'The Guard' wins distribution deal

Irish film The Guard has won a distribution deal with Sony in the United States following its world-premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

The movie, starring Brendan Gleeson and American actor Don Cheadle, has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics in a deal worth more than €1 million.

It is likely to be shown in 20 markets in the United States initially and a wider distribution deal depending on audience reaction will follow.

It has already been sold on to 20 territories and has made back most of its €5 million budget in distribution deals before it has gone on general release.

The last Irish film to get such a wide distribution deal in the United States was the surprise hit Once which went on to win an Oscar for best song.

The Guard opened the Sundance festival and won very favourable reviews. Variety magazine, the trade magazine, described it as "rudely funny and faintly melancholic" and was particularly praiseworthy of Gleeson's performance.

Hollywood Reporter, another trade press publication, described it as a "twisted and exceptionally accomplished variation on the buddy-cop format".

The film was shot in Connemara and was written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, the brother of the well-known playwright Martin McDonagh.

It stars Gleeson as a rather unorthodox garda sergeant who gets mixed up in a transatlantic feud and teams up with FBI agent Cheadle.

Co-producer Ed Guiney said the premiere at Sundance was “packed with buyers” and a bidding war with three major distributors ensued.

“The word of the mouth and buzz about the film was so strong beforehand that we had all the major US distributors at the world premiere of the film.”

The documentary about traveller boxing Knuckle, which was also screened at Sundance, has won a distribution deal in the Irish and UK markets and will be made into a film by the cable channel HBO.

The distribution deals follows on from a number of good news announcements about the Irish film industry in recent days.

Skerries-based writer and director Michael Creagh won an Oscar nomination for his short film The Crush.

Earlier today the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin announced the extension of the Section 481 tax reliefs until December 2015.

Ms Hanafin said the decision was taken to offer certainty to the sector and amounted to a vote of confidence in “our film practitioners and in the sector as a whole”.

Irish Film Boad chairman James Morris said the guarantee will reassure international production partners had Ireland “remains firmly open for business”.

He added: “We already have a significant number of film and television projects in the pipeline and this news will help to secure these productions for Ireland.”