Live Action Film & TV
Bean Feasa
co-Writer
Directed by Daniel Butler
Produced by Escape pod media
Short film
(supernatural Drama, 2022)
The skeptical daughter of a traditional healer has her certainties challenged when she encounters one of ‘the Good People’.
I worked closely with director Daniel Butler to co-write Bean Feasa, an Irish language supernatural drama based on Donegal folk tales and shot on location in Donegal, funded by the Físín Irish language short film fund.
Bean Feasa screened internationally, winning multiple awards including “Best Irish Short Film” at the Foyle International Film Festival in 2022, and was longlisted for Oscar nomination in 2024.
Zephra
Writer
Directed by Bob Gallagher
Short film
(Sci-Fi Period Drama, 2013)
When his water supply is contaminated John must leave his isolated mountain home to survive, facing that which he fears the most: people.
I worked closely with director Bob Gallagher to develop the script from my initial idea, and this script went on to be funded by Irish national broadcaster RTÉ and broadcast on Shortscreen on RTÉ 2. Zephra won awards and screened in film festivals globally, including the BAFTA-qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival where it was nominated for Best Drama.
A dead man wakes to discover he's a vampire only to struggle to follow through with his dreams of escape.
Afterlife won funding from the Clones Film Commission and was shot on location in Clones, Co. Monaghan.
The script was developed in close collaboration with director Daniel Butler and the film had its international Premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2020, its Irish Premiere at the Cork International Film Festival, and went on to win awards and play internationally at festivals including Screamfest LA.
"An exploration of life and legacy through a vampiric lens." Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2021
Afterlife
Writer
Directed by dan butler
Produced by Escape pod media
Short film
(Horror/Dark Comedy/Drama, 2018)
Let the Wrong One In
CONTRIBUTING Writer
Directed by Conor McMahon
Produced by Tailored films
FEATURE film
(Horror/Dark Comedy, 2022)
When Matt's brother becomes part of a growing vampire problem in Dublin, he must either save or slay him.
I contributed writing to writer/director Conor McMahon’s Let The Wrong One In, produced by Tailored Films. I worked closely with Conor, impacting story structure, conceiving or reconceiving characters, and writing jokes and dialogue. This included sending Anthony Head’s character Henry on my own wonderfully boring Victorian rail holiday through the valleys of Wales.
LTWOI had its sold-out premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival in 2022.
LTWOI was a nominated in the “Best Script” category at the Irish Film & Television Academy Awards 2023.
Book of the Ancestor Trilogy Adaptation
DEVELOPMENT/CO-Writer
FANTASY SERIES ADAPTATION
(FANTASY, 2022)
As young novice Nona undergoes training to become a Red Sister - an elite class of holy warrior - she must escape a tangled web of politics and intrigue.
Concurrent to working with Romero Games on Make It Count, I had the joy and privilege of adapting the New York Times bestselling Penguin/Random House fantasy novel trilogy The Book of the Ancestor, developing a supernatural/drama television series pilot and bible with co-writer Maura McHugh. This was facilitated with Screen Ireland support through RedTed Media.
Cubs
WRITER / CO-CREATOR
TV SERIES
(supernatural drama, 2022)
A determined woman fights to raise her werewolf children amidst mounting danger from her violently repressive clan.
Co-created with Daniel Butler and inspired by early Irish werewolf tales, Cubs is an 8x30’ bilingual supernatural drama set in a world in which old families of Gaelic werewolves still exist in secret.
Cubs is under option with Escape Pod Media and underwent development in Emmanuel Oberg’s The Rewrite Stuff workshop in 2022.
Cubs was also developed with TG4 as part of their Céim Eile initiative.
Fighting for Peace
Co-Writer and video Editor
Directed by Gerry Johnston
TV broadcast documentary
(Historical documentary, 2012)
Fighting for Peace is the story of Ireland’s first UN peacekeepers and the dramatic events during the four years of the Congo Campaign, 1960 to 1964.
I worked closely with director Gerry Johnston and post-production supervisor and co-writer Imelda Conway to shape the narrative of Fighting for Peace from hundreds of hours of interviews with the veterans.
I researched deeply into the true-life story of that tumultuous period to shape a true-to-life expression of the often exhilarating, sometimes tragic experiences of these soldiers, some of them sharing for the first time on-screen what happened in the Congo.
The documentary broadcast on TG4.
Live Action + VR
HALCYON (Hybrid VR/BROADCAST/Webseries - Crime Drama)
Police Detective Jules Dover and her Virtual AI Partner Asha battle to solve an apparently impossible crime: a murder in VR that caused a death in the real world.
Read more on this project over at Video Games & VR.
Writing Samples
Available on request
WOLF LAND (60’ TV pilot - Supernatural/Drama)
In the rural Irish west, a savage killing rattles a tight-knit community and threatens to expose a fractured family’s supernatural legacy.
BEHEMOTH (60’ TV pilot - Sci-Fi/Period Drama)
At the height of WW1, a city-size heavily-damaged alien spacecraft hangs mysteriously over Nottingham, forever changing the lives of the citizens below… when it falls.
Behemoth is a TV Pilot written by Binne MacManamon and Mike Heneghan. The script was longlisted for the Red Planet Prize.
““Mike was a pleasure to work with, both affable and professional at all times. He was able to communicate clearly and was very open to collaboration without ever losing his own vision for the project. I was particularly impressed with his ability to deconstruct character and to be able to get at the core of the story with clarity that made my job a lot easier.””
““A film can be easily entombed by it’s own script; inalterably chiselled words amounting to an epitaph for what the film could be. Michael Heneghan is a writer who understands film as a living process - alive on the page, alive on the lips of the actors and alive in the hands of the editor. He is an indispensable collaborator who not only gives a story its pulse but can be counted on to revive and resuscitate it when needed, ensuring its vitality on the screen.””
““Mike’s passion for film-making, his attention to detail, his understanding of what was required for the project as well as his commitment and good humour ensured a very gratifying working relationship.””
