Hotel used as location for 'Killing Bono' movie

The Chimney Corner Hotel, near Glengormley, was recently used as part of the ‘Irish music-based comedy’ telling the story of a Dublin band which lived in the shadow of U2 in the late 1970s.

Music journalist Neil McCormick was in the same class as Bono at Mount Temple Comprehensive on Dublin’s northside and the movie is based on McCormick’s memoirs. It depicts how he and his brother attempt to become rock stars but can only look on as old school friends U2 become the biggest band in the world.

Hotel Manager Monica Quinn told the Times: “It’s a good thing for the hotel and we are delighted to have accommodated the film crew.”

The hotel is no stranger to the world of filmmaking. In the past it has been used for a BBC play and was also used as a location for a scene from ‘Five Minutes of Heaven’ which featured Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt.

Killing Bono, directed by Nick Hamm, is being funded by Northern Ireland Screen. Neil McCormick is played by Ben Barnes who was Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia, while Belfast actor Martin McCann plays a teenage Bono. Pete Postlethwaite and Krysten Ritter also star.

In 2004 McCormick published his autobiography, 'I Was Bono's Doppelganger', which included a foreword by the U2 frontman.