Sep 02, 2008

The gala premiere of DDA production designer Eve Stewart’s latest film, Fifty Dead Men Walking, will go ahead at the Toronto International Film Festival, after a legal dispute threatened its release.

Canadian helmer Kari Skogland (Liberty Stands Still, The Stone Angel) directs a tense story inspired by the shocking real-life events detailed in Martin McGartland’s autobiography. In the sweeping yet highly personal political thriller, Across the Universe star Jim Sturgess plays McGartland, a Belfast lad who spied on the IRA for the British Police in the late 80s.

McGartland simultaneously rose through the ranks of the IRA while feeding intelligence to the British Special Branch. After being caught and tortured by the IRA, he dramatically escaped and remains in hiding today.

The reticent and untraceable McGartland appeared in The Hollywood Reporter on Aug. 22 explaining his moral and legal objections about the “false and distorted account of what took place.” On Aug. 26 however, production companies Future Films and HandMade Films International said, "In response to reports in The Hollywood Reporter, the film's partners have confirmed that any queries relating to the legitimacy of the film are unfounded and that due process has been followed throughout the production." The festival bow received an all clear.

The film’s contentious subject matter is generating intrigue around its imminent release, as it has not yet been available to members of the press.

The film also stars Ben Kinglsey, Rose McGowan, Kevin Zegers and Nathalie Press.

London-based production designer Eve Stewart brings an innate sensitivity to all of her work, informed by exhaustive grassroots research. As the filming took place on location in Belfast, Stewart retained an awareness of her responsibility. “This was both a joy and a pressure as I was so determined not to do any of those communities involved any disservice,” she says. “I worked incredibly hard to ask those who had been directly involved for their truths.

“My overall approach to the design was to accurately represent a hard existence in a troubled state; to show that it was to all intents and purposes viewed as a war on the streets. This I hoped to convey through the grey hard and scarred surfaces of the city, with its warm secret spaces where all manner of deals and whispers occurred, where the humanity or angry inhumanity was free to take hold.”

Fifty Dead Men Walking also represents Stewart’s first time working with director Skogland. “I blooming loved it,” she says. “[Skogland] is gutsy and real, her heart and soul were poured into this project. Even with all the political difficulties she told a story with great style and truth.”

Stewart’s lasting association with British film luminaries including Mike Leigh, Guy Ritchie and Terry Gilliam has placed her at the forefront of production design in world cinema. Prior to Fifty Dead Men Walking, she designed the Jane Austen biopic Becoming Jane and Revolver, starring Jason Statham and Ray Liotta

She has worked on six of Leigh’s films since 1990, when she first created the Thin Man logo for his breakthrough Life is Sweet feature. Other credits include De-Lovely for director/producer Irwin Winkler, Nicholas Nickleby for writer/director Douglas McGrath and Saving Grace for director Nigel Cole.

In 2006 Stewart received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie and a Best Production Design BAFTA nomination for her work on HBO TV’s Elizabeth I. Her contribution to De-Lovely earned her the Golden Satellite Award for Best Art Direction in 2005 and she was nominated for a Best Art Direction Academy Award in 1999 for Leigh’s lavishly detailed Gilbert and Sullivan biopic Topsy Turvy.

The Gala Presentation of Fifty Dead Men Walking is scheduled for Wed., Sep. 10 at 9:30 p.m. at the Roy Thomson Hall, followed by a public screening on Thurs., Sep. 11 at 9:00a.m at the Ryerson Theater.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sep. 4-13. For more information about tickets and locations please visit the Toronto International Film Festival website at www.tiff08.ca.

Dattner Dispoto and Associates’ cinematographers, Robert Gantz, Giles Nuttgens, Peter Donahue, Maryse Alberti and Sam Levy, along with production designer Phillip Barker, will also have films screened at the festival this year.