One of our Books of the Year 2014 Martin Moone- one boy and a load of sisters! That means Martin is always in trouble of one kind or another. What would you do? When Martin asks his friend Padraic for advice about changing the gender balance in the Moone family home, Padraic suggest finding a IF – imaginary friend. Martin is hilarious as he tells of his search for a suitable choice. Just what a kind of a person should he pick? ~ Julia Eccleshare
And you can catch Moone Boy in his own tv series on Sky 1 starring co-writer and Hollywood actor Chris O'Dowd - watch a trailer here!
Successful film and TV star, Chris O' Dowd, collaborates with friend and screenwriter Nick Vincent Murphy in Moone Boy: The Blunder Years, the first in this hilarious, illustrated series.
Martin Moone is eleven and completely fed up with being the only boy in a family of girls. He's desperate for a decent wingman to help him navigate his idiotic life. So when best mate Padraic suggests Martin get an imaginary friend - or 'IF' for short - he decides to give it a go. His first attempt is Loopy Lou, a hyperactive goofball who loves writing rubbish rap songs. But Martin soon gets fed up with Lou's loopiness and decides to trade in his IF for someone a little less wacky. Enter Sean 'Caution' Murphy, an imaginary office clerk in a bad suit with a passion for laziness and a head full of dodgy jokes. Sean is full of tips and tricks to guide Martin through the perils of the playground, from dealing with his sisters' pranks to beating the bullying Bonner boys. But getting rid of Lou is not that easy, and having TWO imaginary friends is a recipe for trouble!
Chris and Nick say, “Throughout the first three series of Moone Boy, it’s often occurred to us that there’s so much more we could do with the world of the imaginary friends, but the hassle of having to film things with our big clumsy cameras made it tricky to delve too much into it in the show. However, this feels like the perfect world in which to explore novels for a younger audience, with plenty of opportunities for fun doodles and illustrations by Cartoon Saloon. There will be lots of jokes and we hope that parents will want to steal the books from their children to read them too. We’re really excited to be working with Macmillan – Venetia and her team are the perfect match for us, and we can't wait to get started. We also think it’s really nice of them to allow our families to move into their offices, it seemed like an odd invitation at the time, but we’re all very excited. Unless we misheard what they said about that detail.”
Chris O'Dowd is an award-winning actor, writer and director. He has appeared in many films, including Bridesmaids, The Sapphires and This Is 40. He has also starred in cult TV series The IT Crowd, Family Tree and Girls, as well as Moone Boy for Sky, which he wrote and directed with his friend Nick Vincent Murphy. Currently rehearsing for the Broadway production of Of Mice and Men with James Franco, he is due to work on Stephen Frears's forthcoming film about Irish journalist David Walsh and cyclist Lance Armstrong, playing the lead role of David Walsh. Chris is from Roscommon, Ireland, but is currently based in LA. He studied politics at Dublin University before training at LAMDA.
Nick Vincent Murphy is an Irish screenwriter from Kilkenny, now based in London. He studied English and History at Trinity College, Dublin, and did a Masters in Film Production at the Dublin Institute of Technology. In 2007 he was a writer on the acclaimed television comedy-drama series The Running Mate, and in 2010 his first feature film, Hideaways, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival before going on to win the Melies d'Argent Award for Best European Film at the Strasbourg Film Festival. In 2010 he co-wrote a short film, Capturing Santa, with Chris O'Dowd, as part of the Little Crackers series for Sky, which they then developed into comedy series Moone Boy, which recently won an International Emmy for Best Comedy.
