Booker's World - Cast

With The Arts Journal now completed it is time to concentrate on something different and all going to plan, the Booker's World web series will be shot in the first two weeks of June over two weekends.
With over 50 pages of script to be shot it will be a tough ask, but if an extra day is needed we will find it from somewhere. I think it is manageable after blocking off the scenes earlier today. The series will be shot entirely in Trim and Kildalkey.
I have now cast most of the principal character and considering the budget is a big fat zero at the time of writing, I can only say I must be pretty damn lucky with who I have managed to secure the talents of so far.
I'm really hoping that this initial web series will be the launching pad required when it comes to securing budgets for future projects and turn this into a paying gig at long last. It seems like a long apprenticeship, but I guess they are that by their nature. Gaining experience can only be got by working with the best you can find, and on this one i think as a writer/director it's a great step up to take. You kind of feel with the state of the country at the moment, it's now or never. With so few opportunities about, maybe it's time to make a few for ourselves. Trying to get those ideas taken seriously is an altogether different story. I've had dealings lately with people and it seems the pursuit of artistic work in many fields is frowned upon outside artistic circles. With a country in crisis, that's the wrong way to be thinking. But we'll keep trying anyway.

The title role of Don Booker will be played by the multi-credited, Brian Fortune. I was supposed to work with Brian on I Wish some time back, so to be able to have him along on this is great.
Meath actor, Gerry Shanahan, another actor I was supposed to work with before has agreed to come on board as 'Flash' Simpson.

Johnny Elliott, who I worked with on The Arts Journal is having a run of success with Terry McMahon's Charlie Casanova at the moment. The Indie Irish flick, shot for under a grand, is whipping up a storm on the International film festival circuit at the moment despite having little or no support from our relevant film bodies. Johnny will play Sonny Strange.

Meath-based actor and Impersonator Ray Reilly has just finished shooting a TV pilot with Tobar Productions and is working on his new stand-up show. Ray will be playing the director from hell, Dan Donavan.

Also added to the cast in the past week are Vivienne Connelly, Liam Heffron, and Andrea McCaffrey.

I hope to add to the cast by the end of this week and source somewhat locally. This will be the third project I have shot in Trim over the past three years and some local people have helped along the way. It would be nice to shoot my first full length feature in my hometown. I guess time will tell.

Blog been a bit ignored this year as I finished off work on my first book. If you have more of an interest on the background of what's going on with these characters and books, I update my writing blog regularly here.

You will find links to character bio's and a link to a free download of Sonny Strange, who features with Don Booker as together with a little help from a few friends along the way strike out to make opportunity for themselves. More to follow soon...

Arts Journal Completion

It has taken longer than anticipated, but The Arts Journal is now finished. Screening dates in Dublin and Trim will be announced in the coming days.

You can view a brief teaser here.

We will then put together a press pack and author some DVD's for all the cast and crew who gave their time up to work on the pilot. Then it's off to production companies who may have a little more clout than us at this stage.

A special thanks to John King & Monica Tivda for their work on the edit and to Jason Mehlhorn for his time and effort in the sound department and also to Padraig Conaty for his great camerawork.
It's difficult putting things together on a shoe-string and we are very grateful to John Kiely for the shoe-string that allowed us to complete the pilot. Hopefully someone, somewhere, will see some potential and we can all get a pay-day from it sometime soon.

Screening dates will follow in a day or so.

Booker's World - Provisional Shoot Dates

The shooting of Booker's World, the web series, has been provisionally set for two weekends towards the end of May. In the mean time we will attempt to source a little funding to see us through the shoot. It was great to talk over things with some of the lead actors last night and set about getting this done.

Unfortunately, we are all used to working with little or no outside support, but we are confident of delivering a decent web series which may provide a launch pad to more funding routes for the proposed second series which will hopefully bring us closer to shooting feature films.

Final casting decisions will be made this week and hopefully can be announced toward the weeks end, followed by more announcements in the crew department.
In the meantime we are going to try a few routes to getting a more established production company to come aboard, but see no sense holding up the project unnecessarily. More to come...