Janson Sets Worldwide Release for Classic Irish Comedy, The Book That Wrote Itself

Janson Media has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the classic Irish comedy, The Book That Wrote Itself, Liam O Mochain’s 1999 debut feature film. Television re-releases are already planned for Ireland and the UK. The film is now available to buy or rent on Amazon Video in North America, UK/Ireland and is available to view worldwide on Amazon Prime SVOD. The Book That Wrote itself screened at many international film festivals including Vancouver International Film Festival in Canada, Seattle and Boston in the USA, London, Cambridge and Raindance in the UK, Oslo in Norway, Mar del Plata in Argentina, Durban in South Africa and Galway film fleadh (World Premiere) in Ireland. The film picked up three international awards, including the Critics Prize at the Austin Film Festival.

"We are delighted that the film is getting an opportunity to be seen by a new audience worldwide with a really great distributor," said O Mochain. "Janson Media are well known and trusted in the industry and have been handling films from all over the world including Ireland for the past 30 years.” Stephen Janson, president of Janson Media says “the 20-year old Irish indie film The Book That Wrote Itself is firmly entrenched as a cult classic. The comedy is written & directed by Liam O Mochain, who also does a star turn as its leading man. Like the Steve Martin character in the film Bowfinger, O Mochain makes clever use of unwitting cameo appearances by Hollywood stars George Clooney, Chazz Palminteri, Kenneth Branagh, and Melanie Griffith.” Stephen Janson, president of Janson Media adds “our team is delighted to be working with such a singular talent as O Mochain, and we're fired up to introduce The Book That Wrote Itself to a new generation of cinemaphiles.” The narrator of the film is Michael D. Higgins.

The Book That Wrote Itself is about Vincent Macken (O Mochain) who has written what he thinks is the best novel ever, a Celtic quest saga set in Ireland 200 years ago. When he over hears literary agents at a book fair ridiculing his masterpiece, he vows to prove his detractors wrong. He hires Aisling (Antoinette Guiney) an aspiring filmmaker, to document his novel on video. Soon the novel takes on a life of its own, as she is more interested in making a documentary about him. Vincent finally decides that what he has created has the potential for a hit movie. He goes to the Venice film festival, scores a press pass and tries to convince Hollywood stars to come to Ireland to take part in his forthcoming movie. The result is not what he expected.

The film on its’ initial release received rave reviews Boston Herald called it “Funny, refreshing, an appealing road movie,” Time Out London “Inventive comedy that proves surprisingly memorable,” Film Threat “Audacious and cleverly executed, if ‘The Book That Wrote itself’ was actually a book, I’d recommend it.” Empire Magazine “Hip and Charming,” Sunday Times “Funny,” Seattle Weekly “Amusing,” BBC Film 2001 “Intriguing” and the Irish Times “Good Humoured.”

The film was released in Ireland in 2000, the UK in 2001, in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, S. Korea & Hungary in 2003. The film was re-released in the Ireland/UK on DVD in 2010 by Media sales/Sony for its 10-year anniversary. The film was produced by Siar A Rachas Muid Productions Ltd (‘WC’) with completion funding by Bord Scannan na hEireann/Irish Film Board.