“STOP all the clocks…the stars are not wanted now; put out every one”
Was Auden’s verse fuse to ‘The Clock Maker’s Doll’, the film being shot here? With open castings over for its 32 characters, director Cashell Horgan will admit that his film is a love story, centred on a widowed clock maker “whose wife was the love of his life. However he realises that he has to move on” and so he does, in quaint fashion. We find out that the clock maker has created an animated world of automan characters.
Thus the director is scouring Limerick for locations where timepieces are prominent. So far Pery Square, dockland and medieval elements of The Island appeal.
“It’s an emotional story, multilayered” and comic too, “a period piece that has elements of street punk,” says Horgan who is scriptwriter also. There’s a nod to ‘Tales from Hoffman’, ‘Coppelia’, Gabby Hood’s ‘Living Doll’ and “32 characters, each a person in costume. There’s a butcher, a strongman, sort of a Bavarian circus element. Creatively, it’s a lot of fun”.
He compliments Film Limerick/ Behind the Scenes and Limerick Arts Office for facilitating preparation to his bursary winning (€15,000) proposal that will be cast here – fully by Limerick candidates, he feels at this stage. The LSAD trained Tasiana Coquerel has impressed with costume and mask design; crew is sourced from around and “with not many productions coming to Limerick, it’s great to see people applying their talent”.
Core to contract is that Limerick be backdrop to and identifiable in storyline. ‘The Clock Maker’s Doll’ begins shooting in April.
