LOOK, I DON’T know about you, but I have been waiting for this movie since I was nine years old.
Since that first sickening report that Roy Keane was coming home. Since my first heartbreak. Since Gaizka Mendieta put that penalty past Shay Given and rendered me selectively mute for about 24 hours.
Despite the books that have been written and the interviews that have been given in the 22 years that have followed, not least the iconic conversation with Keane conducted by the late Tommie Gorman as the crisis unfolded, it feels as though the whole story of Saipan has never been told.
It is therefore no surprise that the announcement of Saipan, a feature length film starring Steve Coogan as Mick McCarthy and Éanna Hardwick as Roy Keane, has been met with a flurry of excitement and no small amount of apprehension.
The film is set to be produced by Wild Atlantic Pictures and Fine Point Films, who worked on the Kneecap film and Bobby Sands: 66 Days.
Starting with what we know about Saipan: The Movie, it’s fair to say that Éanna Hardwicke has the chops to play a damaged athlete, having already starred in Lakelands – a story about a troubled GAA player who suffers a head injury and must rebuild his life and standing among his community and family. It was a performance worthy of Paul Mescal himself, now the archetype for such roles.
Steve Coogan as Mick McCarthy is also a welcome choice. The two-time Oscar nominee should be well able to meet the demands of the role, and also adds a nice dash of star-power to proceedings. There’s also the sense that if someone of Coogan’s CV is on board then it surely can’t be bad.
As the movie remains in the very early stages of production, it remains to be seen what approach directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn will take. One wonders whether the film will have a narrow focus – a character study of the iconic Keane – or whether the story will be allowed to sprawl and feature some of stranger side-characters from the saga. One particularly enticing idea is the possible casting of Alex Ferguson, whose counsel was crucial to Keane’s thinking at the time.
Personally, I’m thinking Iain Glen from Game of Thrones, and since the idea occurred to me I won’t be happy until I see that happen, either in this film or in the inevitable miniseries about the Fergie that must be on a producer’s desk somewhere at the BBC.
If they’re getting Bertie Ahern involved, it would surely have to be Gary Lydon. No Irish film is complete without Lydon, and while you may not know his name, you’d know him to see. Trust me. Google him, there. There you are now, you know who I mean.
As for the squad, it seems fair to say that not all of them will get a look in. David Connolly, of missed-penalty-against-Spain fame (sorry, David) has already taken to Twitter to suggest he be portrayed by Danny DeVito. 2002 veterans Niall Quinn and Steve Staunton are always painted as relatively central figures in the Saipan drama, and so one expects that character actors will be slotted in to those roles.
It’s difficult to think of anyone tall enough to play Quinn, but Brian Gleeson actually bears a striking resemblance to Staunton. So as long as he can do a few lines in a Dundalk accent, that role should be his if he wants it.
Damien Duff and Robbie Keane were two of the stars of that 2002 team, but they were so young at the time that it’s hard to see any particularly established actors being called upon to fill those roles. Realistically, we’re probably not going to have too many scenes of Ian Harte and Kevin Kilbane doing exposition like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, even if that’s what many of us (read: me) would like.
It’s also entirely plausible that the film will be exploring the behind-the-scenes meltdown more than the action that took place on those shoddy training pitches on that infamous island.
Comedian Peter McGann has long held the ambition of playing John Delaney, and anyone familiar with McGann’s character work would certainly join me in my desperation to see that dream materialise. While Delaney wasn’t in charge of the FAI at the time, it was the furore over Saipan that saw him capitalise and rise the ranks quite quickly, so the film could serve as something of an origin story for him should they ever choose to build this out into an FAI multiverse, as is the norm these days.
Regardless of the eventual casting, which has probably already decided, the hype for this movie is very real. Across generations, neither the Irish (nor the global) fascination with Keane has abated an inch.
Anyone my age or older will remember Keane as perhaps the only footballer who made the phrase “midfield general” actually sound kind of plausible rather than a ridiculous bit of pundit hyperbole. Gen Z will know Roy Keane in a very different guise – the kind of uncle who pretends to be curmudgeonly for everyone’s enjoyment, lighting up the room when he eventually does crack a smile (we all owe Micah Richards a great debt of gratitude for this transformation, by the way).
Those younger fans now know Keane for his humorous outbursts on Sky Sports and the Overlap podcast, where he recently spoke about how rich people who park in disabled spots should have their tires slashed – delivered as ever with equal measure of whimsy and pure unadulterated menace.
But there are those of us for whom Keane’s decision to leave Saipan and never look back remains a deep well of pain, a polarising scandal with no easy answers and a World Cup’s worth of regret (we would have had South Korea in the quarter-finals, never forget that).
At this early stage, we can only hope that production team is prepared to present this story with the sensitivity, gravity and tragedy it deserves. Ireland can’t take another Saipan heartbreak.
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