By Debbie McGoldrick

DUBLIN-born actor Stuart Townsend, probably best known as the long-term beau of Oscar winner Charlize Theron, is working on a project that could well catapult him to similar stardom.

Townsend has begun shooting a film called Battle in Seattle, which he wrote during the course of the past two years. It’s about the huge, often violent protest at the World Trade Organization’s 1999 summit in Seattle, and Townsend will also direct.

The cast so far? Pretty impressive. Charlize, of course, has signed on for a starring part, and she’ll be joined by fellow Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, Woody Harrelson and Ray Liotta. Not bad at all for a first-time director/screenwriter.

Townsend is currently in Canada working on photography for the film, which according to reports will follow the lives of 12 characters involved in one way or another in the protests. The subject matter is certainly gripping –- during the summit, at least 60,000 anti-globalization demonstrators from all walks of life staged huge protests that brought Seattle to a virtual halt. The events were referred to as the “Battle of Seattle,” hence the name of the Townsend flick.

Theron has been cast as a pregnant bystander who loses her child as she gets caught up in the protests.

Earlier this year, during an interview with The Sunday Tribune, Townsend called his film “the most important thing I’ve ever done. I feel like I’m now at phase two of my career. I’ve been around movies and sets for years and I just love the whole process, but now I want to go on the other side of the camera and make a movie about something which I’m passionate about.”

He described the movie as “a political thriller based on real life events about the limits and definitions of democracy. You hear that word bandied about so much, particularly by this administration, and then you see their definition of it in action and you have to wonder about meaning and reality.”