclusion. Using the loss of empathy as his central theme, O'Connor's depiction of misfortune, menace, and mayhem is frighteningly realistic and pushes the viewer into acknowledging how desensitised we've become to much of the world outside the cinema. No easy answers - and no easy watch. Made for €16,000 and filmed in 15 days, Amongst the Wolves is a good mix of established talents and up-and-comers. McQuillan is strong in the lead role of the walking timebomb and is also double jobbing as mentor because co-star Fee is making his feature debut as the bewildered foil. Such a heavy story is a lot to ask of someone so young, especially with time and money so tight, but the teenager shows he has potential. In supporting roles, there's fine work from Louise Bourke as outreach volunteer Kate and Jade Jordan as Danny's estranged wife Gill. A special mention goes to Dane Whyte O'Hara who gets everything he can out of his scenes as henchman Joyce. No small parts indeed. O'Connor's next film will be a change of both pace and climate - a comedy-drama set in the south of France. In terms of creed and can-do, he leaves the mean streets with nothing to prove, but you get the feeling he'll be back before too long.
Irish Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Amongst the Wolves review: This Irish drug dealer is in debt to a villain played by Aidan Gillen. That never bodes well
Amongst the Wolves Director : Mark O'Connor Cert : 16 Starring : Luke McQuillan, Aidan Gillen, Daniel Fee, Helen Behan, Louise Bourke, Jade Jordan Running Time : 1 hr 42 mins You blink and Mark O'Connor becomes something like a veteran. All right, it's still only 14 years since the Dubliner introduced Barry Keoghan to the world with the raw Between the Canals . But with films such as King of the Travellers and Cardboard Gangsters , he was ever there to remind us of the rawer Ireland that resisted post-tiger gentrification. Before Amongst the Wolves resolves itself into a familiar genre (I was much reminded of a particular British film from the noughties), we get a grim survey of stubborn urban discontents. Luke McQuillan, who wrote the screenplay with O'Connor, plays Danny, a veteran of the Afghan wars living uncomfortably in a tent by the canal. Estranged from his wife, struggling for access to his son, he is just about getting by when he encounters a rootless teenager named Will (Daniel Fee). Now dealing drugs to stay aloft, the lad has found himself in the unfortunate position of being in debt to a character played by no less worrying an actor than Aidan Gillen. That never bodes well. READ MORE Well researched and authentic in its language, Amongst the Wolves does a good job of fleshing out the challenges of the homeless life in a fiercely unequal society. O'Connor engages with narcotics from several rungs on the social ladder. Shot in oily light by Ignas Laugalis, the film locates occasional spasms of unlikely beauty in the khaki water that flows through an often unfriendly city. There is a sense, perhaps, of too much being packed into too small a space – a 19th century state-of-the-nation novel retooled as indie thriller – but the committed cast make it live. For all that, Amongst the Wolves feels most comfortable when in touch with the spit, blood and viscera that characterised O'Connor's earlier joints. It hardly needs to be said that Gillen gets his incisors deep into a ruthless villain of the old school. He doesn't exactly get to kill a baby, but he gets to do the next worst thing for a movie hoodlum. McQuillan, making the most of a breakthrough lead, manages the shift from quiet desperation to quieter determination with impressive fluidity. The ending is sufficiently convincing that it proves easy enough to forgive earlier clunks and creaks. An earthy reminder of easily ignored realities. A tribute to the independent spirit. In cinemas from Friday, May 2nd
