A gripping new Irish crime drama is available to watch next week

The Oscar-nominated director of In the Name of the Father and My Left Foot spoke to JOE about his latest project, which has been dubbed 'the movie they don't want you to see'.

Co-directed by Oscar-nominee Jim Sheridan (In America, In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot), the movie sees him delving again into the real-life murder of French TV producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork in 1996.

The prime suspect in the killing was English journalist Ian Bailey, who was never charged in Ireland over the crime but was convicted of the murder in absentia in France.

Bailey denied having any involvement in Ms Toscan du Plantier's death and won a legal battle against extradition from Ireland to France. He died in January 2024.

Sheridan previously made a five-part documentary series for Sky about the killing and its aftermath, titled Murder at the Cottage. With Re-Creation, however, the filmmaker - alongside co-director David Merriman (Rock Against Homelessness) - re-examines the case through a blend of both documentary and drama to create a one-of-a-kind movie.

Re-Creation is an imagining of what might have happened had Ireland gone ahead with the trial of Ian Bailey (played by Colm Meaney, The Snapper). Inspired by the classic courtroom drama 12 Angry Men, it focuses mostly on the jurors as they examine the real-life case files in the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.

While the majority of the 12 (including John Connors and Sheridan himself) begin the drama certain of Bailey's guilt, one lone juror (Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread) has her doubts.

Re-Creation's inventive approach allows Merriman and Sheridan to share with the viewer, concisely and compactly, the information they find most vital regarding the murder investigation.

Yet, through the tale of these fictional jurors, it also enables the directors to explore the various different opinions and theories people have about this highly controversial and divisive case, as well as how people might have come to those conclusions.

Was it based on evidence? If so, can this evidence be relied upon? Or were these conclusions shaped by personal experience?

All in all, it's a gripping, complex film about big topics like justice, truth and doubt, while also serving as an important plea for a re-investigation into the killing of Ms Toscan du Plantier.

JOE sat down with Merrmian and Sheridan to discuss the movie. We first asked the Oscar-nominee what drove him to return to this case.

In response, Sheridan said: "Well, I had done Murder at the Cottage for Sky, and it was a five-part TV series on the murder of Sophie. But I didn't feel I had finished with the story, and the constraints of documentary didn't suit me because there was no emotion in it.

"Usually, that's what I deal with. So, I felt I had to put a bit of myself into the story. Apart from acting in it, I put it into the fictional side, into trying to use what I've known about fiction to investigate the story more than I could with facts."

Merriman first met Sheridan around the time of the release of Murder at the Cottage. Sheridan had helped promote Merriman's previous film, the documentary Rock Against Homelessness.

Sophie Toscan du Plantier

Together, the pair started doing their own research into the murder case. Merriman recalled: "Jim was very passionate about it, and that brought me to reading some of the material. Initially, for a good long time, it was myself and Jim going around shooting interviews, just literally the two of us, with people. Really, it was just trying to get to the truth of what was going on.

"As we explored that... we discovered some new information. I was very passionate about it, the same way Jim was. It created its own gravity."

Merriman and Sheridan are on the record as saying they believe that Bailey was wrongly accused of the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.

In fact, the press notes for Re-Creation state:

"Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey presents difficult and inconvenient questions around this highly controversial case.

"It explores whether any justice has been served in the killing of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier, and strongly suggests that the accused spent a lifetime vilified by authorities, media and public alike for a crime which he likely did not commit. If this is indeed the truth, what remains is the terrifying prospect that a vicious killer has enjoyed their freedom for more than 28 years.

"Re-Creation: The Trial of Ian Bailey, and the evidence of coercion, obfuscation and manipulation that comes to light in it… ultimately leaves viewers to make up their own minds."

This belief of the directors seemed to prove controversial as they tried to get Re-Creation made. Sheridan told JOE that he is sure that certain actors did not want to portray Bailey. He also revealed that Sophie's family told him that he shouldn't have made the movie because of the ongoing Garda investigation.

Sophie's family had participated in Murder at the Cottage. However, they later requested to have their contributions removed because of the documentary's suggestion that Bailey could be innocent.

On whether he talked to Sophie's family about Re-Creation and about them pulling out of Murder at the Cottage, Sheridan stated:

"Yeah, I talked to them a little bit. They're obviously saying we shouldn't be making [Re-Creation] because of a police investigation.

"But, you can't make a documentary where you have to find somebody guilty as a precondition. Like, who would do that? I would never agree to do that, you know? It's the opposite.

"I tried everything to get Ian Bailey to confess, including giving him a camera and telling him to film himself when he was drunk. And he got sloshed and was inarticulate and half out of it, but he never confessed.

"So, I did my best, but then I'm not going to say he did it just because they want me to say he did it. It's ridiculous."

Merriman added: "Look, the family… have kept [this case] alive in the media and they're right to keep attention on the case, and that's exactly what we're doing, as well."

On top of this, the directors faced several other issues as they tried to get the project off the ground.

Sheridan noted that it was "very difficult to get finance through the normal channels" for the movie because of its sensitive subject matter.

Eventually, they did receive help from Screen Ireland and Film Fund Luxembourg. Yet, just "two weeks out" from shooting, budgetary issues forced the directors to radically scale down their initial vision for the movie.

It was only then that the pair came up with the 12 Angry Men-style format, which is so integral to the finished project.

On this, Merriman explained: "We couldn't afford all the sets, so Jim had the idea of reducing it to just one set and us writing a script paying homage to 12 Angry Men and taking everything that we've really been working on the last couple of years and putting it into one movie.

