Colm Meaney to play Ian Bailey in upcoming Jim Sheridan movie on unsolved Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder

Sheridan’s film Re-creation will revisit the murder of the Ms Toscan du Plantier in the town of Schull, Cork in 1996.

The French woman’s badly beaten body was found by neighbours in a laneway beside her holiday home in Schull on December 23, 1996.

Nobody to date has ever been charged in Ireland in connection with the 39-year-old's death.

The Commitments star (70) will play Mr Bailey, who was once the chief suspect in the murder and was arrested twice for questioning, however, the Director of Public Prosecutiions decided there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

Originally from Manchester, Mr Bailey, who was 66, died after he collapsed at home in his west Cork home in Bantry in January. Mr Bailey had a severe heart condition and was eligible for surgery before his death.

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Mr Bailey was a former journalist who lived two miles away from Ms du Plantier’s holiday home in the town. He was one of the first reporters to arrive at the scene following her murder.

He was convicted in absentia of the murder by a French court in 2020, which put a 25-year sentence on him. He stringently denied any involvement in Ms Toscan du Plantier's murder and, due to not present being in court for the French proceedings, he could not appeal the verdict.

However, the High Court in Ireland ruled that he will not be extradited to France to face that jail term.

Jim Sheridan’s new movie on the unsolved murder will question what happened almost three decades ago, using a fictional jury to deliberate over the facts of the case.

Games of Thrones, Kin and The Wire star Aiden Gillen has also been cast in the upcoming production.

Sheridan, speaking of Meaney and Gillen stated that he is “delighted to have two icons of Irish cinema join the cast”.

The movie is not Sheridan’s first foray and deep dive into the murder. In 2021, he made a documentary about it entitled Murder At The Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie.

Sheridan, who met Mr Bailey several times and spoke with him over the phone, previously told the Sunday Independent: “To say Ian Bailey died of natural causes is the Irish phrase for 27 years of torture.”

“He died of a bad heart, brought on by excessive drinking and smoking, but there was no doubt he had post-traumatic stress from all of this,” he added.