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THE $100 MILLION MAN That is indeed what Morgan O’Sullivan has generated from his Ardmore based World 2000
Over the past 12 months or so, Morgan O’Sullivan reckons his Ardmore-based company World 2000 has helped generate more than $100 million worth of film and TV production in Ireland. Among that awe- some ton of product, it fully financed Pierce Brosnan’s The Nephew and co-pro- duced everything from a pair of Barbara Taylor Bradford telemovies to Alan Parker’s long-awaited latest Angela’s Ashes not to mention a new anima- tronic version of George Orwell’s
classic Animal Farm from the Henson people.
Now, as the industry current- ly waits with bated breath for a crucial decision by Films Minister Sile de Valera on the
by Irish technicians, he successfully delivered a mil- lion dollar film in 20 days: “It wasn’t that we couldn’t make pictures here. It was a question of learning a whole new grammar connected with the production of TV movies and series. In the event everyone per- formed magnificently.”
After that he began to move gradually away from the microphone and eventually fulltime into the biz working on shows like The Mannions Of America and Remington Steele. This would prove the beginning of
a long friendship with Pierce Brosnan and a fruitful relationship with MTM, the most fashionable compa- ny of the day. When MTM bought Ardmore Studios, O’Sullivan ran it for them. When MTM was taken over and Ardmore finally sold off, he eased back into pro- duction again.
Four years later, in partnership with an old MTM colleague Tom Palmieri and businessman Bernard Somers, O’Sullivan formed World 2000 to develop, produce and distribute feature and television enter-
tainment for the global market. This was also the dawn of an innovative new tax regime introduced by the then Films Minister Michael D Higgins which would help generate a whole new raft of production.
O’Sullivan, along with other key Irish industry figures like present Film Censor Sheamus Smith had long advo- cated this kind of Government initia- tive. He was now in a perfect position to be the middle man, as it were, secur- ing finance and providing production services for the likes of Braveheart, Moll Flanders, Scarlett, Sweeney Todd and The Old Curiosity Shop.
“Our eventual aim,” says O’Sullivan, “is to be in the television distribu- tion business. That’s where the control real- ly lies. It’s really important we grow companies. The indus- try here and in other European countries is very project-driven and so we need to develop corporate
structures to provide proper continuity.
“Ireland’s got so much going for it. The demo-
graphics are very interesting when you consider that 50 per cent of the population is under 25 and fifty per cent of that is third level educated. So this is reputed to be the best-educated young work force in Europe.
“There’s a vitality here that’s tremendous espe- cially in the area of computer technology and that’s the way the entertainment industry must move too, whether it’s in delivery systems or in a more cost- effective method of production. We must be open to change, otherwise we’ll stagnate and die,” warns O’Sullivan. ■ QUENTIN FALK
long-term renewal of Irish tax
incentives, what better example,
O’Sullivan argues, could there be
of domestic diligence and com-
mercial intent? As chairman of
the Irish Film & TV Academy and also a member of the Irish Film Board, O’Sullivan resides at the very heart of a business he has helped foster ever since he first got the bug more than 25 years ago.
In those days he was a prolific radio and televi- sion broadcaster reporting from film and TV sets around the world. He was particularly impressed with the production skills and speed of shows like Hawaii 5-0 and after some spectacular wheeling and dealing finally managed to persuade NBC to shoot a Freddie Forsyth-scripted Movie Of The Week in Ireland.
At first, he now recalls, NBC seemed adamant that the show needn’t move further than a Hollywood backlot. But O’Sullivan proved persuasive and with key personnel from the 5-0 operation understudied
Photos left: Robert Carlyle and baby Sam O’Gorman in Angela’s Ashes; main: Morgan O’Sullivan; above: The Nephew poster art; right: Donald McCann and Pierce Brosnan in The Nephew.
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