All guns blazing for ‘Love/Hate’ firm

The new series of Love/Hate will match the standards set by last year’s hit series.

That is according to James Flynn, managing director and co-founder of Octagon Films, the company that produces the award-winning drama.

Mr Flynn was commenting on new accounts by Octagon Films showing there was a positive swing of €74,365 in the firm’s profit and loss account in 2012.

Mr Flynn said the performance of Octagon Films was not representative of Octagon’s overall business, as the firm sets up a number of special purpose companies for its various projects.

Mr Flynn said between 800 and 900 people are employed on Octagon’s various projects this year.

He declined to comment on the revenues or profits generated by the Octagon business last year, however, one Octagon subsidiary, Tiber Productions Ltd, had net assets totalling €2.5m at the end of 2012, while a second, Metropolitan Films, last year increased its accumulated profits by €289,851 to €828,171.

Since the company was established over 14 years ago, Octagon has produced over 70 feature films and TV series.

Mr Flynn said that last year’s Love/Hate “caught fire”.

The screening of Love/Hate in the UK has been attracting audiences of 800,000 per episode on Channel 5. He confirmed that the second series of Vikings was currently being shot. The first series achieved audience figures between 5m and 8m on the History channel in the US.

Mr Flynn said Octagon Films produced Love, Rosie, an $18m adaptation of Cecilia Ahern’s Where Rainbows End.

Mr Flynn said a historical drama series, The Herods, was in development while the writer of Love/Hate, Stuart Carolan, was writing a screenplay for the Paul Murray novel, Skippy Dies.