Writer gets US backing for local film

A CORKMAN who recently won a Hollywood award for the “best screenplay unproduced” has received backing from studios in Los Angeles to shoot his first film.

Mark Mahon from Rochestown is to shoot part of Strength and Honour in Cork later this year.

The 33-year-old won his award for his script Freedom Within the Heart, the story of Brian Boru, which he describes as an Irish version of Braveheart and which he hopes one day soon will grace the big screen.

However, in the meantime he’s concentrating on his other screenplay, Strength and Honour, which he plans to start filming next September.

The former Colaiste Chroist Rí pupil, who completed an acting course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, hasn’t let an industrial accident in 1995 hamper him, although he still needs the aid of crutches at times.

“When I was incapacitated I started writing. I always had a passion for the movies, especially James Bond,” he said.

Mark has set up his own company, Maron Pictures, and these days is brushing shoulders with Hollywood legends such as George Clooney.

He describes Strength and Honour as being about “a semi-professional boxer who kills a guy in the ring”.

“He promises his wife he will never fight again. She dies of a major heart disorder, which is passed onto her three-year-old son. When the boxer finds out his son has it as well he is forced to go back into the ring to make enough money for the operation which will save him,” Mark explained.

“The film will be shot in LA and Cork and will start in September. Some of the locations we will be using in Cork include Browne’s Mills and the Oyster Creek bar in Kinsale as well as parts of the Rochestown road,” he added.

“I fought tooth-and-nail to use Cork as a location. I believe the area is losing out when it comes to film-making and it has a lot to offer,” Mark said.