Steve Coogan has been cast in a new biopic focused on the infamous 2002 Roy Keane Saipan incident.
The film, titled Saipan, will see Coogan play Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, with The Sixth Commandment‘s Éanna Hardwicke cast as footballer Keane.
The real-life incident saw a spat between Keane – who was then captain of the Irish team – and manager McCarthy during preparations for the 2002 World Cup in Japan, with Keane eventually sent home from the squad. The feud still proves very divisive in Irish society to this day.
Saipan will be directed by Ordinary Love‘s Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn, with A Room For Romeo Brass‘s Paul Fraser writing the screenplay. Filming will begin this summer for a 2025 release.
“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,” the directors said.
Producers Macdara Kelleher and John Keville added: “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.”
Coogan will soon be seen in Joker sequel Joker: Folie à Deux, with the star popping up in a recent trailer for the DC film.
Meanwhile, last month the actor expressed a desire to do more live shows in the future as his famous comic creation Alan Partridge, which comes ahead of his new ‘documentary’ And Did Those Feet…with Alan Partridge.
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