The Irish screenwriter who wants to break Hollywood one script at a time

“I would work 15, 16 hours a day for five days a week and then on the weekends, work on my scripts,” says Niall Cassin over the phone.

“Everything is filmed in Vancouver,” he says. “Everything.”

“There would be five or six productions going on in one huge building in the centre of the city and I would be going from one set to the next.

“I was an assistant producer, but I was basically a dog’s body,” he says.

Cassin, originally from Beaumont but now lives in Swords, is a screenwriter that has cut his teeth on many blockbuster sets including Deadpool, War for the Planet of the Apes and Fifty Shades Freed.

“I got to see, and work on every part of a set,” he said.

“I would work with the actors, the director, the producers, the lighting crew, the grips etc.”

“I really got to spend time with everybody.”

Cassin, 37, moved to Vancouver in 2015 to follow his dream of becoming a fulltime screenwriter but not before a long journey that seemed destined to end before it began.

“I loved films as a kid,” he says. “The more outrageous, the better, you know?”

When he left school, Cassin enrolled in Coláiste Dhúlaigh in Coolock and took up a course in film production.

“Afterwards, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” he says. “So, I went to Australia for a year.”

When he returned to Ireland in 2005, Cassin got a job with Ulster Bank and stayed in the role longer than originally intended.

“I was there for 10 years and it got to a time where I felt like a passenger in my own life.

“I was just going through the motions,” he says.

It was at this point that Cassin decided to begin writing a script, something that he always had an interest in.

“I got tips online because in Coláiste Dhúlaigh we didn’t really touch on scripts, it was all about production.

“I wrote it in about six to nine months,” he says.

“I saw in Empire magazine that there was a convention in Los Angeles where you could pitch your script to producers from Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox, etc.”

Cassin decided to spend his holiday money on return flights and a short stay in Los Angeles with the hopes of getting his script picked up.

“It was like speed dating but with pitching,” he says.

“You would get a couple of minutes to explain your idea but it was usually just an intern from the company.”

“However, one person got back to me and said that while my idea was too big and would never get made, he liked my writing and advised that I write something smaller – more contained.”

In May 2015, Cassin decided to quit his job in the bank and pursue his dream career, beginning with a two-year stay in Vancouver.

Here, Cassin flew down to Los Angeles from time to time, absorbing what he could from both cities.

“I realised that you can’t piecemeal this, I was essentially all in for 24 hours a day.”

After his visa expired, Cassin returned to Ireland once again, but this time with more direction.

“I came back to Ireland at the end of 2017 and at the start of 2018 I worked on a movie here called The Turning as an assistant to the producer.”

It was during this time Cassin received a phone call from French producer and writer Phillipe Martinez who liked Cassin’s writing.

“He invited me to stay on this old vineyard near Rome for a while so we could write a movie together.”

“We ended up writing three movies because we had so many ideas.”

All three films have since been funded, cast and shot but the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed their release.

This year, Cassin hopes – if restrictions allow – he will be venturing further afield once again.

One of his movies is set to be filmed in Malta with an A-list actor that Cassin won’t, or can’t, yet disclose.

“It’s 99% there but the producers will go mad at me if I say a name,” he says.

After that, Cassin hopes to fly back to Vancouver for more work and then down to Los Angeles.

“I have stuff cooking in my brain all the time and want to explore various genres.

“I don’t care if I fail – or a project fails – I just want to put myself out there and do it.”

As for advice to other aspiring screenwriters, Cassin says “you don’t have to be a naturally gifted writer.”

“Screenwriting is a craft you need to work on.

“I wasn’t a big writer when I was younger – I only wrote my first script when I was in my 30s,” he says.

“Learn about structure and format, things that you can research and how to tell a story. You got to stay regimented and even if there is nothing going on you got to keep on writing.”

“Oh, grammar and spelling is important too,” he says with a laugh.