World premiere screening for movie set in West Offaly
An apocalyptic movie set in various locations around West Offaly is to have its world premiere screening at the Kerry International Film Festival next weekend.
'Follow the Dead' is the first feature film from Dublin-based Wild Stag Productions and one of its stars is Ferbane’s Tadhg Devery, who plays a prominent comedic role.
Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week Tadhg expressed his delight at the fact that the movie is finally getting its world premiere – three years after it first went into production!“It has been a long time in the making, so I am delighted for the whole production team that ‘Follow the Dead’ is going to be screened at the Kerry International Film Festival,” he said.
However, like every other social event these days, the screening will be a virtual one due to Covid-19 restrictions. “We’ll probably all end up watching it in our own sitting rooms,” joked Tadhg “which isn’t exactly what we had planned, but what can you do.”
Having spent many years living in Australia, where he trained with the Sydney Drama School, Tadhg Devery would love to make his living as a full-time actor but is under no illusions about the difficulty of following his dream.
“At this stage, I am writing off 2020 completely from an acting point of view, because the whole entertainment industry is at a standstill, so hopefully we can look forward to better things in 2021,” he said.
Tadhg became involved in 'Follow the Dead' having first starred in the final year movie project undertaken by a college graduate, Adam William Cahill, who is the Director of Wild Stag Productions.“After Tadhg came back from Australia he applied to be part of my final year movie project, so when I was casting ‘Follow the Dead’ he was top of my list to play the comedic character, and he is superb in the role,” said Adam.
Funding for the movie – which is the first major project for Wild Stag Productions since Adam William Cahill left college – is a combination of “a bank loan, some investors and part self-funding,” according to the director “and we are really hoping that some big investor will come on board and assist us with the costs of bringing it to a wider audience.”
Due to the fact that the world premiere, which takes place on Saturday night next, October 17, will be an online event, both Tadhg Devery and Adam William Cahill said it denies everyone involved the opportunity to network with other industry professionals.
"Networking in the movie industry is an integral part of the process, but at the moment that is not possible, so all we can hope for is that the World Premiere will create a lot of interest, and possibly investment, somewhere along the line,” added Adam.
Most of the scenes in 'Follow the Dead' were filmed along the highways and byways of rural West Offaly, including Ferbane town and in Tadhg Devery’s home area of Glebe, Clonlyon.
The movie is described as being “a zombie apocalypse film” which follows a family of millennials in Ferbane who are deciding what to do in the wake of an apocalyptic event happening in Dublin.
“While it is a horror slash comedy, there is good comic relief in there too, mainly provided by Tadhg, and the reaction so far to the trailer we released last week has been fantastic, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for a very successful World Premiere,” said Adam William Cahill.