Australian actor and Hollywood star Mel Gibson is set to return to where Braveheart was filmed in Trim, Co Meath, next week to take part in celebrations for the film’s 30th anniversary.
Gibson, who produced, directed and starred in the film, will be guest of honour at the annual King John Summer Prom Festival in Trim. The theme for this year’s festival is the film Braveheart.
The actor will be flying in from Italy where he isdirecting a sequel to his 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, which is expected to come out in cinemas early next year.
The film Braveheart follows the story of Sir William Wallace, a minor Scottish noble, leading a failed uprising against English rule under King Edward I in the 13th century.
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In 1996, the film received 10 Oscar nominations and went on to win five: Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Effects, Best Makeup and Best Picture.
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Gibson is set to attend a concert in the evening of Friday, August 8th, celebrating Ireland’s musical heritage, where actor Patrick Bergin will perform. The following morning he will be signing Braveheart posters at Trim Castle Hotel, with all proceeds from the sale of the posters going to the Irish Equity Benevolent Fund, which supports Equity members in financial difficulty. Later that day, Gibson is scheduled to attend a matinee concert where the Irish Philharmonic Orchestra will perform music by cinema’s most celebrated composers and a special screening of Braveheart is planned for the evening.
David O’Hara, another Braveheart cast member, will also be attendance as well as Eric Lawlor, whose late brother Sean Lawlor played Gibson’s on-screen father Malcom Wallace.
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Gibson is a dual Australian and Irish passport-holder through his mother Anne Patricia Reilly, who was born in Ardagh, Co Longford.
The 1995 film was shot in various locations in England, Scotland and Ireland. The ruins of Trim Castle were transformed into the fortified English city of York for filming, with extensive wooden buttresses and a seven-ton gate temporarily added to the site.
The ‘London Square’ where Braveheart is punished for his leadership of the Scottish rebellion was also created at Trim, with the castle walls used as its backdrop.
Though the film was initially supposed to be entirely filmed in Scotland, Gibson saidit would be made for the most part in Ireland after a meeting with Irish producer Morgan O’Sullivan and then minister for the arts Michael D Higgins. Tax breaks and the availability of members of the Irish Defence Forces to act as extras in military scenes helped to change Gibson’s mind.
Many of the film’s interior scenes were shot at Ardmore Studios in Bray, Co Wicklow. Curragh Plain in Co Kildare was used for one of the film’s key battle scenes, with the scene taking six weeks to shoot, with nine cameras and more than 2,000 extras.
Bective Abbey in Co Meath was used as the castle of William Wallace’s enemy King Edward I of England and as the dungeons in which Wallace was imprisoned. The film’s ‘Edinburgh Castle’ where Wallace is taken by the English was actually Dunsoghly Castle in Co Dublin.
