It’s very film friendly,” he adds.Īccording to Tempest, finding financing for the $4.5m (£3m) project turned out to be easier than usual because “when we were pitching it, people got it straight away and could see that there would be an audience.” “It’s not a big city so it’s easy to get around. “Dublin is an expensive city and we were on a competitive budget, so Belfast worked for us, especially as Northern Ireland Screen were prepared to help out” says Belfast bred Huffam, who recently wrapped fantasy film Your Highness with Natalie Portman in the city. Tempest brought Belfast based Huffam in as a third producer, who suggested shooting in Belfast. “Real commercial potential, but also the emotional depth of the characters which will hopefully resonate with people. “It had all the things I look for in a film,” says Tempest. Meanwhile, Hamm’s agent had sent the script to UK sales outfit Salt, where production and acquisitions director Piers Tempest was so impressed he decided to come on board as a producer. My first reaction was, I’ve heard that before, but it actually turned out to be really good.” “I didn’t know Nick, but we had a mutual friend who told me that he had optioned the book and suggested that I take a look at it.

The film is written and directed by Martha Meet Daniel, Frank And Lawrence director Nick Hamm, who bought the rights to McCormick’s book back in 2004 and “saw the potential, because it is a great story of failure counterpointed against success.”Ĭhannel 4 had paid for the first draft, but it was at this point that Ian Flooks who spent 20 years working in the music industry as U2’s agent before deciding he would rather like to make films, came on board as a producer. Huffam’s story is that he filmed at The Edge’s pub whilst working as a location manager over a decade ago.īut it is the real life story of Neil McCormick (played by Ben Barnes) and his brother Ivan (Robert Sheehan), who had to face up to the fact that their rival school band went on to become U2, that has inspired Killing Bono. “Everyone from Ireland has a U2 story,” says Mark Huffam, one of the producers of Killing Bono, which has just wrapped in Belfast after a six week shoot.

Neil mccormick killing bono