Liam Neeson is to co-produce A Mad and Wonderful Thing, based on the novel of the same name, and said to be inspired by a real terrorist.

Mark Mulholland’s debut novel is a romantic thriller narrated by a young IRA sniper. Mulholland is said to have been inspired by his younger brother, Darren, who was 20 years old when he was sentenced to 22 years in prison for conspiring to plant bombs in London. Darren Mulholland was one of three Real IRA members arrested in 1998 after their attempts to sabotage the Good Friday agreement were uncovered.

A Mad and Wonderful Thing was published in 2014. Neeson called it “excellent: deeply satisfying and moving”, adding: “I think sufficient time has passed since the Good Friday agreement to, at last, have a novel that goes inside the head of one of the Troubles’s protagonists. To hear the pros and cons of the conflict told in an original and exciting way.”