Irish Sundance opener THE GUARD gets strong reaction

The Brendan Gleeson movie gets its world premiere…

Element Pictures, the Irish distribution company behind the upcoming Brendan Gleeson movie, THE GUARD today expressed their delight with the strong reaction the film received at its world premiere last night, where it opened the World Dramatic Competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

The Los Angeles Times reported that film buyers flocked to the sold out screening “..like moths to a flame, making it a fitting festival launch”. While movie bible Variety said “… it’s Gleeson who rightly owns the screen as a beer-swilling, crotch-grabbing, Derringer-firing crusader with one hell of a filthy mouth to go along with his heart of gold.” and the director John Michael McDonagh’s “filmmaking crackles with energy”.

THE GUARD is a thriller-comedy set on the west coast of Ireland where Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson) is a small-town cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett (Cheadle)to his door.

The film is directed by John Michael McDonagh and features a cast that includes Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges, Harry Potter, and The General) Don Cheadle (Iron Man 2, Crash, Hotel Rwanda) Fionnuala Flanagan (Lost, Transamerica) Liam Cunningham (Hunger, The Wind that Shakes the Barley) and Mark Strong (KickAss, Sherlock Holmes).

The Guard is an Irish/UK co-production, backed by the Irish Film Board and Section 481 as well as International Financiers. It’s produced by Chris Clark and Flora Fernandez Marengo for Reprisal Films and Ed Guiney (Garage) and Andrew Lowe (The Wind that Shakes the Barley) for Element Pictures.

Irish audiences will get an opportunity to see THE GUARD in cinemas when it goes on theatrical release this summer.