Deadpan PICTURES
Ireland
CONTACT
AILISH MCEIMEELl
Co-Founder
PAUL DONOVAN
Co-Founder
+35 3874045640
COMPANY PROFILE
Established in 2014 by Paul Donovan and Ailish McElmeel, Deadpan Pictures is an award-winning boutique production company specializing in drama with a comic tone. We bring projects with unique voices and a distinctly Irish flavor to international audiences. We are talent-friendly producers who craft content from development to production. Our latest drama series is NORTHERN LIGHTS for TG4, Streamz, and ZDFNeo in association with Screen Ireland and Lionsgate TV. Previous productions include CAN'T COPE WON'T COPE which sold to Netflix and BBC and the critically acclaimed DEAD STILL for ZDFE, Acorn, and RTE. The company also produced the series NOWHERE FAST and the ratings hit THE SOUTH WESTERLIES. Deadpan co-produced International Emmy-winning MOONE BOY WITH BABY COW FOR SKY, WOMEN ON THE VERGE WITH MERMAN for UKTV, and DEPARTURE 2 with Shaftesbury Films in Canada for Peacock and Red Arrow. Film productions include FOUR KIDS and IT (2020), THE LAST RIGHT (2019), and HALAL DADDY (2017).
COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS
GIRLS & GODS (IN DEVELOPMENT)
Format: Documentary
Directors: Arash T. Riahi, Verena Soltiz
Screenplay: Inna Shevchenko
What happens when women take over religions instead of fighting them? Radical feminist Inna Shevchenko (Femen) leads a groundbreaking journey into the age-old conflict between religion and women.
THE PUCK AROUND (IN DEVELOPMENT)
Format: TV Series
Genre: Comedy Drama
Director: Alexandra Makarová
Screenplay: Alexandra Makarová
Vienna, the early 1980s. Perla, a Czechoslovak dissident and single mother, is in a relationship with the Austrian Tibetologist Josef. One day she receives a call from her little daughter’s father, who is terminally ill back home and wants to see them for the last time. By secretly going back, she not only puts her newly built existence at risk but also her freedom.
VIDEO NASTY (IN DEVELOPMENT)
Format: TV Series
Genre: Darkly Comic Drama
Screenplay: Hugh Travers
When three teenagers go on an epic quest to complete a cult horror VHS collection, they inadvertently find themselves chief suspects in a gruesome murder investigation. Now they must work together to escape and clear their names.
NORTHERN LIGHTS 2023
Format: TV Series
Genre: Darkly Comic Drama
Director: Tom Hall, Ruth Meehan, Anthony Schatteman
Screenplay: Stephen Jones
Cast: Stephen Jones, Elva Trill, Jennifer Heylen, Jay Duffy
Northern Lights tells the story of two grieving strangers, Lloyd and Áine, whose worlds collide on a rainy night in Dublin. Looking out on to the River Liffey from the window of his flat, Lloyd notices Áine standing on Grattan bridge, completely soaked, for far longer than seems normal. Fearing the worst and based on an experience, he decides to intervene. A series of revelations, confessions, secrets and lies follow as we delve into these extraordinary ordinary Dublin lives. Northern Lights is a charming, intimate, funny, and realistic depiction of modern-day Dubliners, living, loving, grieving, and fighting back.
Press Articles
TG4 announces new Irish-Belgian grief-themed drama Northern Lights
DEADSTILL 2020
Format: TV Series
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Period Drama
Director: Imogen Murphy, Craig David Wallace
Screenplay: John Morton, Imogen Murphy
Cast: Michael Smiley, Aidan O'Hare, Eileen O'Higgins, Kerr Logan
A macabre comedy about the strange adventures of Blennerhasset and Molloy, Dublin’s most famed memorial photographers. Dublin, 1880. Cameras are becoming cheaper and the country is flourishing with photographic studios. However, the practice of memorial portraiture is on the wane. That is the portrait photography of the recently deceased. Renowned memorial photographer Brock Blennerhasset tries to revive his business after an accident, requiring the assistance of his estranged niece Nancy Vickers, and his over-enthusiastic new assistant Conall Molloy. After a rocky start, their working relationship begins to develop but it appears someone more sinister is getting in on the death photography game. The investigations of Detective Frederick Regan of Dublin Castle suggest a killer may be cashing in on a developing taste for a different type of memorial imagery, in this case, pictures of people in their death throes. As the body count begins to escalate, Blennerhasset, Molloy, and Nancy have to stop a murderer intent on ruining not just their business, but their lives.
Edgar Allan Poe Awards (2021)
CAN'T COPE, WON'T COPE 2016-2018
Format: TV Series
Genre: Comedy Drama
Director: Cathy Brady, Imogen Murphy
Screenplay: Catherine Maher
Cast: Orla Brady, Eileen Walsh, Steve Wall, Ger Ryan
When a small town on the south-west coast of Ireland, is earmarked for a Norwegian-owned wind farm, it’s not just the spectacular scenery that’s under pressure. For the straight-talking Dublin woman tasked to go undercover and bring the project home, her eco-battle with the town is compounded by the re-appearance of a crinkly-eyed surfer with an unmistakable resemblance to her teenage son.