After Ireland’s historic Oscars success, with our highest number of nominations ever, there is a flurry of investment happening in Irish film, with numerous new projects green-lit.
But the teacher, played by Colin Farrell, will refuse to accept the break-up.
The film will be more commercial than the usual Irish offering, however, with a Marvel-style battle between the teacher and his arch-nemesis John Rogers, known as The Man Who Wasn’t There. It will give the main character catchphrases in order to penetrate popular culture more: “Where is John Rogers?” “What has become of us as a nation?” and “Dad, will you collect me from school again”.
There are also plans for a sequel to The Van, called The Van: The War of the Buttons. The film will look at the misadventures of a group of men going around in a van and putting up posters and will ask existential questions like:
What is the commercial value of the loan of a van? And: If you give six men about a grand, how many posters will they manage to put up? (a question that is not answered).
The producers of The Van are so confident of the success of the project they are already planning a sequel to the sequel, The Van 2020: This time it’s becoming a bit of a habit, will be a more traditional Irish film, in that the plot will be vague but it will explore themes of memory, morality and friendship.
As the week went on, there was a hint that The Van could become a franchise, with future instalments dealing with Sinn Féin’s election expenses.
Meanwhile, a rival production, a sequel to My Left Foot, will tell the story of how one political party puts its foot in it by relentlessly attacking one man for mistakes in election expenses when their own are full of errors too.
The film will have the usual Irish themes of generational feuds, and silence, especially the kind of silence you lapse into when you realise you don’t have a left foot to stand on yourself.
Meanwhile shooting has begun too on a remake of The Field, which tells the story of one country’s struggle to build enough houses.
The film follows the story of the eponymous field through, first, an inability to get planning due to a dysfunctional planning process and objections by local politicians. Then when planning is got the owner sits on the field hoping its value will go up.
There is already talk of a load of spin-offs. A sequel to In The Name of the Father will detail the story of the only way some young people can get a mortgage, while sequels to In Bruges, In America, Brooklyn and I Went Down (Under) will tell the story of where the young people are going.