"But… it's like anything else, creatively, you know? You start to do one thing, you end up doing another thing. I mean, thank God, we ended up doing what we did because... I think the other thing wouldn't have worked in the way that Re-Creation does."

Sheridan seconded this, stating that the limitations ultimately wound up helping the film.

"The limitation was a help because it just meant we were in one room and we could write an outline, which is what we did in about six days," the Oscar-nominee explains.

"We wrote an outline, a lot of dialogue for people, but there was a lot of freedom [for actors] to bring [their] own thing to it."

Also, on the limitations they faced, Sheridan added: "It gave us a chance just to focus down. We knew a lot about the story, so we could bring a lot of information to it.

"We didn't know where we were going when we started or when we started shooting, even. We were lucky to get a full story out of six days of shooting in a room."

As we mentioned above, Vicky Krieps plays Juror 8 in the film. She was actually initially cast to play Sophie Toscan du Plantier as a "kind of ghost... going back to all the places they were before they died", but her role changed as Merriman and Sheridan settled on the 12 Angry Men format.

While Krieps does still become a stand-in for Sophie in one very powerful scene in Re-Creation, JOE asked the directors what the actress' reaction was to her role changing so drastically.

Sheridan responded: "[She was] very accommodating and very open and very amazing. She knew a lot about the story and could improvise.

"Just little flickers she does, she's so truthful, you know? You can see it in the performance."

Krieps' big break came from starring in Phantom Thread opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, the actor who won his first Best Actor Oscar for his role in Sheridan's movie My Left Foot. Day-Lewis and Sheridan later collaborated again on In the Name of the Father and The Boxer.

We asked Sheridan if Day-Lewis put him in touch with Krieps, but the director said this was not the case, before he added: "Although I don't think it hindered me that I had worked with Daniel and she'd worked with Daniel.

"I met her in Berlin through the head of the film fund in Luxembourg, I think, and just convinced her to do it. It was that simple, and she was interested in the story."

The directors were also able to recruit a great supporting cast to take part in Re-Creation.

A friend of Sheridan's, Colm Meaney, agreed to play Bailey. On his casting, the director told JOE: "I just asked him and I said: 'You have no dialogue… You have one line, maybe.' And he's so good, he just did it."

As well as this, Aidan Gillen kicks off Re-Creation as the prosecuting barrister. This is nearly 30 years after the actor got his big break in the Jim Sheridan-penned Troubles drama film Some Mother's Son.

"There was no money in it for them," Sheridan said of Gillen and Meaney's involvement. "They just did it out of commitment to the story and to me and Dave, and they were great."

Colm Meaney as Ian Bailey in Re-Creation

Sheridan himself also has his biggest acting part to date in Re-Creation as the foreman of the jury, with the director joking that he "expects an Academy Award" for his turn.

Taking on the part allowed Sheridan to direct the rest of the cast and shape the story from within scenes.

On this, he said: "I had to do a lot of talking just to keep the story centred... After a while, I was [thinking]: 'Jesus, I hope I'm not saying too much.'

"But I had Dave sitting at the monitor, so if I said anything stupid, I mean, he was there to [stop me]."

This didn't seem like it was necessary, with Merriman praising his co-director's performance: "Jim is excellent in this. Everybody's talked about his performance. He really is very good."

On top of having difficulty acquiring funding for Re-Creation, the directors also said they struggled to secure distribution for the film, leading to them dubbing it: "The movie they don't want you to see."

This is despite the obvious public interest in the case and the glowing reviews Re-Creation received in the United States after the Tribeca Film Festival.

At the time of writing, the movie has a whopping 90% Rotten Tomatoes score.

As David explained, though, Irish audiences will finally be able to see Re-Creation through one particular cinema chain: "We actually were put in a position to distribute it ourselves, and Omniplex did a really good deal with us to help promote it.

"So we're really happy with our collaboration with them on that."

Vicky Krieps in Re-Creation

A Garda cold case review of Ms Toscan du Plantier's murder has been ongoing for over three years, with Merriman and Sheridan interested to see the findings, particularly relating to newly discovered DNA evidence.

As Merriman explains: "For a number of years, myself and Jim were going around shooting a doc. We don't believe, of course, that Ian did it, and we have an idea about who we think might have done it.

"I suppose if that ends up being the case, then we would probably release that doc, you know what I mean? But we'll have to see the DNA.

"I just hope for closure in the story for the family. It's the reason we started pursuing this because there was no closure, and there was no proper investigation done.

"It's brilliant that the cold case review has come about. That came about after we've been pursuing this, and we just want to shake the trees and get attention to the story."

Merriman told JOE that "a lot" of information gathered for this other documentary made it into Re-Creation.

He also said that, while making the unreleased doc, Sheridan visited Sophie's family on a couple of occasions to give them "new information" the filmmakers had.

On this, Sheridan revealed: "I've told them who I think was following Sophie in the town [in the days before her murder], which is not Ian Bailey, and nobody seems to have spoken to this person."

When JOE asked if this other documentary has a title, Merriman responded: "No, it's just a bunch of stuff we did. I don't know if it'll ever see the light of day."

Sheridan, however, added: "I think it will. I don't know when. Maybe when the truth comes out."

Re-Creation will be released exclusively in Omniplex cinemas from 3 October. Screenings will be followed by West Cork Murder: 2025 Case Analysis, a 30-minute filmed Q&A featuring Merriman and Sheridan, hosted by Jennifer Forde from the West Cork podcast.