New Irish thriller based on ‘crazy’ true story can be watched now

JOE interviewed its two stars, who said the movie's story feels 'too crazy to be true'.

Directed by Stephen Burke (2017's great historical prison drama Maze), the movie is inspired by the 2004 Northern Bank robbery in Belfast. Described as “one of the most notorious crimes in British and Irish history", over £26 million was stolen.

The film depicts the robbery's aftermath. Diana (Madeleine Madden, The Wheel of Time), a young Australian detective already in Northern Ireland tracing her family tree, is assigned by her superiors to investigate the heist. This is because the stolen money was Australian-owned.

She's paired with Crayford (Christopher Eccleston, Doctor Who), a world-weary Belfast cop certain the culprits are the IRA. Thrown together against their will, the two's investigation quickly "spirals into a series of wild and unexpected twists".

Watch the trailer for Chasing Millions right here:

The pair of Irish crime thrillers would make a great double bill, each spotlighting in different ways how bizarre the real-life events were. While Chasing Millions' use of comedy as a way into this tale sometimes feels at odds with the material, the investigation and its many twists and turns keep you guessing right until the very end.

Christopher Eccleston and Madeleine Madden Interview for Chasing Millions:

JOE spoke to Christopher Eccleston and Madeleine Madden at the Australian Embassy beside St. Stephen's Green in Dublin city as part of the Chasing Millions press tour.

The pair discussed the 'too crazy to be true' real-life events that inspired the movie, their love of filming in Ireland, acting opposite Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, and how they pick roles.

You can read that conversation in full below:

JOE: As a film fan in Ireland, it's always really exciting when international stars come here to film anything...

Christopher Eccleston: International stars!

Madeleine Madden: I'm like: 'Who?' [mimes turning around]. I mean you, of course [gestures to Eccleston].

JOE: What was it that drew you to this project?

CE: Money! [Laughing]

MM: In this economy... It was just such an exciting concept. I personally [had] never been a lead in a comedy before, so that was something that felt like a challenge and was really exciting

[Director Stephen Burke's] references and take on this story was really exciting. He used a lot of references like Fargo, and I grew up on that film. So, immediately that sort of set the tone of Chasing Millions.

CE: If you've seen Stephen's previous work, Maze, for instance, it's not what you expect, and I thought that was intriguing, that a director wanted to have a look at similar [topics], you know, the peace process, tensions in a light way.

I'm not particularly known for doing light work; that appealed. Yeah, an attempt at screwball comedy, being part of a duo, was really appealing and working in this country as well.

JOE: And the caption for the film says: 'Inspired by real events... the more unbelievable parts are true,' which is accurate because I knew of the robbery, but I didn't know that the money was Australian-owned...

CE: I didn't know the money was Australian-owned! The script brought me that. I didn't know that.

JOE: What was your reaction to reading up on this case? Because it's stranger than fiction.

CE: Yep.

MM: Yeah, I hadn't heard of it, and we were just saying before maybe that was intentional by the Australian media, to be like: [Talking out the side of her mouth] 'We don't know... bit embarrassing.' 

But yeah, had the exact same reaction... It just felt too crazy to be true.

JOE: And Christopher, you've filmed here a good few times now because you've got Chasing Millions, With or Without You and Come Home.

CE: That's right.

JOE: What have your experiences been like in Ireland?

CE: I love it here. I was just saying previously, if you're a creative person, you, you should come to Ireland because there's a love of art and culture here, and it's reflected in conversation and the craic.

It's there in any exchange on the street, a desire to take an exchange and make something more of it. So if you put that in the context of a play or a film... you've got to come here. I love working here.

JOE: Did I hear you brought a relative over for the premiere?

CE: My mum's here, Elsie. She's 94. Yeah, she was rocking up last night in a green dress, and now she's eating her way around Dublin, eating and shopping and talking her way around Dublin as we speak. Dundalk, look out, Elsie Ecclestone's coming.

MM: Dundalk is not big enough.

JOE: Madeline, how did you find working in Dublin and Dundalk? And then also, as you mentioned, this is your first lead role in a feature.

MM: It was a dream. Funnily enough. I was looking into my own Irish family genealogy around the time that the offer for this film came through. That really was life imitating art a bit because Diana, the character I play, she's doing the same thing for her mum's family.

So it just felt like a wonderful coincidence, and that's something that Stephen and I were chatting about. Then he was able to flesh that out even more than he already did.

It just felt like a very personal story, and it arrived at the right time for me in my life. And, like what Chris was saying, this is such a creative cultural country, and to just be able to not only visit here but work here is literally a dream.

JOE: And you have a couple of one-on-one scenes with Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, who's a bit of a legend here because he was in Love/Hate, which is sort of our version of The Sopranos. What was it like working with him?

MM: Amazing. He's one of those actors where you're acting opposite him and you just: '[Mimes being mesmerised] Oh, my turn. OK, yes, I'm sorry, you know, I'll say my line.'

He's incredible and he's worked with Stephen before, and that's something that's really wonderful about working with Stephen and [producer Jane Doolan]. It's like a family. Once you work with them, you're kind of always in the mix, but he's incredible. All of our cast, and every role, everyone just gave their all.

CE: Tom's an actor's actor.

MM: He is.

CE: And he plays these roles. He can be terrifying, and he's terrifying in this. The contrast is so stark to what he's actually like.

There's a lot of film and television made here in Ireland because the level of not just the actors but the technical stuff is so high. But combined with that work ethic, technical brilliance, creative brilliance is an absolute determination not to take themselves too seriously, which makes great art, I think.

MM: You definitely get lost in [Tom's] eyes, that's for sure.

CE: We're not curing cancer here, you know? This country is such an example. I wish my own country would take a few notes from it.

JOE: Brilliant, we love to hear that. [Madeleine laughs]

Christopher, you've had such an amazing career and worked with so many incredible directors like Danny Boyle and Michael Winterbottom and David Cronenberg. Also, The Shadow Line and The Leftovers are two of my favourite shows ever. Do you have a methodology for picking parts, and is there anything that you haven't done yet onscreen that you'd like to?

CE: Well, I mean, methodology for picking parts changes as your financial, marital, divorce, status [changes]. I've been doing it 44 years, so I was very, very idealistic at the beginning of my career, still am.

And I turned down a lot of money because I thought if I need to be regarded as a good actor, I need to work with great actors. Because without a decent script, it doesn't matter how good an actor you are.

So I've always been a writer's actor rather than a director's actor. But the best directors don't cross the road without a Bible, you know? They get the script right.

So there's no methodology apart from honouring the writer's vision because I think they're the most important people in our industry, and understanding that the audience are far more intelligent than the people who make it.

There's a culture in English film and television where they, the Oxbridge public school lot, think they're brighter than everybody else and they're patronising people. I've always stayed away from that. The audience is so far ahead of us. Whatever we make, they've seen it. So it's about respecting the audience's intelligence, I think.

Chasing Millions is in Irish and UK cinemas now.