PLANS TO turn the 1975 Miami Showband massacre into a Hollywood film are at an advanced stage.
The Irish Timeshas learned that negotiations are ongoing between film producers in New York, Los Angeles and London to put one of the most horrific events of Northern Ireland's Troubles onto the big screen.
Guitarist Steven Travers, who survived the horrific UVF attack on one of Ireland’s most popular showbands, said at the weekend that the level of interest so long after the massacre has surprised him.
“We have been approached by four movie companies, and the one that appealed to us was the offer made by Regent St Media in London.
“I know [producer] Tom Jennings, and I know he won’t sensationalise the Miami tragedy,” he said.
The Miami Showband killings, which occurred 35 years ago this week on July 31st, 1975, remain one of the darkest atrocities of recent Irish history.
The band’s popular lead singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy were killed by a UVF gang after their minibus was flagged down by paramilitaries masquerading as a legitimate British army checkpoint at Buskhill, north of Newry, in the early hours of the morning.
Singer Des Lee and Steven Travers survived the tragedy, despite being shot.
Some 35 years on, the killings have generated renewed interest in the wake of the publication in 2007 of The Miami Showband Massacre: A Survivor's Search for the Truth, which was written by Travers and journalist Neil Fetherston-Haugh.