- Music
- 07 Sep 04
Top musicians Bono and Larry Mullen appear in film to celebrate Oscar Wildes 150th birthday.
Bono, Larry Mullen, Liam Neeson, Charlie Sheen, Brian O'Driscoll, Pauline McGlunn, Joan Rivers, Jim Sheridan and Melanie B are just a handful of the high profile people appearing in a filmed birthday tribute to Oscar Wilde.
The project is the brainchild of Bill Hughes, the co-director of Dublin's Mind The Gap Films whose previous credits include The Irish Tenors Live From Ellis Island, Brian Kennedy - Live At The Waterfront and a number of Boyzone videos.
"It's a celebration of his wit and wisdom," Hughes explains. "I was born on October 16 and so was Oscar Wilde. I always felt this sense of affinity with him, being an out gay person working in the media."
2004 being Wilde's 150th birthday, Hughes is getting 150 different people to recite his famous lines.
These range from Joan Rivers declaring, "What I wear is just fashionable, it's what other people wear that is fashionable" to Mel B admitting, "Well of course I keep a diary."
After being screened on RTE and American PBS television at Christmas, the film will be released early next year on DVD.
And there's another literary/rock 'n' roll tie-in this week with James Joyce's great grand niece Chris Crystaal and her Silver Addictive bandmates releasing their debut single, 'Call Me'. Artwork duties are taken care of by Jim Fitzpatrick, the legendary Thin Lizzy man who's also worked closely of late with Ash and The Darkness.