John Morton

The character profile for Jane Tennyson has just gone online over on the Episode 4 page.

Played by Annette O’Shea, Jane is the slightly potty mouthed and somewhat aggressive Bangarda twin sister of Niall Tennyson, played by Sean Hackett.

Jane was another one of those characters that we had come up with very early on, but like Janine, we never got to put her into an episode until ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’. In that episode we only just about got her established, and even at that I’ve a feeling that she was established to be something she might not be. But we do get ample time to spend with her in the upcoming ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm’ where you’ll get a chance to see the character take a bigger part in proceedings.

In terms of the roots of this character, over on the Development page myself and Paddy have wrote another one of those needlessly over referential essays about characters that we do so like to write. This one is ‘The Making Of A Modern Law Lady’. And you’ll find out much more about the character and generally, why she exists.

As you can see, police dramas were a big part of our research. Especially TJ Hooker.

This is a little extra we’ve put up online as we approach the June 7th release of ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm’.

When we needed a movie trailer to be playing in the background of Tennyson’s cinema trip in ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’ there was only one movie star for us: Jason Statham.

We’ve had a long standing love of Statham. Kind of in an ironic way, but also in a way where we just plain like his gruff, ass kicking, high concept ways. Some legend is the Stath.

So this is our tribute to him: a fake movie trailer for a film called Dopplehammer. It features the vocal talents of Murt Brennan, Maria Murray, Eddie Murphy and Ross Costigan.

We’ve just posted a piece about the making of the Tatiana Leeson character from ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’

Played by Edwina Whearty, the silent but deadly Russian mail order bride from hell was the last character we conceived for Vultures and undoubtedly, the most Russian of them all.

For information on the character and how we came up with her, please do check out her entry on our increasingly unwieldy Development page.

Fred Bass (Eddie Brennan)

The long overdue character profile for monosyllabic, surly old sea dog Fred Bass has just gone online over on the Vultures Pilot page.

You can discover all you ever wanted to know about this most enigmatic of rum swilling fishermen cum store Santas.

Fred Bass was one of the very first characters we conceived. Mostly because of the fact that we had a Tintin-esque character in Niall Tennyson and it made sense to have a Captain Haddock character to compliment him. Although we have refrained from having Fred yelp ‘Blisterin’ barnacles!’ just yet. But give it time…

This photo, courtesy of Ross Costigan, places Fred right outside one of his favourite haunts, The Fish Centre. It’s one of my favourite Vultures character promos so far. Put Fred next to anything with fish and I’m happy out.

Pat Cairo (Paddy Dunne)

The character promo for the affable, guitar strumming Corkonian has just gone online on the Episode 4 section of the Vultures website.

Played by Paddy Dunne, Pat Cairo is possibly the nicest new boyfriend a girl could have. He also wears remarkably well knitted jumpers. All the more reason for Jim Vultour to hate him so.

Find out more about Pat Cairo and look at his smiling face right here. And if you just can’t get enough at this stage, then check out the Making Of Pat Cairo entry in the Development section of the website.

It’s got the background of how we came up with the character, why we came up with him and why he looks so much like Liam Clancy.

Pat Cairo was one of the most fun characters to write and I know Paddy had a blast playing him. He was mad for that little smig of his. Any excuse to grow it. There’ll be more Pat Cairo to come in the new Vultures episodes, most likely smiling and all. More on these new episodes I speak of very soon indeed.

Isabelle Vultour (Liadain Kaminska)

The newest in our Vultures character profiles is the extremely long overdue entry for the lovely Isabelle Vultour, played by Liadain Kaminska. The profile for the affable, softly spoken, ballerina sister of Jim Vultour and love interest of Dan McGrain can now be found on the page for the Vultures pilot.

Isabelle is a character that I really like, probably because she’s so nice, like any good love interest is. But I always liked the twist that she’s so nice that she attracts nice men who instead of flattering her, make her think she’s going to get perved on or raped. Like Dan McGrain. Who’s not like that but nowadays it’s not a good idea to send anonymous gifts and letters to a lady you like. For 8 years.

