Shooting has begun on the Irish/Luxembourg/Dutch/Japanese coproduction which is based on the Japanese novel Loving The Dead.

Dutch actor Robert De Hoog is to star in Brendan Muldowney’s Love Eternal, based on the Japanese novel Loving The Dead by Kei Oishi.

Muldowney, whose debut feature Savage received eight Irish Film and Television Award nominations in 2010, has adapted the screenplay which centres on a damaged young man who is forced to venture out into the world after shutting himself away for ten years.

Rising star De Hoog won the Golden Calf Best Actor Award and a 2009 Emmy nomination for his performance in Skin.

The cast also includes Pollyanna McIntosh, who starred in Sundance Title The Woman, for which she won a best actress award at the recent Frightfest. Amanda Ryan and Declan Conlon also star.

An Irish/Luxembourg/Dutch/Japanese coproduction, the film is being produced by Irish production company Fastnet Films together with Red Lion S.a.r.l, Rinkel Films BV and T.O Entertainment.

The production, which has received funding from the Irish Film Board, Film Fund Luxembourg, the Netherlands Film Fund, T.O. Entertainment, Inc and Atlantic Screen Music Ltd, will shoot for six weeks on location in Cobh, County Cork and Luxembourg.

Love Eternal is scheduled for international release in 2012.