The Guard

Gerry Boyle is an unorthodox small town Irish cop with a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes and a heightened sense of the absurd. He is not best pleased at the arrival of the straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett. But when a colleague disappears, Gerry begins to take more of an interest in the international cocaine smuggling ring that has brought Wendell to his door.

Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh (Ned Kelly), this is an Irish-set comedy thriller featuring Brendan Gleeson (Troy, Gangs of New York, Mission Impossible II, In Bruges), and Don Cheadle (Crash, Hotel Rwanda, Traitor).

The film also stars Mark Strong (Body of Lies, RocknRolla, Sunshine), Liam Cunningham (The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Harry Brown, Dog Soldiers), Fionnuala Flanagan (The Others, Yes Man, Waking Ned Devine), David Wilmot (I Went Down, Six Shooter, Intermission), Rory Keenan (Reign of Fire, Intermission, Ella Enchanted), Pat Shortt (Garage, Man About Dog, Wild About Harry), and newcomer Katarina Cas (Reality, Friday Night). 

Extract from the Director's Statement:

We have an original lead character with a jaundiced, melancholic outlook. We have three unpredictable villains. We have a bewildered sidekick who has no idea what the hell is going on. We have a bittersweet romance. We have action. And we have a strange, unusual location: Connemara, whose landscape lends itself to a kind of epic grandeur. All in all, we have the ingredients for a visually-stylised, poetic, widescreen film, with a mythic resonance and a darkly comic sense of humour.

The film is produced by Reprisal's Chris Clark and Flora Fernandez Marengo and Element's Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, and executive produced by Martin McDonagh, Don Cheadle, Lenore Zerman, Tim Smith, Paul Brett, Ralph Kamp and David Nash.

A Reprisal Films and Element Pictures production, it is backed by Prescience Film Finance, Aegis Film Fund, U.K. Film Council and Crescendo Productions and the Irish Film Board. Metropolis International Sales are handling the international sales. The film and it will be released by Optimum Releasing in the UK and Element Pictures Distribution in Ireland.  

Shot in Ireland during October and November 2009, the film will be released in the UK in 2010. 

Press

 Reuters article- 30 Oct 09

Screen Daily article - 2 Nov 09

The Hollywood Reporter - 29 Oct 09

Variety article - 4 Nov 2009

Imdb pro article - 2 Nov 2009