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Tomm Moore unveils extensive footage from Song of the Sea
17 June, 2013 | By Melanie Goodfellow
Feature scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2014.
Award-winning Irish director Tomm Moore unveiled extensive footage from his upcoming feature
Song of the Sea at a Work in Progress session of the Annecy Animation Film Festival on Friday (June 14).
Like Moore’s previous film - Oscar-nominated
The Secret of Kells
- the picture takes inspiration from Irish folklore, centring on the
legend of the Selkies, mythological creatures that are part seal, part
human.
The storyline revolves around brother and sister Ben and
Saoirse, who are forced to leave their coastal home to live with their
grandmother in the city following their mother’s mysterious
disappearance.
When they decide to runaway and return home by sea,
the voyage takes an unexpected turn - leading them into a fantastical
marine world - where it becomes clear there is more to Ben’s silent
sister Saoirse than meets the eye.
The $7.5m (€5.6m) film is a
five-way co-production between Moore’s Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon,
Belgian The Big Farm, Luxembourg’s Melusine Productions, Paris-based
Superprod and Danish Norlum.
Moore said the film would be ready
for delivery in the second-half of 2014, and potentially a Toronto
launch. The English-language voiceover - featuring David Rawle, the
young star of Sky’s series
Moone Boy, alongside rising star Lisa Hannigan, Fionnula Flanagan and Jon Kenny - was recorded last November.
A sales company has yet to be set for the film.
The Secret of Kells was sold by Celluloid Dreams.
However,
the feature has already been pre-bought by Haut et Court for France and
StudioCanal for the UK and Ireland, in a deal done back in 2011 under
the Optimum banner. The latter also released
The Secret of Kells.
Moore has set the film against the backdrop of late 1980s Ireland.
“I
wanted to capture the old Ireland before the whole Celtic Tiger thing
started… it’s actually set in 1987. I always describe the film as a
melancholy, musical comedy… the melancholy part is that little bit of
nostalgia.”
He explained that films as diverse as Mike Newell’s
Into the West, Hiyao Miyazaki’s
My Neighbour Totoro, and
The Jungle Book
as well as Irish poet Y.B. Yeats and modern-day shanachie, or
traditional Irish story-teller, Eddie Lenihan had acted as references
for the work.
Moore developed the script with Irish screenwriter Will Collins, whose previous credits include
My Brothers.
Moore
said: “The Irish Film Board, which is supporting the film, was keen for
us to use an Irish writer and suggested some names.
“I met a lot
of really good writers and creative people but then Will sent me a
rather strange email in which he said he had just written a script set
in 1987, loved
Totoro and wanted to work on an animation film.”
“My wife was convinced he had been going through our trash,” he added with a laugh.
The
director dug into six years’ worth of development artwork for the
Annecy presentation. On the basis of the material shown on Friday, the
animation promises to be even more sumptuous and detailed than that of
The Secret of Kells.
French
artistic director Adrien Merigeau showed extensive examples of the work
he had done for the backgrounds, revealing how he had captured the
plunging cliffs and rolling landscapes of Ireland’s West Coast with
intricate detail for the film.
The artwork and rough footage met with an enthusiastic response from the audience who gave it long and loud applause.
“You’re
positive response is really appreciated. Until now we have not shown
this stuff to anyone apart from the pupils of my wife, who is a
schoolteacher. It encourages us to push on,” said Moore.
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