Zonad is the latest offering from Dublin brothers John and Kieran Carney. Produced by Element Pictures and featuring Simon Delaney in the guise of an alien visitor inflicting his wicked ways on the fictional town of Ballymoran, it is an irreverent and silly romp that makes no apologies for its farcical style. Shane Kennedy talks to Simon Delaney about the film.
‘Zonad’, the idea, has been around for some time, having been shot originally as a short film in 2003. While that short achieved semi-legendary status, the truth, as ever, is a little more prosaic.
‘It was an idea that came up about eight years ago, with John and his brother Kieran. It was really just an idea – it never saw the light of day. There was no clear vision of what it was going to be. Tom (Hall) had just gotten a new camera and wanted to play with it. There is one scene with Cillian Murphy drinking a glass of milk, that has survived but that’s the only part of it that anyone has ever seen. So we were talking about different things, possible projects and someone said, “well what about Zonad?” So we said “yeah, let’s do it”.’
Having worked with writer/directors John and Kieran Carney on the critically acclaimed Bachelors Walk, the shoot was something of a Bachelors reunion. Delaney enthuses about the experience and the Carney brothers’ open-minded approach to direction.
‘It was great working with the Bachelors Walk crowd again and Zonad was a fun film to work on. The guys have a great way of balancing work and fun, and still getting the job done. There is leeway in terms of where it can go within the shoot, while making sure that the thing gets done. If I’m left alone I’ll end up playing with a plug socket or something, but the work still has to be done.’
With a stack of ITFA nominations and one gong under its belt, Zonad has received plenty of positive pre-release publicity.
‘Getting nominated for six IFTAs was great, with Brian Byrne winning one for the soundtrack. He did a fantastic job, it’s almost like The Quiet Man. With Janice Byrne, it’s her first film straight out of acting school and she gets nominated for an IFTA – brilliant. We never really expected to win Best Picture, for example, but there really is no such thing as bad publicity.’
The affable Dublin actor is typically good-humoured when musing on the effect that jumpsuit might have on an unsuspecting audience. ‘It was hard work, getting in and out of that suit every day.
I think we might have scared a few people at the IFTAs with the clips that were shown. There might have been a few salmon dinners not quite finished that night.
With the success of John Carney’s Once at last year’s Oscars®, it has been said in some quarters that shooting a low-budget sci-fi comedy set in rural Ireland is something of a risk for a director whose stock is currently high stateside. Delaney, however, is confident that Zonad can be a success on both sides of the Atlantic, despite its seemingly limited ambition.
‘It’s going on general release here on Paddy’s day. We want the film to do well here in Ireland, firstly. We think that it has a chance of being successful beyond Ireland too. If you look at the top ten films in America at any one time, maybe 5 of those will be comedies. There is always an audience for silly, screwy comedy. On the back of the success of Once, there is every chance that there is an audience out there that might not have existed before. John Anderson of (New York based) Variety magazine gave it a five star review. He loved it. So we’re ambitious for Zonad.”
In terms of what Zonad is trying to be and what they believe it can do, Delaney is as self-effacing as ever.
‘It’s a mad comedy about a bloke who pretends to be an alien so he can get drunk and chase girls. Nothing more than that. It’s not going to change anybody’s life’.
Simon Delaney can currently be seen in Roy, on RTÉ 2 and in Stones in His Pockets at Dublin’s Olympia 9–12 March.
Zonad goes on general release on March 17th
