Mccann seeks last 3m for the rising film

With just one year to go to the centenary of the 1916 Rising, award-winning Belturbet producer will returned to the US tomorrow to find the remaining $3m investment to allow him to begin shooting this Autumn the first ever movie made on the rebellion ‘The Rising’.
Kevin McCann will attend events and hold investor meetings between April 12-May 12, travelling to New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and LA as producers meet with potential US investors.
It is expected to cost in the region of €4m ($6m) to bring it to the big screen. Grant aid has been secured from local authorities in Leitrim and Cavan, the Irish Film Board and Northern Ireland Screen, the film board in Belfast. Kickstarter donations and investments ranging from $100 to $10,000 have also been committed to ‘The Rising’ film project.
Mr McCann points out that, back in 1916, the Easter Rising itself was funded by the Irish in the United States and now a century later, the remembrance of that heroic event must be funded by their descendants.
“The 100-year anniversary is happening on our watch. It is my duty as a filmmaker to tell this story of our ancestors, and to tell it now, no matter what challenges are along the path, personal or political. I know that there is some person out there with a similar strong sense of their Irish identity as well as an eye for a good investment, who will contact me.”
‘The Rising’ (2016) will be the first movie that looks at how a revolutionary movement which began in post-famine Ireland lead to the infamous rebellion and the formation of a new republic. The film centres on one of the Rising’s leaders, Seán MacDiarmada from Leitrim. MacDiarmada is widely considered to have been the mastermind of the 1916 rebellion and hero to Michael Collins.
“There will be a global focus on Ireland in 2016, and ‘The Rising’ is the only movie for that market,” said Mr McCann of production company Maccana Teoranta.
While movies like ‘Michael Collins’ (1996) and ‘The Wind that shakes the Barley’ (2006) dramatised what occurred after the Easter Rising, ‘The Rising’ acts as a prequel, and marks the completion of a great trilogy of Irish films, says Mr McCann.
The latest script draft by Colin Broderick and Mr McCann has recently been written in Estonia and the casting director is attaching stars to the main roles. Colin Morgan, one of the brightest up-and-coming Irish screen stars, has already been cast in the lead as MacDiarmada.
The producers have received backing from relatives of all 1916 leaders. Mr McCann has also got the seal of approval from Sinead O’Connor and The Pogues’ frontman Shane McGowan. Both have promised their involvement in the project, the latter in contributing to the on-screen score for the planned feature-length movie.
“We are making history - a signature Irish film,” says Mr McCann, whose last film ’Volkswagen Joe’ won eight international festival awards. “I’ve known it since the day I started researching in 2012. And now is the time for an investor to join us and back this movie for next year’s anniversary.
“With 2016 on the horizon, the time to do it is this fall. Other countries and cultures celebrate their heroes in cinema over and over again, and rightly so, and now, where is the Irish ‘birth of a nation’ story?” he asks.
Among his reasons for making the film, Mr McCann cites the power of the story, its importance in history, his own personal dedication and business. He claims that no other movie will have such an open market and free publicity anywhere in the world as ‘The Rising’ once released.
“A movie 100 years in the making is upon us and the responsibility to tell the world our ‘birth of nation’ story lands on our shoulders today.”
Mr McCann will be in New York on April 24 at the consulate general. The date is significant in that it makes the one-year countdown to the centenary. From the US, he will travel to Cannes to drum up further support and publicity for the project.
He is now optimistic of securing the remaining funding he needs and plans to hold auditions in “early Summer” going into production in the Autumn for release in time for Easter 2016.

Those looking for further information, can view the website www.therising.ie on Facebook at 1916movie or email: kevin@maccana.ie