Latest news with #Re-creation
Irish Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Ian Bailey to be granted last request as plan for spreading of his ashes emerges
Ian Bailey is to get his last request - his ashes are to be spread in west Cork this weekend. A private get together is being organised by his family and friends to say a dignified "goodbye" to the main suspect in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder, almost 18 months after his death. The private service will involve poetry, music and some prayers and at least 20 people are expected to attend. Among them are his sister Kay Reynolds and the filmmaker Jim Sheridan who has spent the past few years defending the Englishman's innocence. Ian Bailey has always denied killing French beauty Sophie. In the weeks before he died from a heart attack he made a 40-minute video tape from his hospital bed telling how he was totally innocent and that his life had been ruined by Sophie's murder, 32 years ago. That tape is now in the possession of an Irish TV producer and documentary maker and is expected to be screened publicly at some stage. The 67-year-old former journalist and poet was cremated within days of his sudden death outside his home in Bantry, Co Cork in January last year. He collapsed from a massive heart attack as he walked down the street. He had suffered heart problems for the previous year and was too weak to undergo surgery. His sister Kay did not want his funeral to be turned into a media circus so no one was allowed to attend his cremation in Cork city apart from the undertakers. Bailey told his sister that he wanted his ashes to be spread over his beloved west Cork where he lived most of his life after he passed away. This will now be done this weekend after the private farewell get together. A source said: "Details of the event are being kept very quiet and it is a private affair. "Ian wanted his ashes spread in west Cork so this is what will be happening. "He may have been a suspect and in many ways an outcast because he was eccentric but there were a small number of people who had time for him and were always in contact. "They never got the chance to pay their respects or say goodbye, but they will now. "There will be pints, poetry, music and prayer." Jim Sheridan has made a new movie on the murder called Re-creation, starring Colin Meaney who plays Bailey and Aidan Gillen. He is adamant there was no evidence against Ian Bailey to prove he killed Sophie and the film by all accounts reflects this view. Sophie's family totally disagree and believe the new film contains much fiction and should not have been made while the Garda investigation into the murder is continuing. Yesterday, Gardai confirmed their review into Sophie's murder despite Ian Bailey's death is still continuing. In a statement, Gardai said: "The Garda investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in 1996 remains active and ongoing. "The Garda Serious Crime Review Team's review into this murder, which began in June 2022, also continues. "Throughout this investigation An Garda Siochana has appealed to any person with any information in relation to the investigation to come forward in order to assist us. "Gardai continue to appeal to anyone with information to contact the investigation team at Bantry Garda Station or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800-666111." Bailey's former partner Jules Thomas disclosed last weekend that she is suffering from a terminal illness. The couple split up a few years ago but she also still insists he didn't kill Sophie.
Sunday World
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Jim Sheridan tells how his mum suffered lifelong guilt over granny's childbirth death
The impact drove Sheridan to make his smash hit movie 'In the Name of the Father'. His mum blamed herself for his granny's death and it instilled in him a life long instinct to defend the falsely accused. This drove him to make his smash hit movie 'In the Name of the Father' starring Daniel Day Lewis about wrongly convicted IRA suspect Gerry Conlon and his father Giuseppe plus his latest film 'Re-creation' which deals with the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder and the public pursuit of the main suspect, the late Ian Bailey. The former English journalist spent his whole life denying any involvement in the horrific killing and went to his grave proclaiming his innocence. Read more Re-creation premiered to positive reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival, in New York last week. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter Sheridan said:' My mother blamed herself for killing her mother, who died in childbirth. "So it was inherent in me, in the womb from the f*cking start, this feeling for the wrongly accused. Jim Sheridan played the role of the jury foreman in 'Re-Creation' Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 14 2025 'I have a pre-natal sense of guilt. "Whenever that happens when I see somebody wrongly accused, I go nuts, you know, I can't deal with it.' Sheridan has been fascinated by the Sophie story for the last decade. He made the five part series on the case, Murder at the Cottage, for Sky but didn't feel it did the story justice. He does not believe Ian Bailey killed her and that there is little or not evidence against him. He also feels neither Sophie or Bailey received any justice. The new film is set in a fictionalised courtroom setting and recreates a trial based on all the facts of the case so far. Jim Sheridan on location filming Murder at the Cottage, his series about the death of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier. Photograph by Barbara McCarthy � Sky UK 2021 Most of the action is in the jury room just like the old Hollywood movie 12 Angry Men Made on a €2 million budget it stars Aidan Gillen, Vicky Krieps, John Connors, and Colm Meaney as Bailey. Sheridan himself also features as one of the 12 jurors. The film was shot and recorded between West Cork, Dublin and Luxembourg. He told the Hollywood Reporter he blends fiction, docudrama and emotion in a way that defies conventions. He said: 'I suppose I wanted to put into fiction what I couldn't put into documentary reality. I wanted to show the blur between the lines between documentary, reality and fiction." Co Director David Merriman said: "We're hopeful that at least in Ireland this film could start a conversation which will drive people, you know, to do the right thing. "To search for justice and find out who actually killed Sophie Toscan du Plantier, rather than just saying,' Oh, Ian Bailey didmit' and that's good for us because he's English so he's a villain."
