The Guard star Brendan Gleeson is directing his first film, and has marshalled a who’s-who of Irish talent including Gabriel Byrne, Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and now Magneto himself: Michael Fassbender.

At Swim-Two-Birds, adapted from the 1939 novel of the same name by Flann O’Brien, is one of the most renowned metafictional novels of the twentieth century – it’s nice to know Gleeson isn’t working himself too hard, isn’t it?

The film is due to start shooting next spring, two years after the original start date was shaken by the proposed abolition of the Irish Film Board. Fassbender’s rising star status will bring some welcome clout to what doesn’t sound like a very commercially viable film – still, Gleeson has yet to disappoint us (ever) so we’ll sit tight and wait expectantly. It’s going to be so amazingly bloody Irish…