One of the first major feature films since "The Quiet Man" has just started shooting in the West of Ireland.
"Wild Mountain Thyme" starring Jamie Dornan, Emily Blunt, Jon Hamm, Christopher Walkin and Dearbhla Molloy is already causing a stir as the international acting talent descends on Co Mayo.
The movie is said to be: "A madcap love story with soaring lyricism, 'Wild Mountain Thyme' is set against the breath-taking landscapes of rural Ireland, where everyone is half-mad with loneliness or love, and the weather is terrible."
#MaryPoppins star #EmilyBlunt is currently filming a movie in #NorthMayo with #JamieDornan. Here she is in The Thatch Inn #Crossmolina learning to pull a pint of @GuinnessIreland!
— Mayo North Tourism (@MayoNorth) October 9, 2019
Video: Eamon Moore pic.twitter.com/FELTPfiRaI
It’s been 67 years since the last Hollywood circus rolled into the peaceful village of Cong in County Mayo for the filming of John Ford’s Academy-Award-winning blockbuster, "The Quiet Man."
Ford bequeathed a legacy that still helps to maintain a buoyant tourist industry in the picturesque lakeside village. The towering presence of two giants of the silver screen John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara certainly contributed to the success of the film but a lot of fans maintain that the real star of the movie was the stunning countryside captured by Ford’s all-seeing eye in glorious technicolor!
Read more: Emily Blunt pours Guinness in local pub as she and Jamie Dornan begin Co Mayo shoot
Fifty Shades of Green and Hamm and Mayo
"Wild Mountain Thyme" is set in North Mayo close to Ballina town and the village of Crossmalina, amongst the equally stunning and verdant scenery of patchwork fields and majestic mountains and like "The Quiet Man," it is a romantic comedy.
The film is an adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s "Outside Mullingar" and features—in the true tradition of Irish rural drama—a bachelor (Jamie Dornan), an attractive female (Emily Blunt), an aging domineering father (Christopher Walken), and a pragmatic widow (Dearbhla Molloy).
What an evening in Crossmolina! #JamieDornan #EmilyBlunt #ChristopherWalken #WildMountainThyme pic.twitter.com/7ThH4IiQQn
— Rachael Duffy (@rduffy92) October 8, 2019
It also follows in the tradition of some fairly well-worn Irish cinematic clichés: a land dispute, death, undeclared love, and the arrival of an American (Jon Hamm) leading to a potential love triangle and of course ... lots of rain.
It will be interesting to see how the director John Patrick Shanley navigates around so many potential Blarney stones without hitting the rocks of stage oirishness and paddywhackery.
Read more: Fan of "The Quiet Man?" You can now lease the pub featured in the film
The West Awake!
Not since the arrival of V.P. Joe Biden in June 2016 has Ballina seen such excitement after announcements on the radio and press that film extras were required.
Ballina Arts Centre was besieged by hundreds of would-be thespians eager to rub shoulders with some genuine tinsel town A-Listers.
Danu Media based in the home of TG4 series Ros na Rún, Ireland’s only Irish-language soap opera has been enlisted to help on a local level with organizing and production from their Spiddal based studios in County Galway.
The movie is scheduled to finish filming at the end of October. Weather permitting!
What is your favorite movie filmed in Ireland? Let us know in the comments section, below.
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