- Culture
- 08 Aug 17
Filming of the Oscar winning director's new movie project about the infamous H-Block escape back in ’83 has been postponed at the eleventh hour after financing for it fell through.
Some big Irish names are attached to Sheridan’s new movie, such as former Bond star Pierce Brosnan, Cillian Murphy and ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ star Jamie Dornan.
But Sheridan and the film’s producers are understood to be confident that they’ll find the money to get the ball rolling again to start filming soon.
Simply entitled ‘H-Block’, the movie is based on the great escape that was masterminded by IRA members Gerry Kelly and Bobby Storey, both of whom have been the subject of major ‘Hot Press’ interviews.
The infamous Maze prison escape in 1983 was the largest break-out of prisoners anywhere in Europe since World War II.
Talking to Hot Press’ Jason O’Toole back in 2009 in what was his first ever major in-depth interview, Bobby Storey had this to say: “People who don’t know much about the escape might think of it as a wham bam, run, attack and climb over the wall, or ram the gate type of action. But – in actual fact – it was a very complicated operation.
"We embarked on a deliberate strategy of relaxing the H-Blocks and relaxing the wings by having a more practical working relationship with the screws. That actually defused the tensions.
“It suited us because from a security point of view that gave us more psychological control and more territorial control within the wings and blocks.
"It also created a less alert climate amongst staff because they weren’t fearful of us attacking them, and so they naturally relaxed.
"Some of them actually stopped carrying their batons and grills, which were normally locked, would be left open. It created the perfect conditions for us to carry out what then became the biggest escape in British penal history.”