Most executives ease into their new jobs with a few small, not-too-crucial tasks, but when Sharon McGarry stepped into the hot seat at Twentieth Century Fox, she was handed the mother of all assignments - taking the wheel of the biggest movie blockbuster since Titanic.
As the new general manager of Twentieth Century Fox Film Company's Dublin office, Ms McGarry will oversee the arrival of the most-anticipated movie of the decade, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The film opens in Dublin on July 16th but Ms McGarry is sanguine about it.
"Most film companies have just one big film for the summer," she says. "And Star Wars just happens to be our big one this year."
Hailing from Shankill, Co Dublin, and educated at Dominican Convent in Dun Laoghaire, Ms McGarry spent a large part of her youth as an avid film-goer, then going on to study film and TV production in UCD, before starting a six-year stint as publicist for Columbia TriStar/Twentieth Century Fox.
"I've always been into movies - as a young person I'd go to the cinema at least once a week. I still go to the movies a lot. I try to see everything that comes out, usually in the evening after I've finished work."
Life didn't begin and end with movies, however; her first job was as assistant administrator at the Temple Bar Gallery & Studio, where Ms McGarry fed her passion for the arts. "I wanted to go to art college," she says, "but I've found my niche in the film industry. It's great to work with something you really love."
Her first professional brush with the movie industry came when she worked at Mary Crotty PR, organising press screenings of new movie releases.eastes. In her new office stands a bunch of fresh flowers, a congratulatory gift from her former employer. She subsequently became a publicist with Columbia/Fox, then took a one-year detour into the music industry to work in the marketing department of Sony Music.
Ms McGarry (30) landed the role of general manager at Twentieth Century Fox when her predecessor, Mr Brendan McCall, left to join Disney. It's a measure of the movie industry's growth that Twentieth Century Fox is reopening its Irish account after a number of years in tandem with Columbia TriStar.
"The two companies have a worldwide deal where each makes use of the other's offices to save time and money. So yes, I suppose it is a good sign for the industry that Fox have decided to go it alone again in Ireland."
The film-going figures for Ireland certainly reflect a healthy upturn in the industry's fortunes. In 1998, there were 12.4 million movie admissions, up from 11.5 million in 1997, and in Northern Ireland there were 4.1 million, up from 3.8. Ireland now has the highest per capita cinema attendance in Europe, with each person going to see an average of 3.1 films per year, compared to 2.5 in France and 2.4 in Britain.
In terms of audience size, Ireland is probably only a drop in the cinematic ocean, but in terms of percentages, we're in the major league.
And Fox has the highest percentage of Irish box office successes under its belt, says Ms McGarry. Six of the 10 top-grossing films in Irish movie history are Twentieth Century Fox productions: Titanic, The Full Monty, Independence Day, There's Some- thing About Mary, Mrs Doubtfire and The Commitments. Soon, The Phantom Menace will join that list, perhaps even top it, but despite the almost guaranteed success of the new Star Wars film, there's still a lot of marketing work to be done around the Phan- tom phenomenon.
"We're not just going to sit back and let the movie market itself," says Ms McGarry. "We'll be doing a massive poster campaign around the country, which includes 96 giant billboard sites plus a large number of bus shelters. We're also handling television, radio and press, plus on-pack promos on Kelloggs and 7-Up products. There's also a major toy and merchandising operation - although we won't have anything to do with that. George Lucas has all that wrapped up."
Then there is the gala premiere in Dublin. Star Wars' Irish star, Liam Neeson, will be the guest of honour on the night, and proceeds from the event will go to Mr Neeson's favoured charity, UNICEF. With all the spontaneous hype generated by Episode 1, it's easy to forget that there are other films being released during the rest of 1999, and it will be Ms McGarry's job to see that Fox's other projects are not completely overshadowed by Star Wars.
Ravenous, a film about cannibalism starring Robert Carlyle, is served up in August, but Ms McGarry is convinced that the back-to-school comedy, Never Been Kissed, starring Drew Barrymore as an undercover reporter in the classroom, will be more to Irish audience's taste.
Fox also has high hopes for the latest all-star Shakespeare adaptation, A Midsummer Night's Dream, featuring Rupert Everett, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Kline and Calista Flockhart.
Other high-profile autumn releases include The Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt, Entrapment starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones, and a new version of Anna And The King, starring Jodie Foster.
Ms McGarry says Twentieth Century Fox will play a pro-active role in the development of Irish-made movies.
"We hope to get involved in homegrown films - we already support independent film-making through our Fox Searchlight company, which released Waking Ned, and we have distributed high-profile Irish movies like The Van. We're in the market to buy rights for new Irish films, and I would certainly expect to see Irish filmmakers coming to us with new projects in the near future."
