21-05-2025
Colm Meaney to star as Ian Bailey in new film about a Sophie Toscan Du Plantier murder trial
JIM SHERIDAN'S FILM portraying a fictitious trial of British journalist Ian Bailey for the murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan Du Plantier in west Cork will have its Irish premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh in July.
Jim Sheridan co-directed the film, entitled 'RE-CREATION', with David Merriman. It stars Colm Meaney as Ian Bailey, Jim Sheridan as Juror One, Aidan Gillen, and Vicky Krieps.
Other notable names include John Connors, known for his role in Love/Hate, Brendan Conroy (Ros na Rún, Bodkin), and Jim Sheridan's daughter Clodagh Amira Sheridan.
The premise of the film revolves around the deliberations of the jury and the unsolved case of the murder of 39-year-old Ms Toscan Du Plantier.
A promotional still from the film.
Tribeca Festival
Tribeca Festival
'Based on real events, the film reconstructs, through the discussions between these twelve people, a case that ultimately invites the viewer to draw their own conclusions,' promotional material for the film reads.
Ms Toscan Du Plantier was a 39-year-old filmmaker who was killed outside her holiday home in Cork in 1996. Ian Bailey was the prime suspect in the murder and was arrested twice by gardaí in connection with the case, but was never charged. He strenuously denied the accusation that he had anything to do with Ms Toscan Du Plantier's death.
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In 2019, Bailey was convicted in absentia in Paris of the murder of the Frenchwoman and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. France failed in its application to have Bailey extradited from Ireland to serve the sentence.
Bailey died at the age of 66 in January 2024.
The film is set to premiere at film festival
Tribeca
in New York City on 8 June. It has been described as being a '
fiction-reality hybrid
with a simple question at its heart: what if Bailey had been brought to trial for the murder in Ireland?'
A still of Aidan Gillen in the film.
Tribeca Festival
Tribeca Festival
Jim Sheridan, known for directing films including My Left Foot and In The Name of The Father, was also behind a 2021 documentary series examining the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. Toscan Du Plantier's son and parents were interviewed as part of the five-part series Murder at the Cottage.
However, they
reportedly asked for their contributions to the series to be removed
due to disagreeing with Sheridan's editorial line that Bailey and his former partner were 'victims of a vast police plot'.
Sheridan kept in touch with Ian Bailey up until his death. In an
interview with The Sunday Independent
following the latter's death, he said that he 'liked' Bailey and spoke to him often – although the two had a complicated relationship.
Sheridan has said that
he believes someone else is responsible
for Sophie Toscan Du Plantier's murder.
RE-CREATION premieres in Ireland at the Galway Film Fleadh on 8 July at 7pm at the Town Hall Theatre.
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