Hollywood movie stars Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy are championing an ambitious idea to bring Hollywood to Dublin with plans to build a €75million film studio on Poolbeg Peninsula.

The proposal for the giant 200,000 sq. ft. Dublin Bay Studios is now before Dublin City Council for planning approval, as part of the Poolbeg West SDZ project.

If the new film studio gets the seal of approval from Dublin City Council, it would create 1,800 jobs and as many as an additional 1,8000 ‘indirect jobs’, it’s estimated.

Liam Neeson believes this new state-of-the-art film studio would finally allow Ireland to compete with the UK and US when it comes to making big budget movies on a regular basis.

“As it stands, the country does not have the infrastructure to compete. But Dublin Bay Studios would position Ireland on the world stage as a center of excellence for film and television,” Liam Neeson says.

While Cillian Murphy has described the exciting project as the “missing piece in the jigsaw” for the Irish movie industry.

“Most of us have had no choice but to emigrate because Ireland has never had the scale of studio infrastructure needed to support big production,” Cillian Murphy says.

Dublin Bay Studios is backed by James Morris, the founder of Windmill Lane Studios and Alan Moloney of Parallel Films, who produced Oscar-nominated ‘Brooklyn’.

Alan Moloney points out that the Dublin Bay Studio is badly needed if Ireland wants to become a serious player in the movie industry. “Ireland has limited infrastructure when it comes to sound studios and that prevents more big budget films being shot here,” he says.

“We have about three studios – Ashborne and Ashford and Limerick. That’s hardly any compared to the UK. In London alone they have 100 sound studios and they are all booked out. It would make Ireland even more appealing place for filmmakers."