Hi everyone,

My name is Chris Jacobsen and I’m an actor and filmmaker from Cardiff. Working alongside me on this project is filmmaker Marko Möttönen from Finland, and together we’re making a documentary called Daragh and Brando.

THE STORY

Back in 1995, Marlon Brando came to Ireland to shoot a film called Divine Rapture. Two weeks later, the production collapsed and the film was never finished. But something survived from it, a friendship between Irish actor Daragh O’Malley and one of the greatest Hollywood actors ever, Marlon Brando.

Daragh O’Malley, best known to audiences for his iconic role as Sergeant Patrick Harper in the Sharpe film series, as well as his memorable turn in the cult classic Withnail and I, went from admiring Brando from afar to sharing a pint of Guinness with him in a small Irish pub, Brando’s first and only Guinness, which he hated. Nearly thirty years later, Daragh still has the voicemails Brando left him sitting on an old answering machine in his house in Ireland.

On a personal level, I grew up obsessed with the TV series Sharpe and years later, while casting a short film, we contacted Daragh almost blindly, never expecting a reply. To our excitement, he got back to us and wanted to be part of it.

Over the years that followed, Daragh and I became close friends, with many long phone calls about filmmaking, theatre, Ireland, Hollywood, acting, friendship, grief and life itself. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, Daragh started talking about Divine Rapture, the unfinished film he made with Brando.

The more I heard about it, the more it stayed with me. Not because of the Hollywood side of it, but because of the warmth when Daragh spoke about him, the humour and the feeling that these two men genuinely connected during those strange weeks in Ireland before the whole production disappeared.

The deeper we got into these conversations, the more the film opened up beyond Brando. There were countless stories from Daragh’s years making Sharpe, the brutal filming conditions of those early productions, the friendships built over more than a decade of filming and the lasting bond the cast and audience still seem to share all these years later. As a huge Sharpe fan myself, hearing those stories felt like uncovering this entire hidden world behind something I had loved growing up and still love just as much to this day.

There were also stories about Daragh spending six months living in a cabin with Hugh Grant during Grant’s very first acting job, and his long friendship with Richard Harris, whose daughter was once engaged to Daragh’s father. Everything slowly started connecting together into something much bigger than we originally imagined. There were stories too about Daragh’s mother and the famous Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh, and the extraordinary fact that Ireland’s beloved song On Raglan Road was written about her.

WHY WE’RE MAKING THIS NOW

Over the last couple of years, Daragh has had some health scares, nothing we want to sensationalise or go into publicly, but it made me realise how fragile all of this actually is. Right now, most of these memories only exist in phone calls, photographs, old tapes and the stories Daragh carries around with him every day.

And I kept thinking, what happens if they disappear before anyone gets the chance to hear them properly?

Daragh still has original footage from Divine Rapture, photographs and the voicemails. For the first time, we want to capture him revisiting those memories on camera, not as a glossy celebrity documentary, but something much more personal than that.

We want to film Daragh exactly as he is now, driving through Kerry, sitting in pubs, making tea, listening back to old voicemails, spending time at home with his parrot Vincent and remembering moments from a life spent around extraordinary people while still carrying all of it with warmth, humour and complete lack of ego.

HELPING US BRING THIS STORY TO LIFE

To bring this story to life properly, we need to raise £7,000. Every pound goes directly into making the film, travel from London to Ireland, accommodation, equipment, sound, storage and getting a tiny crew into Kerry to capture this while we still have the chance.

There’s no studio behind this and no production company funding it, just two independent filmmakers trying to preserve something beautiful before it disappears.

Thank you so much for reading and for supporting independent filmmaking like this. It genuinely means a lot.

Chris & Marko

ADDITIONAL FUNDRAISER INFORMATION

There will be no raffles, sweepstakes, giveaways, or promotions or any financial exchange offered in exchange for any donations made to this campaign.

My name is Chris Jacobsen and I am one of the filmmakers behind this documentary project alongside Finnish filmmaker Marko Möttönen. I have become close friends with Irish actor Daragh O’Malley over the last few years after first working with him on a short film, and the documentary is being made in direct collaboration with him.

All funds raised through this campaign will go directly towards the independent production of the documentary, including filming costs, travel between the UK and Ireland and other travel costs, accommodation in Ireland, camera and sound equipment, storage and other production expenses connected to the initial shoot.

The fundraiser is being managed directly by me and the funds will be transferred into my dedicated production bank account to pay for documentary production costs and related filmmaking expenses.