NEIL JORDAN’S NEW film Byzantium is just one of 17 Irish titles that will be selling at market at the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival.

The movie, which stars Irish actress Saoirse Ronan, tells the story of a mother and daughter vampire duo.

IFTN reports that the Irish film had an estimated budget of €8 million.

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Here’s the stunning/stylish Byzantium poster, click the preview below for the full version in our gallery.

On the run for murder, two young “sisters” arrive penniless at an English seaside town. Clara is a fiercely modern woman who has her eyes on the future and no time for the past. Teenager Eleanor is shy and innocent. Yet, they both hide the same secrets: They are really mother and daughter, and they are both … vampires!

Eleanor is exhausted by 200 years on the run and desperate to settle down. But little does she know that her mother has been protecting her all of the years from their own kind, “The Brotherhood”. To escape them, they must either blend in or continue running away. But just as they think they may have escaped, their past rapidly catches up with them.

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I’ve added new photos of Saoirse on the set of Byzantium on January 10 and the first still for the film. Enjoy!

RTE One did an interview with Saoirse and Neil Jordan on the set of their new film Byzantium. Thanks to ragetti for the heads up.

Tom Hollander (Hanna), Jonny Lee Miller (Dexter), and Sam Riley (Control) have joined Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton in Neil Jordan‘s vampire movie Byzantium. Ronan and Arterton play a daughter and mother who are vampires who arrive in a small 18th century British town. Ronan’s character begins a relationship with a young man (Caleb Landry Jones) who’s dying of leukemia, which in turn forces him to struggle with his mortality and her to question her immortality.

Daily Mail doesn’t have any details on who the actors will play, but I’m happy to see Hollander in any movie. He’s a scene stealer and I’m curious to see what he’ll bring to the production.

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The first on set photos of Saorise on set of her upcoming movie “Byzantium” were released. She was seen on set of the movie December 13 and 15 in Dublin. We added the first photos in our gallery.

Gallery Link:
2012 : Byzantium > On Set : 12.13.11
2012 : Byzantium > On Set : 12.15.11

I added the first photos of Saoirse and her co-star Caleb Landry Jones filming Byzantiumin Dublin, Ireland. Enjoy! Thanks to M for the heads up.

‘Byzantium’, the latest film by Irish director Neil Jordan (The Borgias, Ondine) is set to begin shooting on location in Hastings, UK in the first week of December, moving to Ireland in mid-December until the beginning of February.

The fantasy thriller project is confirmed to shoot in Ardmore Studios and around the Dublin and Wicklow area. Producers at Irish production company Parallel Films are also currently scouting Irish locations in the West and South West of the country.

‘Byzantium’ was written by Moira Buffini and will star IFTA winning Irish actress Saoirse Ronan (Hanna, Atonement), British actress Gemma Arterton (Prince of Persia, Quantum of Solace) and ‘X-Men’ star Caleb Landry.

Hot on the heels of ‘Twilight’, Neil Jordan’s flick ’Byzantium’ is a thriller which tells the story of a mother and daughter vampire duo, who form a deadly pact. Other cast members include Brit favourites Sam Riley (Brighton Rock, 13) and Daniel Mays (The Adventures of Tintin, Doctor Who).

’Byzantium’ is a co-production between Parallel Films and UK production company Number 9 and is expected to release in 2012. Producers are Alan Moloney (Neverland) of Parallel films and Liz Karlsen (Made in Dagenham) of Number 9 Films and Stephen Woolley (Perrier’s Bounty).

The film carries an estimated mid-range budget with funding support from Irish Film Board and the UK Film Council.

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SAOIRSE Ronan is scaling new heights with noteperfect preparations for her latest role.

The young star has confounded musical experts by learning to play a complicated Beethoven piano sonata in just 12 weeks, despite having never played the instrument before.

The 17-year-old also stunned director Neil Jordan and left him “speechless” with her grasp of a difficult piece that even accomplished pianists find tricky.

Ms Ronan had never had a piano lesson in her life when Mr Jordan cast her as a music-loving vampire in his upcoming movie ‘Byzantium’.

The actress will play one half of a mother and daughter duo who arrive in a small English town in the movie, which co-stars Gemma Arterton and begins shooting in the UK and Bray’s Ardmore Studios next month.

“There’s this scene in the film where my vampire characters sits down to play an old piano and entrances everyone with her playing,” Ms Ronan revealed yesterday.

Mr Jordan had expected the Co Carlow teenager to mime her way through Beethoven’s ‘Piano Sonata Opus 2, No 3’.

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