She’s spent the first 4 episodes being really nice but she’s finally going to have some material to get her teeth into in the next few episodes. Which is good because otherwise Liadain probably would have quit by now.

The newest update to our Vultures development section is an article about how we created that Guinness supping trad musician, Pat Cairo.

Pat Cairo is one of my favourite characters in Vultures. Probably because of how much he smiles. He went through an awful lot of different guises and looks before we went with the final one that jumped out of a van in ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates’. But as you can see, when it comes to The Clancy Brother’s jumpers, there is just no beating that look.

The full article about how we came up with Pat Cairo and all its pictorial bits and bobs can be viewed on the website right here.

After a year and a half of shooting, we wrapped Vultures on March 7th and I’m very pleased with what we’ve got in the can.

It’s been a long haul. A lot of commitment, a lot of compromise but most importantly, a lot of fun. There were times when our ambitions vastly exceeded our budget and resources but with a lot of help from a lot of good people, we finally got it done. Now it’s a weary sigh and a heavy heart and an eye on the next couple of months of post production and promotion. Tell people about it, go on. It has a website and everything.

The whole series has essentially been a big hobby for all of us. And at the end of it, looking back on the number of people who have worked on it, it’s tantamount to a community project. With each shoot, we’ve got better and more proficient and we hope that’s reflected in the last 3 episodes (more on that down the way). For the past 10 weeks everybody has been firing on all cylinders and we hope it represents the pinnacle of the work that everybody has put into this project. To them all, we tip our hats.

We are so proud and so thankful of the work that our entire cast and crew have put into this over the past year and a half. Without them, we would have been rightly screwed. Also, we are very grateful of the support from Young Irish Film Makers and Cartoon Saloon who have encouraged and supported us throughout this. Maybe they see in us the same young whippersnappers they once were, but the two organisations have been incredibly supportive and if we can continue to do work as they have done, we’ll be happy campers indeed.

The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm’ our fifth installment will make its bow online this spring. More details shall be leaked onto the interwebs in the coming weeks so keep an eye out.

Also, I can now finally and quite happily announce that there’s not going to be 6 episodes in total. There’s going to be 7. We lied. Well, not really. We just realised that to do justic to the story we needed more time to tell it and fuck it, we’re doing it for free anyway so why not? The finale of Vultures will be a two part installment and both episodes will tie us up in a nice little package when they’re released this summer. We know what the titles are, but we’ll not divulge them just yet for slightly spoilerish reasons. So yeah, ‘Tennyson Dies Of Cholera’ and ‘McGrain and Vultour Make A Porno’ will be surfacing soon. Keep an eye on www.VulturesPI.com for all updates.

From a personal standpoint, I’d like to thank a couple of people in particular. Firstly, Alan Slattery helped me hatch the idea to him when we really had no idea of what it would become. Since then he has worked non stop to make Vultures into the best damn low budget sitcom he possibly can. You couldn’t ask for a better producer and indeed, friend. Paddy Dunne has given this project his all ever since that day on a sweaty bus when I asked him if he’d be interested in writing this detective yoke with me. I’ve never had the pleasure of working so close with someone who’s had such similar sensibilities. The writing part of the process has been my absolute favourite, a true pleasure. Ross Costigan has worked his wee white cotton socks off on Vultures since October and we’re so grateful that he decided to put his life on hold for this. If it wasn’t for Ross, it’s very likely myself and Alan would have collapsed into a horrible multi-tasking mess before we got to the finish line so for that, we are eternally thankful.

And lastly, but not leastly, I’d like to thank David Thompson and Sean Hackett who have been on this project since it’s conception. Back in 2006 they were the only two actors I knew who had enough screen experience, acting chops and the crucial ingredient, availability. Coupled with the convenience of myself, it made the best sense as our central trio and ever since then they have given up so much of their time to work on Vultures. If we didn’t have the two of them, we wouldn’t have had a show. Simple as that. They are toppers. On the last shoot, it just seemed like we achieved a level of fluidity as a trio, a really good working partnership and it’s something I’d love to revisit at some stage. For now, I’ll rest. Cheers. Cheers everyone.