Hollywood comes to Leeside for premiere

A FIRST-TIME Irish director fulfilled his own promise to put his home town on the Hollywood map by holding the star-studded world premiere of his first movie in Cork last night.

Mark Mahon led Michael Madsen and Vinnie Jones, the lead stars of his award-winning feature film, Strength and Honour, along 100 metres of red carpet as Leesiders got a taste of Hollywood glitz and glamour.

“To be honest, it’s just so surreal,” a clearly proud and delighted LA-based Mahon said.

“I always wanted to make a Hollywood movie. This just shows that anyone out there who has a dream should just follow it.

“I always said I wanted to put Cork on the Hollywood map. And tonight we’ve done that.”

Up to 100 people braved freezing conditions and rain at Emmet Place to sample the atmosphere as Madsen and Jones joined their co-stars, including eight-year-old Luke Whelton, Pat Shortt, Gail Fitzpatrick, Patrick Bergin, Michael Rawley, and Finbarr Furey, for a pre-movie reception at the Crawford Gallery.

Among them were the movie’s executive producer, Cork solicitor Olann Kelleher, Natasha Bedingfield and members of Ocean Colour Scene, who both feature on the movie’s soundtrack.

Guests then walked the red carpet to the sold-out, black-tie, €100-a-head premiere at the Cork Opera House, with all proceeds going to Marymount Hospice.

Written, produced and directed by Mahon, Strength and Honour features more than 400 actors and costs about €10m — a shoestring budget by Hollywood standards — and was filmed across Cork over seven weeks last autumn.

Financed entirely by Irish businesses and investors, it tells the story of an Irish-American boxer, played with great emotion and intensity by Madsen, who promised his late wife he would never fight again having killed his friend in the ring.

However, when he discovers that his only son, played by Luke Whelton, is dying of the same heart disorder that killed his wife, he is forced to go back on his promise.

He challenges champion Traveller boxer Smasher O’Driscoll, played with menace by Jones, to a bare knuckle bout to win the money needed for the boy’s life-saving surgery.

The graphic fight scenes culminate in a spectacular finale on the cliffs above Charles Fort in Kinsale.

Madsen said it was the chance to play a tender role which attracted him to the movie.

“I have always been thought of as the guy who plays the villain. I’ve made a career out of it and have been able to take care of my family out of it,” he said.

“I didn’t want to be playing a bad guy in my 80s. I rarely get screenplays with a lead that’s not evil. I saw this as my chance to do something difficult.”

He also revealed that he had almost given up on ever winning an acting award until the film was entered in the Boston Film Festival.

It went on to win best picture and Madsen scooped the best actor award. It was the first time the same film received both awards.

Jones said it was the script which first attracted him to the movie.

“You’ll need your tissues for this one,” he said.

“I’ve been coming to Ireland now for about 30 years, and I’m involved in coursing, and I knew some of these characters and I wanted a chance to play them.”

Mahon also confirmed that pre-production work on his next movie, Freedom Within the Heart — a 90m epic on the life of Brian Boru — will begin shooting in Ireland next summer. Mahon declined to comment on reports that Brad Pitt, who has expressed an interest in working with him, is being lined up for a role.

Strength and Honour is rated 15A and goes on general release on November 30.