"People say 'A labor of love' but I don't know.....this wasn't work. It isn't work when you're really enjoying yourself." - Brendan Fraser
In April of 2011, Brendan traveled to Northern Ireland to film Whole Lotta Sole with Academy Award Winning Director Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, The Shore, Reservation Road). The chance to work with a world class director, to be a part of a wonderful story, a love letter to Belfast was something that he could not pass up. Brendan spent almost five months (four months of shooting and he returned later to do some pick up shots) in the Emerald Isle, staying part of the time in the Hotel Europa, famous for having been bombed eight or ten times. and at Terry George's cottage by the shore when the cast and crew would have a "company retreat" each weekend complete with bonfires, oyster dinners, singing, storytelling and while there, he learned more about his own Irish heritage on his mother's side.
Brendan plays Joe Maguire, an American expat hiding out from his mafia-connected father in law, running an antiques shop in Belfast who winds up in the middle of a fish market heist gone wrong when a young man named Jim (Martin McCann),
who owes money to the local mob boss "Mad Dog" Flynn (David O'Hara).
Jim inadvertently robs a fish market owned by the same mob boss while trying to steal money to pay his debts and then takes Maguire, his friend Sophie (YaYa Dacosta)
and two young boys hostage inside the antiques shop. Add to this big bowl of Irish Stew that the young man in question may or not be his (Maguire's) son.
A hostage standoff piece with undertones of dark humor, in the classical context which provide the levity to what are very serious circumstances given that it depicts pretty creepy and scary gangsters.
Colm Meaney plays the hostage negotiator Police Detective Weller, who tries to bring the stand off to a peaceful end.
Screenplay by Terry George and Thomas Gallagher. Produced by Terry George,David Gorder, Simon Bosanquet, and Jay Russell.
Executive Producer Brendan Fraser.
Photos from the set.
Cinematographer Des Whelan
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL APRIL 2012 with Terry George
BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL JUNE 2012
Martin McCann having a Guinness at the premiere.
The premiere was held at The Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
HAMPTONS FILM FESTIVAL OCTOBER 2012
Dinner anyone ?
The film as released in the U.S. under the title "Stand Off" February 22, 2013
Director Terry George won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short for The Shore in 2012.
Produced by his daughter Oorlagh and Written and Directed by Terry George,
Filmed entirely at George's family cottage in County Down, Northern Ireland , The Shore tells the story of two childhood friends reunited after a twenty five year separation caused by the Northern Ireland troubles.
The film stars Ciaran Hinds.
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