Sartaj Singh
Roy Keane’s infamous World Cup walkout will be recreated in authentic locations! The sports drama film ‘Saipan’ will start filming in Ireland and Saipan. Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa are directing the movie with a screenplay by Paul Fraser. Éanna Hardwicke and Steve Coogan lead the cast. The project, which is expected to be released in 2025, is produced by Macdara Kelleher and John Keville.
The plot follows Roy Keane (Hardwicke) and Mick McCarthy (Coogan) leading up to the 2002 Saipan incident. Keane is a star player captaining the Irish national soccer team ahead of the FIFA World Cup. The team is preparing for the matches in Japan on the small island of Saipan. In reality, upon reaching the destination, Keane became agitated with the arrangements made for the players by McCarthy, the team manager. The two had a heated argument about the training conditions and team strategy, in which Keane questioned McCarthy’s competence.
In an interview with the Irish press, Keane voiced his frustration, leading to a very public falling-out between him and McCarthy. Keane reportedly went on an enraged rant against the manager before making a dramatic exit and flying back to Ireland. McCarthy said that he dismissed Keane, and the Irish public was split over who was to blame for the incident as it became a media hot topic. The soccer legend wrote about the incident in his autobiography and only rejoined the team after the manager stepped down from his role in 2004.
“A million words have been written about what happened on that fateful week in 2002 on the tiny island of Saipan,” said producers Macdara Kelleher and John Keville in a statement. “Next year, audiences will finally get to experience firsthand the feud between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy and why it was labeled ‘the worst preparation for a World Cup campaign ever,’” they added.
Coogan is a renowned British actor and comedian who most recently voiced Silas Ramsbottom in ‘Despicable Me 4’ and stepped into the role of Jimmy Savile in ‘The Reckoning.’ He will appear in the second season of Netflix’s ‘The Sandman’ as Barnabus and ‘Joker: Folie à Deux.’ On the other hand, Hardwicke is known for playing Joe Ryan in Peacock’s ‘Smother,’ Silas in Paramount+’s ‘The Doll Factory,’ and Sebastian Valtor in ‘Fate: The Winx Saga.’
“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,” said directors Leyburn and Barros, joining the producers. “[The Saipan incident] 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,” the filmmakers added.
Ireland has hosted the filming of movies and shows like ‘Arcadian,’ ‘The Watchers,’ and ‘Derry Girls.’ The island of Saipan, on the other hand, is a lesser-known filming location, having housed productions like ‘Oba: The Last Samurai’ and ‘Seven Days.’
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