Former IRA double agent angered by TIFF-bound film based on his story
A man who risked his life to infiltrate and spy on the Irish Republican Army 20 years ago is protesting a new film inspired by his story and set to debut at next month's Toronto International Film Festival.
Martin McGartland says the new Canadian-British co-production Fifty Dead Men Walking, inspired by his bestselling 1997 memoir of the same name (co-written by Nicholas Davies), is a "distortion" of the facts.
Written, directed and co-produced by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Kari Skogland, the drama stars Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess and Rose McGowan, who are all expected in Toronto to promote the film's world premiere.
McGartland protests film, threatens lawsuit
Citing a problem with a print to be screened, the movie's distributor cancelled a pre-festival press viewing of Fifty Dead Men Walking on Friday, according to industry newspaper Hollywood Reporter.
The same day, McGartland issued a statement threatening legal action, saying producers had ignored his complaints so far.
"The film is an entirely false and distorted account of what took place," McGartland said in the statement.
McGartland was an informer in Belfast working for British authorities in the 1980s. He infiltrated the IRA in 1989 and his tips helped foil a host of murders and bombings. However, his cover was blown in 1991 and he was kidnapped and interrogated. He managed to escape and continues to live under an assumed identity to this day.
The film portrays the story of an informant named Marty who infiltrates the IRA, but eventually gets caught.
Protest after McGartland read script
Earlier this year, when Fifty Dead Men Walking was being marketed at the Cannes International Film Festival, McGartland told the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper he was initially delighted when he heard the film was underway.
However, after reading the script, he said he felt it had "distorted" his life story and called for changes to be made.
Among his complaints is that that the film's main character is portrayed as a IRA member who decides to switch sides for payment. He also objects to certain scenes, including one where, while working undercover, the character witnesses the torture and killing of a suspected informant.
McGartland told the U.K.'s Press Association that he had only joined the IRA to spy on it and that he had never witnessed such a killing.
"I was never in such a position, never, ever," he said. "I cannot understand why they had to change things to that extent."
Fifty Dead Men Walking will have a high-profile gala screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10.