The hype about the European premiere of Jim Sheridan's film The Boxer is already starting to build up - expect all eyes to focus on the Savoy cinema next Thursday when the film opens in aid of L'Arche Dublin. Some enterprising bookmaker should really take bets as to whether Daniel Day-Lewis will turn up or not.
However there is another interesting charity premiere also coming up - that of This Is the Sea, a film by Mary McGuckian. The film, which is set in Belfast during the 1994 ceasefire, will open at the city's Queens Film Theatre on Friday, February 13th with a gala evening in aid of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action and the Ulster Youth Theatre. The film stars Richard Harris, Ga- briel Byrne, John Lynch, Samantha Morton and newcomer Ross Mc- Dade and it's hoped that they'll all come along to the premiere - although as everybody knows, these stars are notoriously non-committal. There are also a couple of other interesting cameo roles in the film.
The film's title was inspired by The Waterboys' song of the same name, and originally singer Mike Scott had agreed to perform in the film. However, as the date for his scenes drew near he got cold feet and recommended that singer Brian Kennedy take his place. Brian agreed and appears in the film singing two of his own songs and two of Michael's.
It was also a screen first for designer John Rocha - he doesn't appear in front of the camera but his clothes do.