County Meath actress Hannah Rose May looks set to become a leading writer in Hollywood after her book “Rogues Gallery” was signed up as an option for TV by the production company owned by Oscar-nominated actor Don Cheadle.
The 27-year old from Ashbourne, told Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio on Monday that there has been phenomenal interest in her comic picture book which is currently causing something of a stir amongst producers in Los Angeles.
“Yes it’s all a bit mad. We had so much interest prior to the book hitting the shelves which is even crazier. I was very baffled by that, people being so interested in it prior to even knowing whether it was going to be successful or not.
“They were interested in the story in itself. I got very lucky in that the story was very successful because they could have taken something that wasn’t.
“My agent shared it with a bunch of Hollywood people and interest started rolling in.
“There was a ton of interest and word got out and there was this crazy buzz.”
She went on to say that a lot of big name producers in Hollywood expressed an interest but in the end she settled for Cheadle’s company which goes by the name of ‘This Radicle Act.’
The ‘Rogues Gallery’ is a series of picture books created by Hannah and follows in the line of the Marvel and DC comics which latterly feature well known names such as Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman.
Her graphic novel is what she simply describes as being a picture book with each page made of artistic impressions of the appropriate character coupled with adjoining text. In her own words, “it’s a story with art.”
During her interview with Tubridy, the actress who lived in New York and Miami before moving to Beverly Hills in Los Angeles and starred in movies such as Baller (2015), Shooter (2016) and Altered Carbon (2018), heaped praise on fellow Irish artist and writer Declan Shalvey.
The Dublin-born artist who has produced a huge body of work for the Marvel comic series was instrumental in getting the Ashbourne actress this far with her writing skills.
“Declan and I had been internet friends for a long time. I followed Declan for years and supported his work.
“I knew that he had work published with the publisher I wanted to go to. Declan saw what I did, worked on it and oversaw the whole thing.”
Don Cheadle’s company is exercising what’s known as an ‘option’. This means his company has bought the rights to the material and has an option to turn it in to a TV show usually within a certain period of time.
Among his acting credits are Hamburger Hill, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and ER to name some of many.
