![]() Over the past decade, O’Connor has established himself as a maverick in independent Irish cinema, consistently producing engaging work on tiny budgets.Īfter making his first short film at the age of ten, he went on to make dozens more, mainly comedies,dramas and horror films, before studying at the New York Film Academy and Ballyfermot in Dublin.Īs well as Keoghan, he cast an up-and-coming Peter Coonan in his first feature, the well-received crime drama Between the Canals. It’s a kind of a metamorphosis of this young boy.” ![]() “Basically, the family starts to break down, disintegrate, and it shows the effect that gangland can have on family, really. When his brother gets more deeply involved in crime, his loyalties become tested. The series will revolve around two opposing families, including the family of the young MMA fighter. "Everyone’s got a motivation, everyone’s in it for different reasons. "Showing how these people get into it and the consequences of their decisions within that world. It’s really about showing the humanity, I suppose, in these characters. This is not about portraying these lads as just gangsters or scumbags. O’Connor was keen to go beyond the typical crime drama to really examine how young people can get pulled into criminality. She is played by Judith Roddy - the women in this show are really in control.” Donna runs the younger gang but then you’ve got Bernie who’s the head, she’s the boss. So I really went for strong female characters and they almost rule the roost in this. “I wanted to flick the coin on this and I thought it was the right time. My previous films, I think, were quite masculine, and they were in that world. “There’s a lot of really exciting new names in it, like Thomas Kane-Byrne and Lorna Meade who plays Donna. “He holds the whole show together with his central performance. “We needed an MMA fighter and someone who could hold the series together and he also needed to be in his teens,” says O’Connor. The series lead is Dane Whyte O’Hara, an experienced young MMA fighter who was just 15 when filming started and was stunned to get the role - he’d originally applied to be an extra. I took a lot of risks but I feel like they’ve all paid off. "We watched hundreds and hundreds of tapes to find the cast that I have chosen to cast in this project and most of the actors in this are completely unknown. The casting process was much larger, much more work. ![]() “I found it very challenging and thrilling to be honest, it was really intense. Later, as he works on the final edits of the series, O’Connor says casting several unknowns in leading roles was a risk which has paid off. Debuting Monday on Virgin One, it centres on a teenage MMA fighter with a bright future, who is torn between his own ambitions and family loyalties to his brother, who is heavily involved in crime. There’s a sense of excitement on set as the cast and crew prepare to film the final scenes of the shoot in late summer.Ĭreated, co-written and directed by O’Connor, the six-part crime drama series is the filmmaker’s first foray into television. In a sports club on Bray seafront, two of the lead characters in the new series from Virgin Media are engaged in a dramatic face-off.
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