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jim Sheridan's ‘Re-creation' Puts One of Ireland's Most Troubling Murder Cases Back on Trial
For Jim Sheridan, the defense of the falsely accused isn't just a theme — it's a calling embedded deep in his DNA. 'My mother blamed herself for killing her mother, who died in childbirth,' says the Irish director and playwright. 'So it was inherent in me. In the womb, from the fucking start, this feeling for the wrongly accused.' That unwavering obsession, one that has powered the six-time Oscar nominee's career—from In the Name of the Father (1993), starring Daniel Day-Lewis as wrongly convicted IRA suspect Gerry Conlon, to his latest project Re-creation, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday—traces back to what Sheridan calls his 'pre-natal sense of guilt.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Regina Hall, Ice Spice Join New 'SpongeBob' Movie ITV Studios Names Tim Carter Managing Director, Unscripted, U.K. Disney+ Names Angela Jain Content Chief for EMEA Amid Slate Growth Push 'Whenever that happens,' he says, 'when I see somebody wrongly accused, it just flips a switch, and I go nuts, you know? I can't deal with it.' With Re-creation, Sheridan and co-director David Merriman explore one of Ireland's most haunting unsolved crimes: The 1996 murder of French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who was found brutally beaten outside her holiday home in Toormore, West Cork. The film constructs a fictionalized courtroom trial that never happened for a case that remains unresolved to this day. Sheridan already explored the case in a 5-part TV documentary, A Murder at the Cottage (2021), but came away with the sense he didn't do justice to the story. With Re-creation, he blends fiction, docudrama, and emotion in a way that defies genre conventions. 'I suppose, because I wanted to put into fiction what I couldn't put into documentary reality,' he explains. 'I wanted to show the blur between the lines between documentary, reality and fiction.' The hybrid formallowed Sheridan to address what he saw as failures in both the media and legal responses to du Plantier's murder—particularly the treatment of Ian Bailey, an English journalist and the primary suspect, who was arrested but never charged in Ireland, convicted in absentia in France, and who died still professing his innocence in 2024. Bailey's story came to global attention with the 2021 Netflix series Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, which Sheridan believes deeply misrepresented the truth. The My Left Foot and In America director has harsh words for the whole genre of true crime, which he sees as often driven by sensationalism and vendetta. 'The entire bloody True Crime genre is now based around In Cold Blood, Truman Capote. It's based around this relentless revenge agenda, and it's very uncomfortable to me,' he says. 'The actual greatest writer on true crime… is Thomas De Quincey (Confessions of an English Opium Eater). He was in the genre of the wrongly accused. That's a more empathetic position than this kind of avenging God bullshit.' Shot on a shoestring budget over three weeks — 'we wrote it in three weeks and filmed it three weeks later,' Sheridan says — the bulk of Re-creation unfolds in a single jury room, in homage to 12 Angry Men. The directors borrowed the claustrophobic intensity of Sidney Lumet's 1957 classic and fused it with the ambiguity of Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall to reflect skepticism toward both the judicial process and the media machine surrounding it. In an exclusive clip from the film (below), the jury tries to retrace Sophie's steps, and imagine her state of mind, on the night she was murdered. Sheridan himself plays the jury foreman. Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) appears as the quietly forceful juror number 8, who becomes a symbolic voice for Sophie in the film. The ensemble also includes The Commitments star Colm Meaney in a silent role as Ian Bailey, Game of Thrones actor Aidan Gillen as a defense lawyer, and Irish actor and filmmaker John Connors (The Black Guelph) as one of the jurors. Though exteriors were filmed on location in West Cork, most interiors were shot on soundstages in Dublin and in Luxembourg. The script, while foundational, was heavily improvised. 'We only had an outline,' says Sheridan. 'It was an attempt to cross the line between fiction and fact and to show that those lines have been irretrievably blurred.' Thanks to Sheridan's dogged efforts, the murder investigation into the du Plantier case is currently the subject of a cold case review by the Garda Serious Crime Team, the Irish investigative police. Sheridan and Merriman hope their film rekindles public interest and spurs legal action. 'We're hopeful that, at least in Ireland, that this film could start a conversation which will drive people to, you know, do the right thing,' Merriman says. 'To search for justice and find out who actually killed Sophie Toscan du Plantier, rather than just saying, 'Oh, Ian Bailey did it,' and that's good for us, because he's English, so he's a villain.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
