GALA PRESENTATION: FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING

Writer/Director: Kari Skogland
Producers: Shawn Williamson, Stephen Hegyes, Peter Laterriere
Exec Producers: Guy Collins, Nicole Carmen-Davis, Kyle Lundberg, Stephen Margolis
Production Companies: Future Films, Brightlight Pictures, HandMade Films
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Ben Kingsley, Rose McGowan, Kevin Zegers,
Nathalie Press
Distributor: TVA Films
International Sales: HandMade Films

The world premiere of Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking at TIFF provides a cautionary tale to any producer employing artistic licence as they make a biopic about a controversial figure.

As the Canadian/British coproduction – involving Vancouver’s Brightlight Pictures and Britain’s Future Films – gets set to launch at TIFF, the film’s producers are under pressure to make hurried edits and alterations to appease the film’s subject, IRA infiltrator Martin McGartland.

McGartland, who lives in hiding in Britain after being unmasked as an informer for Britain’s Special Branch, has threatened a legal suit against the project, including an injunction against the TIFF screening, claiming that the biopic, based on his autobiography, has infringed his moral rights and contains fictional scenes that will lead people to conclude he was present during instances of IRA torture and murder.

‘I have refused categorically to be associated, connected or related to the film. More than that, because I am the author of the book, and the subject of the film, which I have seen, I don’t recognize the film,’ McGartland tells Playback on the phone from an undisclosed location.

In particular, McGartland takes exception to a fictionalized scene where he drives an IRA bomb specialist to a location where a bomb is planted and which later explodes and kills a British officer. In another fictionalized scene, McGartland is in a room where an IRA informant is tortured and shot.

To appease McGartland, the film’s producers have ‘amended’ the scene to indicate that ‘Marty’ does not know the bomb expert in his car, or his intention to plant an explosive device.

And in an Aug. 13 letter to McGartland from Future Films producer Stephen Margolis, the producers concede that the original book on which the film is based ‘does not make reference to you actually being present at a torture by the IRA of a suspected British informer.’

In the letter, Margolis also asks McGartland to stop disrupting the upcoming TIFF bow and media launch, and threatens a ‘cease and desist’ order.

At the same time, Margolis argues he cannot see how that scene could harm McGartland’s honor or reputation, as he is portrayed as working for the BSB, and that ‘Marty’s behavior and expressions’ during the scene indicate that he does not want to be in the room.

McGartland isn’t buying the producers’ argument: ‘The film says I was present where an alleged informant was being tortured in front of me, and he was shot dead in front me. But I was never there. It’s clearly fiction. They crossed the line by implicating me.’

Brightlight coproducer Shawn Williamson says that beyond a legal disclaimer attached to the film, he’s not certain how McGartland can be placated.

‘I don’t think we’re at great odds with him,’ says Williamson. ‘He has seen the film. He gave us notes. We are listening to him.’

Skogland had little to add about the controversy swirling around the TIFF launch for her latest film, as the matter could yet tip into the courts.

‘I had to make some fictionalizations of aspects of the story,’ says Skogland. McGartland is ‘concerned about some of those.’

The following film diary outlines the history of the film and how it was conceived, written, financed and shot long before landing its coveted TIFF gala premiere.

FILM DIARY

1987-1991: Belfast-born Martin McGartland infiltrates the Provisional Irish Republican Army and spies on the paramilitary group and its Sinn Féin political arm for British security forces. Eventually, McGartland’s cover is blown and, barely escaping an IRA execution, he starts a new life in Britain in hiding.

2005: Los Angeles film and TV producer Kyle Lundberg of Altitude Entertainment gives Canadian director Kari Skogland a copy of Martin McGartland’s autobiography Fifty Dead Men Walking.

Skogland sees potential in a biopic structured as a Canada/U.K. coproduction, and starts to pen a script during a lull in preproduction for The Stone Angel, which she is set to direct for Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gals Pictures.

Fall 2005: Skogland puts the finishing touches to the script for The Stone Angel while she develops an early draft for the McGartland biopic.

Fall 2006: Production on The Stone Angel takes place. Meanwhile, Michael Cooper of the William Morris Agency in L.A. reads Skogland’s script, provisionally titled Man on the Run, and offers to help package the project.

January 2007: Skogland continues the hunt for financing for her biopic. HandMade Films, a distribution partner on The Stone Angel, agrees to come on board to sell Man on the Run internationally. Skogland lines up Future Films as the British production partner, with Stephen Margolis joining Kyle Lundberg and HandMade’s Guy Collins as executive producers.

May 2007: At Cannes, Ben Kingsley signs on for the role of McGartland’s British handler. That starts the lead casting ball rolling, as Canuck Kevin Zegers of The Stone Angel and 21’s Jim Sturgess (as McGartland) also sign on for starring roles.

June 2007: Although her movie is not yet fully financed, Skogland meets with actresses Rose McGowan (Grindhouse) and Natalie Press (My Summer of Love), who express interest.

August 2007: After location scouting on the British mainland, Skogland chooses Belfast for the film’s shooting, to lend authenticity and colorful locations to chronicle McGartland’s IRA life. ‘While in Ireland, I started to rewrite the script to ensure the movie reflected the communities,’ Skogland recalls. She also completes local and lead casting.

September 2007: Other financiers for Skogland’s project include British private equity funds, tax credits and Belfast’s film subsidy program. Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures, which had longed to work with Skogland, likes the Man on the Run script and comes on board as a minority partner in the 80/20 British/Canadian coproduction. The film’s total budget: $12.3 million.

October – Christmas 2007: Filming takes place in Belfast, and in rural Ardglass and Killough for scenes of IRA gunrunning. Production details are kept secret, and the set is closed to the media.

Shooting in Belfast, while quaint, is cramped.

‘It keeps you on your toes as a director,’ Skogland notes. ‘The logistics of it are all different from North America, down to trailers and trucks, and perks – it’s all scaled down, where it has to be. No one was left wanting, but frills were minimized. There was no worry about whether someone’s trailer was bigger than someone else’s was.’

In a few instances, the movie shoot must pull out of select Belfast locations owing to political sensitivities.

‘We didn’t feel we had the community support, and safety was an issue. I wanted to make a film that the community supported. It’s a very small world. It’s a small city. Everyone talks to everyone. They knew what we were doing,’ the director adds.

January 2008: Post-production starts in Vancouver at Technicolor. Staying in contact with the movie’s British producers in London, given time zone differences, poses a challenge.

May 2008: At Cannes, HandMade begins to shop the film, now titled Fifty Dead Men Walking, by showing select scenes to potential buyers to pique interest.

Musician-songwriter Ben Mink works on the film’s score. Skogland spends several days with Mink before she offers added input via e-mail and QuickTime files.

McGartland, still in hiding on the British mainland, along with his lawyer, receives a private screening at the London office of Future Films. He immediately objects to how the film portrays him, in particular an apparent inference that he was an IRA turncoat who went to the British side. He submits notes on preferred changes to the film’s producers.

July 2008: The Toronto International Film Festival books a world premiere for Fifty Dead Men Walking.

September 2008: Fifty Dead Men Walking is scheduled to have its world premiere at TIFF.