PRODUCERS have revealed the first still from upcoming movie Saipan.
The locker-room pic features actor Steve Coogan as Ireland manager Mick McCarthy in a locker room discussion with Cork actor Eanna Hardwick who plays Irish football captain Roy Keane.
Due out in 2025, audiences will have their first glimpse of the film with a promo being screened to international buyers at the American Film Market in Las Vegas next month.
An accompanying release promises: “SAIPAN is the thrilling story of soccer player Roy Keane and his manager Mick McCarthy and the events leading up to Ireland’s incendiary 2002 World Cup campaign.
“The intense rivalry between these two personalities transcended the game and gripped an entire nation and the sporting world.
“On the surface, the feud was all about standards, but deep down it was a hugely emotive story of two men whose rivalry and contempt came to surpass the sport they loved.
“A true-life comedy of the most epic proportions.
“This is the definitive account of one of the most fractious falling-outs in the history of sport”.
Producers Macdara Kelleher and John Keville said: “A million words have been written about what happened on that fateful week in 2002 on the tiny island of Saipan.
“Next year, audiences will finally get to experience first-hand the feud between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy and why it was labelled ‘the worst preparation for a World Cup campaign ever’.
“We are so excited to have Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn direct this iconic story with our equally iconic cast.”
The directors added: “We’re thrilled to be working with this extraordinary cast and creative team to tell the story of an infamous
moment in Irish and football history that drew battle lines across a nation, cast its hopes, dreams and sense of identity into disarray,
and briefly made a tiny volcanic island in the Pacific one of the most famous places on earth.”