Colm Meaney and Aiden Gillen to join Jim Sheridan’s True Crime Drama Re-creation

Colm Meaney and Aiden Gillen have joined the cast of six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan’s true-crime drama Re-creation, based on one of the most famous murders in Irish history.

Sheridan said that he is “delighted to have two icons of Irish cinema join the cast” following the casting announcement.

Co-writer and co-director of the film, David Merriman added, “Colm and Aidan both have starred in some of my favourite films and shows. As artists, they both elevate any project, and we are so grateful to have them onboard.”

The crime drama will be looking back on the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a French film and TV producer, who was killed while on holiday at her vacation home in Cork in December 1996.

A local journalist, Ian Bailey, was arrested twice as a suspect for the murder and was released both times due to lack of evidence.

Bailey was later convicted of the homicide in Paris in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, leading to the French authorities seeking his extradition to France to serve the sentence, but the Irish courts refused to extradite him.

Re-creation is inspired by Sydney Lumet’s classic 12 Angry Men and will question the reality of what happened nearly through the perspective of a jury debating the real-life facts of the case.

The film aims to demonstrate why nobody was ever convicted or punished in Ireland for Toscan du Plantier’s murder through examining truth, bias and how narrative shapes our worldview.

The true-crime film is produced by Tina O’Reilly of Hell’s Kitchen in Ireland and Fabrizio Maltese of Luxembourg’s Joli Rideau Media with backing from Screen Ireland, Film Fund Luxembourg, Eurimages and the Doha Film Institute.

Documentary segments are being shot in Ireland, France, and the U.S., while the fictional sequences will be filmed on a sound stage in Luxembourg.

Meaney is best known as Star Trek’s Chief Miles O’Brien in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as dozens of high profile films and TV series.

Gillen boasts a similarly impressive resume as the recipient of three Irish Film & Television Awards and has been nominated for a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award, and a Tony Award, with his most memorable roles appearing in HBO’s Game of Thrones and The Wire.