ken-branagh: Kenneth Branagh is shooting a semi-autobiographical film called Belfast, inspired by hi
ken-branagh: Kenneth Branagh is shooting a semi-autobiographical film called Belfast, inspired by his early childhood growing up in Northern Ireland surrounded by a large extended family. The actor, who was born in Belfast, described his latest project as a “very personal movie about a place and people I love.”Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds are playing Branagh’s grandparents. Caitriona Balfe and Jamie Dornan have been cast as Branagh’s parents. Jude Hill is playing the young boy based on Branagh during his early years in Belfast amid the tumult of the late-1960s.The film is not a straightforward biography of Branagh’s childhood, so at present Hill’s character isn’t called Kenneth. It is an ensemble piece.Branagh has often spoken of the city that “shaped” him, recalling how his parents, Frances and William, were related to half of Belfast “and I went to school with the other half”. He visited his grandparents twice a week and, at the age of nine, felt the wrench when his dad, a joiner, and mum, who worked in a chip shop, moved to Reading, Berkshire, to escape The Troubles.The actor, writer and director, whose films include Hamlet, Dunkirk, My Week With Marilyn and Murder on the Orient Express, to name but a few, was given the Freedom of Belfast in 2018. He said at the time: “I’m proud to say that you can take the boy out of Belfast, but you can’t take Belfast out of the boy.”The production has already started shooting on locations in England, while part of the film will be shot in Belfast. The entire shoot is expected to take place over three to four weeks.Source: Baz Bamigboye via Twitter, Belfast Telegraph -- source link