THE PRODUCERS OF the film based on the tumultuous 2002 training camp in Saipan have released the first image of what Steve Coogan and Éanna Hartwicke as Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane.
The feud in Saipan was between Keane and McCarthy and led to the captain being sent home from the World Cup training camp, an incident that, though more than 20 years old, still looms large in the Irish consciousness.
Production companies Wildcard and Bankside Films have drawn on accounts and information from different sources to create a re-creation as accurate as possible.
Speaking to The Journal after Coogan and Hartwicke were cast as McCarthy and Keane, producer Macdara Kelleher said the team were seeking to tell both, or all, sides of the tale.
“Getting it right, there’s a lot in it. When you’re dealing with something based on real events or real people, it takes a bit more time to get it right, it’s a bit more nuanced,” the producer said.
He added that the film is “definitely more of a two-hander between the Roy and Mick story” but there is also a “cast of characters that features in the story as well – Niall Quinn, Steven Reid, Steve Staunton, Jason McAteer – all those guys, they’re all there.”
‘Saipan’ is set for a theatrical release in summer 2025.
Elsewhere, Coogan is set to appear in the new stage adaptation of Dr Strangelove, coming to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Theatre in February.
Coogan juggles four major roles in the play which takes Stanley Kubrick’s classic Cold War satire about nuclear annihilation to theatre. Sean Foley and Armando Iannucci – co-adaptors of the play – spoke to The Journal in London.
Includes reporting by Lauren Boland and Daragh Brophy.
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