Commandant Pat Quinlan (left) and Jamie Dorman
Fnarr.
Aislinn writes:
“Today Parallel Films [Dublin] announced details of its forthcoming project ‘The Siege of Jadotville’ by writer Kevin Brodbin and director Richie Smith, with Jamie Dornan taking his first leading role since starring in ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’.
The film will shoot in the spring of 2015 in Ireland and South Africa as soon as Jamie has finished his publicity commitments for ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. The project has been developed in association with the Irish Film Board and will be an official Irish/South African co-production.The Siege of Jadotville’ will be directed by first time feature director and veteran commercials and music video director Richie Smyth.
‘The Siege of Jadotville’ is a taut geo-political action thriller which centres around the siege of 150 UN Irish troops led by Commandant Pat Quinlan in the Congo in 1961 after the Pro-western leader Moise Tshombe took control of the Katanga region and killed the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. What happened next was a scene of extraordinary bravery and saw Quinlan and his troops hold out against a force of 3000 local troops led by French and Belgian Mercenaries working for the mining companies. Dornan will play Commandant Pat Quinlan, the Irishman who led the UN battalion.”
FIGHT!
Look forward to that.
I’ve been going balubas waiting for this to come out.
Bravo! +999
That’s a great story. Good to hear that it’s being made into a film.
There was a great documentary on tg4 a few years back about this same story.
You couldn’t make it up, the leader of the opposition was Irish, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Hoare
“Hoare was born in Ireland.[1] He spent his early days in India and was educated in England. He served in North Africa and Italy as an officer in the London Irish Rifles[2] during World War II, and achieved the rank of Captain. After the war, he completed his training as a chartered accountant, and qualified in 1948.[3] He emigrated to Durban, Natal Province, Union of South Africa, where he ran safaris and became a soldier-for-hire in various African countries.”
Me too, I look forward to this!
Should be interesting :)
Commandant Pat Quinlan was a great leader who did everything possible to save his men. In that he succeeded . It took a long time for this to be acknowledged.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Siege-Jadotville-Forgotten-Battle/dp/0954870719
Can’t wait to see this, I wrote a doc about this before that was turned down but this is much better, what a great story deserving of a big screen showing.