| Irish Eye on Hollywood
By Tom Deignan
Inspired by what he calls “credit card filmmakers” such as fellow Irish
Americans Kevin Smith and Ed Burns, Daniel McCarthy ran up the bill on his
pocket plastic to make his crime caper Irish Eyes, which will have its East
Coast premiere in Boston on November 23.
The saga begins in 1955 in the
Irish stronghold of South Boston. On the docks, the influence of the Irish
mob is waning, while Italian gangsters are muscling in. This becomes clearly
evident when immigrant laborer and accomplished boxer John Phelan is shot
and killed for roughing up two Italian hoods.
John’s sons Sean and Thomas
witness the execution, and it forever alters their lives. From there, Irish
Eyes relies upon the time-tested cinematic device of two men from the same
background choosing different paths in life. (For a fine example, go back
to Pat O’Brien and Jimmy Cagney in 1938’s Angels with Dirty Faces.)
Sean
Phelan (Daniel Baldwin) dabbles in crime and lands in prison, while Thomas
goes off to college and a promising political career.
But the brothers’
paths never diverge completely, with one needing the other at different
times, until they are both so deep into trouble the bullets must inevitably
fly. Irish Eyes vaguely echoes the Boston Bulger brothers – William the
politician, and Whitey the gangster. Let’s hope for the innocent people
of Boston that the Bulgers’ real-life saga doesn’t eventually come to the
same kind of bloody conclusion which Irish Eyes does.
Speaking of gangs
and blood, you won’t have to wait as long as you thought to see Martin Scorsese’s
long-awaited Gangs of New York. Officials at Miramax films are now planning
to release the 3-hour epic starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson in
early December, rather than on Christmas Day. Why? Because co-star Leonardo
DiCaprio has another film opening on December 25, Catch Me If You Can, in
which he stars with Tom Hanks.
Gangs tells the story of Famine-era immigrants
in New York who do battle with competing Protestant and Italian gangs. The
film concludes with a recreation of the New York City Draft Riots of 1863,
when angry Irish laborers rampaged trough New York – until they were eventually
put down by predominately Irish cops and military officers fresh off the
front from the Civil War.
The Draft Riots were by far the bloodiest episodes
in New York history – before September 11, 2001, that is.
While Gangs will
get an early release, Colin Farrell’s next movie may never see the light
of day. Farrell stars in Phone Booth, which revolves around a sniper who
sets his target on the Dublin-born star, this time around playing a corporate
executive. When Farrell mistakenly answers a ringing pay phone, the sniper
on the other end tells him he will be shot if he hangs up. Phone Booth also
stars Kiefer Sutherland.
Officials at 20th Century Fox feverishly debated
whether to release Phone Booth in theaters. They said the plot might resemble
the sniper killings in Virginia too closely. The release of Phone Booth
might now be delayed until next year. Another option would be to send the
film straight to video and DVD. Phone Booth re-teams Farrell with director
Joel Schumacher, who directed Farrell in his star-making debut, 2000’s Tigerland.
Hollywood veterans Pierce Brosnan and Kenneth Branagh, as well as several
Irish newcomers, also have movies due to be released shortly.
Following
yet another blockbuster James Bond flick, Die Another Day, Brosnan takes
on a more serious – and distinctly Irish – role.
In Evelyn, Brosnan plays
a single dad in 1950s Ireland, whose children are taken away. They are placed
into orphanages, but Brosnan’s character fights back, ultimately challenging
Irish political and religious authorities. Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss
Daisy) directs Brosnan, as well as Aidan Quinn, Julianna Margulies, John
Lynch, Stephen Rea and Alan Bates.
The latest bout of Harry Potter-mania
was dampened by the news that the legendary Limerick actor – and Harry Potter
regular – Richard Harris had succumb to cancer.
In his last performance Harris teamed up with Belfast-born Kenneth Branagh
in in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the sequel to last year’s
wildly popular Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Also returning from
Sorcerer’s Stone are kiddy star Daniel Radcliffe, Sean Biggerstaff, Robbie
Coltrane, Rupert Grint and Alan Rickman. Branagh will play the mysterious
Gilderoy Lockhart, in the movie directed by Chris Columbus.
Meanwhile, director
and wunderkind Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brokovich, Ocean’s 11) laid
an egg with his recent ego trip Full Frontal. But he’s calling on Donegal-born
Natascha McElhone (as well as a bloke named George Clooney) to help him
regain his Oscar-winning form in Solaris, a remake of Andrei Tarkovsky’s
famous 1972 Russian sci-fi flick. Clooney plays a psychiatrist launched
into the wild blue yonder to investigate the disappearance of a space station
crew. What follows is said to be a space odyssey which mingles fantasy and
reality.
Reports also suggest that acclaimed Irish director Jim Sheridan’s
long-awaited New York project East of Harlem will be released soon.
The
My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father director tells the story of an undocumented
Irish couple (Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine) trying to survive while
living in a racially mixed Harlem tenement.It hasn’t been all good movie
news of late for Sheridan. Music legend Marianne Faithful recently pulled
the rights to her biopic away from him.
Faithful has said simply: “I didn’t
like what Jim Sheridan did with it.”
Sheridan’s company Hells Kitchen had
been developing a script based on the life of Faithful, a pioneer of celebrity
life in the swinging 1960s.
The brave story of Irish journalist Veronica
Guerin finally makes it to the American big screen. Cate Blanchett stars
in the film named after the journalist slain in 1996, apparently because
she wrote a series of articles about Dublin drug dealers. Veronica Guerin
was not only directed by Joel Schumacher (see Phone Booth above), but Colin
Farrell also makes an appearance. Belfast actor Ciaran Hinds also stars,
along with Brenda Fricker.
In what could be one of the more quirky Irish-American
films ever made, Spike Lee explores the stormy relationship between an Irish-American
firefighter (Brian Cox) and his drug dealer son who is about to go off to
prison in The 25th Hour. Barry Pepper and Philip Seymour Hoffman also star
in this film based on David Benioff’s novel.
Finally, for all those who
like to plan long-term when it comes to the ultra-busy Colin Farrell, you’ll
only have to wait until February 2003 for his next release: Daredevil. The
latest comic book flick stars Farrell as the evil villain of the costumed
hero, a blind lawyer (played by Ben Affleck) who fights crime on the streets
at night.
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