local

Sky Series with Chris O'Dowd to be filmed in Sligo

Sky announced this week at their Winter showcase held in the Guinness Store House, Dublin, that they are partnering with Irish actor Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, I.T. Crowd) in commissioning a new 6x30 series for the channel, which is co-written and starring the actor.

Filming will be in Sligo and Boyle, Co Roscommon and gets underway in January.

‘Moone Boy’, set in and scheduled to film in Ireland in the New Year, is a partnership between Irish production company Grand Pictures, Baby Cow, Sprout Films and Hod Cod productions. It tells the story of 11-year old Martin Moone, a young boy, living in Boyle, Co. Roscommon in 1989. Martin, who has a unique perspective on life, is aided by his imaginary friend Sean Murphy played by O’Dowd, in negotiating life as the youngest in his chaotic, scatter-brained family.

O’Dowd was on hand at the Sky Winter showcase yesterday to help announce the series and spoke to IFTN about hosting the British Independent Awards, ‘Moone Boy’, the success of ‘Bridesmaids’ and what is next for this rising star.

The show will include both live action and animation to help Martin’s childhood pictures come to life. These will be designed and supplemented by Kilkenny based Cartoon Saloon (Skunk Fu, The Secret of Kells). Speaking about the show itself Chris says, “It is a fantastic comedy, I hope, which centres on a 11 year old growing up in Boyle and his interesting and disgusting family. He has an imaginary friend who is played by an incredibly talented actor called Christopher Paul Martin O’Dowd and it’s just a really funny show which has loads of animation and a number of laughs that I think people are going to love.”

‘Moone Boy’, is co-written by Chris O’Dowd and Nick Vincent Murphy. The series will be directed by Declan Lowney (Little Britain, Father Ted) and produced by Ted Dowd (Gavin and Stacey, Nighty Night). Executive producers are Henry Normal, Gina Carter, Paul Donovan of Grand Pictures and Chris O’ Dowd. The series is expected to air on Sky next summer.