New Film Shoot Starts on Monday
Posted at 3:35 PM (PDT) on Sunday, May 16, 2004

Sunday Mirror
May 16, 2004
Ulster Edition

Gillian's Next File; Sci-Fi TV Star Jets in to start work on new film

By Lynne Kelleher

X-FILES beauty Gillian Anderson is to jet into Belfast today for her latest move role as the ex-girlfriend of an IRA terrorist just released from jail.

The American actress, who was once voted the sexiest woman on the planet, will star opposite Scottish actor Robert Carlyle in the film called The Mighty Celts.

The actress is due to play the mother of his son and the film will be shot in Belfast over the next six weeks.

When Carlyle's character is freed from jail after 12 years, he bumps into his old flame Kate and later discovers he had fathered her 11-year-old son Donal.

The pounds 2 million low-budget movie, which is scheduled to begin shooting tomorrow, is set in the world of greyhound racing as the little boy helps out at racing kennels.

A movie insider said: "Gillian Anderson and Robert Carlyle will be flying in this week. It's a sweet story about the boy and how they relate to him. Robert Carlyle's character, who is nicknamed 'O', is unaware he has a son at first. A lot of the film is about him getting to know his son and his mother after all those years in jail."

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny shot to fame around the world when the X-Files burst on to our screens just over a decade ago.

The latest film about the reformed IRA assassin and his new family was originally entitled Valhalla, it has been revealed, but producers have changed the name to The Mighty Celts.

Carlyle played psychopaths in Cracker and Trainspotting, and starred as Hitler in The Rise Of Evil.

The Mighty Celts, which is funded by the Irish Film Board, TV3 and the BBC, will be shot entirely on location in Belfast over the coming weeks.