AN Enniskillen-born film producer is bringing one of the football world’s most controversial sagas to the big screen.
In the upcoming Roy Keane film ‘Saipan’, Éanna Hardwicke will play Keane and Steve Coogan is set to play Mick McCarthy in the movie, which depicts the infamous World Cup fallout of 2002 in Japan.
Fresh from producing ‘Kneecap’, a film that wowed the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year – winning an audience award and which premiered in Ireland and the UK last week – Trevor Birney has begun work on detailing a sporting fallout that divided Ireland.
Shooting started on Thursday (August 8) and the five-week production will be filmed at locations around Ireland and Northern Ireland.
“Ultimately it’s a universal story about two men who wanted the same thing but just really couldn’t agree on how to go about it,” the award-winning journalist and filmmaker told RTÉ.
He said the script and the cast are “fantastic”, adding that Hardwicke’s Keane, is “stunning”, and that Coogan as McCarthy would be “mind-blowing”.
The film’s title comes from the notorious Saipan incident when Keane was captaining the Republic of Ireland ahead of the FIFA World Cup finals.
While preparing on the tiny island, the former Manchester United star had a very public disagreement with manager McCarthy, resulting in him leaving the camp.
The fallout between the pair and the media frenzy that ensued will be the main focus of the film, which is being made in association with Screen Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen.
The film is being directed by award-winning filmmakers Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa. The duo were behind the critically acclaimed 2013 Irish comedy-drama ‘Good Vibrations’, which focused on Belfast punk-scene pioneer Terri Hooley and his record shop during the Troubles.
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