Thanks to the lovely people at Cinemagic we attended tonight’s European premier of City of Ember. City of Ember (Walden Media) is based on the 2003 novel The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau. The novel was adapted by Caroline Thompson, and the film is directed by Gil Kenan. City of Ember will be released on October 10, 2008 and is rated PG.

Saoirse Ronan introduces the film.

The story follows two children, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, who live in the City of Ember, an underground city built to house a human community for 200 years. Having reached the end of its 200-year mission, Ember’s power source begins to become problematic and the lamps start to flicker. Together, the children search for clues that will unlock ancient mysteries about the city and save the people of Ember and get out before it’s too late.

The entire night was fantastic. Arriving at Movie House to find the same performers who worked with Duke Special during the Empire series of events. Fire eaters, stilts and centre stage was the actual City of Ember statue. 

After a drinks reception Richard Williams, CEO Northern Ireland Screen outlined the success of City of Ember highlighting the fact the film is the biggest title to come out of Northern Ireland and featured a large NI cast of crew and extras. Gregory Campbell spoke briefly about the creative industries in NI and star of the film Saoirse Ronan (Oscar®  nominee for Atonement) introduced the film.  There was certainly massive excitement about Saoirse’s presence. Saoirse had actually just attended the New York premier the previous evening !

So was it worth the wait ? Absolutely. Like many others we had met some of the stars of the film while they were in Belfast. It was a strange feeling to see what they were filming finally on the big screen. City of Ember is a gripping family adventure.

The setting is visually spectacular and the special effects are absolutely stunning. It was easy to see why NI Screen have such pride in the film, the city creation is remarkable and it is hard to believe it all happened 2 miles from the centre of Belfast.

I guess there are obvious comparisons to the Walden’s Narnia series of films and even though we are massive CS Lewis fans City of Ember is easily on a power. 

There was the odd flurry of applause when an extra was recognised on screen and the end credits received the longest film applause we have seen. The final icing on the cake was a City of Ember chocolate courtesy of NI Screen on the way out were the audience were met with mics and cameras. 

If you want to enjoy City of Ember to the full I would definitely encourage you  to see it in the Cinema (out on the 10th). The film won’t disappoint  and you can’t help feel a sense of pride that it was made in Belfast. 

Links:
Official Website
Cinemagic
Northern Ireland Screen 
Behind the Scenes of City of Ember

Additional information :
Directed by Gil Kenan (Oscar®  nominee for Monster House), and produced by Playtone’s Gary Goetzman and Tom Hanks, Oscar® nominee Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) as Lina leads an impressive cast that also includes Oscar® nominee Bill Murray, in the role of the larger than life Mayor of Ember, Harry Treadaway (Control) as Doon, Oscar® nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies) as Clary, and Toby Jones (Infamous) as Barton Snode, the Mayor of Ember’s right hand man. Oscar® winner Tim Robbins plays Loris Harrow, father of Doon, and Oscar® winner Martin Landau appears as Sol, the Pipeworks gauge minder.

The film is from a script by Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) based on the best-selling novel by Jeanne Duprau.

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