Saoirse Ronan to Star in ‘Brooklyn’

LONDON – Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters have assembled in Ireland to shoot John Crowley‘s Brooklyn.

An adaptation of Colm Toibin’s New York Times best-seller from a script by Nick Hornby, the movie also stars Emory Cohen (The Place Beyond The Pines). The story is set in 1950s Brooklyn.

The film tells the story of a young woman, Eilis (Ronan), who moves from a small town in Ireland to Brooklyn, where, unlike at home, she has the opportunity for work, for a future and for love, in the form of Italian-American Tony (Cohen).  

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When a family tragedy brings her back to Ireland, she finds herself absorbed into her old community, with Jim (Gleeson) courting her. As she repeatedly postpones her return to America, Eilis finds herself confronting a choice between two men and two countries.

The script was developed by BBC Films, the public broadcaster’s movie-making unit. The co-producers are Parallel Films in Ireland and Item 7 in Canada.

The movie is set to shoot for three weeks in Ireland before moving in mid-April to Montreal for four weeks.

BBC Films, Telefilm Canada, Ingenious, the Irish Film Board, British Film Institute and SODEC present the Wildgaze Films/Finola Dwyer Productions/Parallel Films/Item 7 co-production. 

Hanway Films is handling international sales, and Lionsgate will release the movie in the U.K. while Mongrel will roll it out in Canada.

Producers are Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, whose credits include An Education.