Director Mark O'Connor has said he wants upcoming gangland drama, Darklands, to show how "a normal kid from a good family can change" when "pulled into the crime world due to circumstance".
Set in Bray, Co. Wicklow, the eagerly-awaited six-part series, which was born over five years ago, is O'Connor's first transition into television after his Irish blockbuster Cardboard Gangsters.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, O'Connor said the story is about the choices we make and the consequences of those choices, along with admitting that the series is inspired by real life crime.
"I originally came up with the idea when I was making my first film, Between the Canals. I was working with Barry Keoghan and some of the younger kids in the area," O'Connor said.
"I thought it would be very interesting to try to do a TV show through their eyes, through the eyes of a 16-year-old, and to show how a normal kid from a good family can change, and how he can get pulled into the crime world due to circumstance."
"We just made something that we really believed in and we worked really hard. We tried to cast it well and make it cinematic. It will be interesting to see what people think of it," he added.
The series is set amidst a gang war in a small Irish town and tells the story of Damien Dunne (Dane Whyte-O'Hara), a 16-year-old boy still in school who dreams of becoming a professional MMA fighter.
When a major drug deal goes wrong, and Damien's brother goes missing, the teen begins to feel the pressure to step up as a provider for his family.
The cast and crew gathered in Dublin's Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield on Wednesday for a special screening of the first two episodes of the highly-anticipated show.
Leading man Whyte-O'Hara admits it was "deadly" but daunting watching himself on screen.
"I'm done for words at the moment. I'm just fulfilled with excitement."
"It's deadly when you are looking at things that you want to see; but there are things that I’m like 'I don’t know if I want to see it'. But yeah, it was deadly. It was really, really good," he said.
Darklands will air on Monday, October 7, at 9pm on Virgin Media One.
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