When looking to cast his new film "In Bruges," writer-director Martin McDonagh faced an interesting dilemma: He needed serious actors that could make the gangster characters in the film feel real, but ones that could also pull off the comedic elements of the script.

Having directed "Harry Potter" and "Gangs of New York" actor Brendan Gleeson in his Oscar-winning comedy short, 2004's "Six Shooter," the playwright-turned-filmmaker knew the veteran film star had the wherewithal to lighten up the proceedings. But could the film's other two stars, Colin Farell and Ralph Fiennes, be able to do the same?

"You wouldn't have necessarily chosen Ralph to be funny because he hasn't done those kind of roles in the past and Colin hasn't done anything laugh-out-loud funny before," McDonagh said in a recent @ The Movies interview. "My main thing was not to have any stereotypical performers in those roles. I wanted people who would be a bit more surprising, both in the comedic side, and in Colin's case, doing something a little sadder and more despairing in some ways than anything he'd had done before."

In the case of Fiennes, McDonagh said, the comedy comes from his intensity.

"Ralph is a cool guy and a fun and brilliant actor. That's what makes the comedy work," McDonagh explained. "If you cast really good actors and they're just being truthful to the script, then the comedy is going to come through. There was never a time when Ralph was trying to deliver a gag. He was always trying to be this intense, tough gangster -- and we make the comedy out of that intensity."

Filmed on location in Bruges, Belgium, "In Bruges" (pronounced "broozh") is where a London crime boss (Fiennes) orders two hit men -- Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson) to hide out after a difficult job. To make matters worse, the two men discover that they're very out of place amid the gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, and will have to fill their days living the lives of tourists. Bruge is place that Ray especially hates, and he's not afraid to make unflattering observations about the place -- even to the townspeople's faces.

Luckily, McDonagh said, the real-life Bruges residents don't take themselves too seriously.

"To be honest, we hadn't shown them the script before we started shooting the film. We did offered them a chance to see it, but they didn't want to," McDonagh said. "We recently showed them the picture and were a little bit scared that may think that we had gone behind their backs to take the p--- out of the town, but they said that they were completely happy with it. They say that we showed Bruges as cinematically beautiful as we could."

"And, they realized that it's really only Colin's character that has an issue with them," he added with a laugh.

Doing "In Bruges" was somewhat a different departure for McDonagh in that it's his first feature film in the director's chair. And while he struck gold in debut directing the short "Six Shooter," McDonagh is perhaps best known for his stage work. Not only did his plays, 2003's "The Lieutenant of Irishmore" and "The Pillowman," yield him Oliver Awards, they were both nominated for Tony Awards as well.

And while it would seem that his theatrical sensibilities would come in handy when making "In Bruges," McDonagh said that he had to make a conscious effort not to wear his playwright's cap underneath his filmmaker's cap.

"I was very wary and worried about making a film that was very much a playwright's film. I didn't want to make something that amount to two guys talking for two hours," McDonagh said. "I wanted it to be much more cinematic than that. I took a long time to storyboard everything and work with the cinematographer to get a sort of visual style and to tell the story through the images as much as I could."

But that's not to say McDonagh abandoned his theatrical skills altogether.

"I didn't want to run away from dialogue and character, so there are still long passages where there is talking. I wanted things to work in tandem. To have earthy characters, yet at the same time, have no speaking -- just music and image."