THE highly praised young Irish playwright, Conor McPherson, makes his debut as a screenwriter next month with I Went Down, an underworld comedy set in Dublin. The film starts shooting in west Dublin for seven weeks from September 9th, with Paddy Breathnach, who made Ailsa, directing and Rob Walpole of Treasure Films producing. Brendan Gleeson and Peter Caffrey are the first cast members to be signed for the production.

Conor McPherson, who is 24, won the Stewart Parker award in 1995 and the Thames Television Playwright award a year later, and he has been appointed writer in residence at the Bush Theatre in London where his play, This Lime Tree Bower, opened to Paddy says he was complete enchanted" by McPherson's previous play, The Good Thief when he saw it on the fringe of the 1994 Dublin Theatre Festival. "Conor's a wonderful storyteller with a great sense of humour and a really good ear for dialogue," he told Reel News. "After Rob and I saw The Good Thief we hooked up with Conor and discussed various screenplay ideas."

The film, which has a budget in the region of £1.8 million, has the backing of BBC Films, Bord Scannan na hEireann, RTE, Section 35 investment and Paddy Breathnach's share of the Euscal Media Prize which Ailsa won at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 1994. That prize worth £250,000 towards the filmmakers' next production - was shared by producer Ed Guiney, who put his half towards the production of Guiltrip, and Breathnach.