Wildcard Distribution announced today that the Peter Coonan and Killian Scott-starring Get Up & Go will be released in Irish cinemas on Friday, 1st of May. The official poster for the film, designed by Annie Atkins (part of the Oscar-winning production design team on Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel), was also revealed (see above).
In addition to Coonan (Love/Hate, The Guarantee) and Scott (Love/Hate, Calvary) the film stars Gemma-Leah Devereux (Stitches, Dartmoor Killing), Sara Lloyd-Gregory (Doctors), Emma Eliza-Regan (Love Eternal, Darkness On The Edge of Town), and Sarah McCall (Wide Open Spaces).
Written and directed by Brendan Grant, Get Up & Go sees the Love/Hate actors reunite for a slacker comedy which chronicles a hectic 24 hours in the life of would-be comedian Coilin (Scott) and frustrated musician Alex (Coonan). When Alex’s girlfriend tells him she’s pregnant, he refuses to allow her to derail his long-held plan to escape to London. Meanwhile the hapless Coilin is striking out on stage and off, as he attempts to get his faltering comedy career off the ground and win the heart of his dream girl. With time ticking down to Alex’s departure, the mismatched pair will be forced to confront the reality of their childhood dreams of artistic greatness while their lifelong friendship is tested to the limit.
Set against a backdrop of famous Dublin locations, pubs, and clubs,Get Up & Go shows a youthful and vibrant side of the city, a world of schemers and dreamers, struggling artists and musicians, all striving to make it in post-boom Ireland.
With a soundtrack that features some of Ireland’s foremost musicians including Adrian Crowley, The Villagers, and Jape, and cameos from many of the leading lights of Dublin’s alternative scene (David Kitt, Mik Pyro) Get Up & Go gives on-screen expression to the hotbed of musical talent that exists in the capital. Peter Coonan, as wannabe rock star Alex, also gets to demonstrate his musical chops in the film.
Speaking about the announcement, director Brendan Grant said: [quote]I’m delighted that cinema audiences across Ireland will get to enjoy the fruit of so many peoples’ hard work and talent this May, particularly in the city that inspired Get Up & Go and which is so central to the story. It was our aim to capture a particular moment in these characters’ lives and with humour and honesty and we hope that people enjoy and respond to it as much as we enjoyed making it. [/quote]
Brendan Grant is a graduate of the National Film and Television School [UK], where his graduation film London Fields Are Blue was critically acclaimed and screened at over twenty international festivals he directed the popular Hollyoaks and Totally Frank for Channel 4 and Endemol. He was awarded the Directors Guild of Great Britain Award for short fiction in 2005, the DAAD filmmaker’s fellowship in Berlin and was a guest at the Cannes Cinefondation Residence in Paris. In 2007 he directed, Tonight Is Cancelled, an improvised and experimental mixture of documentary and fiction, which screened at the Galway Film Fleadh and a number of international festivals. He co-wrote The Englishman with writer/director Ian Sellar as well as taking a writing credit on Alexandra McGuinness’ Lotus Eaters. Since then he has been working on a number of original screenplays including a long form TV comedy series.
Get Up & Go is a Fastnet Films (Kisses, Life’s A Breeze) production in association with Fragrant Films and Celofan Audiovisual with the participation of Bord Scannán na hÉireann/The Irish Film Board and The Film Agency for Wales.
Wildcard Distribution will be releasing Get Up & Go in Irish cinemas on Friday May 1st.