Question: What do the following individuals have in common: Christopher Columbus, Robin Hood, and Martin Cahill, aka The General? The answer is that all three have been the subjects of competing movies released simultaneously in the past few years. But Cahill, the Dublin criminal assassinated by the IRA in Ranelagh less than four years ago has gone one better than the hero of Sherwood Forest or the great explorer, with three different films based on his life and death likely to have been completed by the end of 1998.
First off the blocks is The General, written and directed by internationally-respected film-maker John Boorman, and due to be released in Irish and British cinemas by Warner Brothers at the end of May. Brendan Gleeson stars as Cahill, with a supporting cast including Jon Voight (who plays a Cork police inspector "with a perfect Cork accent" according to Boorman), Adrian Dunbar, Sean McGinley. Maria Kennedy Doyle and Angeline Ball.
Then there's the feature-length BBC drama, Cast A Cold Eye, with British actor Ken Stott (seen most recently in Jim Sheridan's The Boxer) in the central role. Currently shooting on location in Dublin, the film is written by Ballykissangel's creator Kieran Prendiville, directed by David Blair (who was responsible for last year's Jimmy McGovern drama, The Lakes) and will be broadcast in the prestigious Screen One slot in late summer. The third film, Ordinary Decent Criminal, is ready to be made by the Irish production company, Little Bird, later this year. The $12 million movie will be directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan (December Bride, Nothing Personal) from a script by Gerard Stembridge. Producer Jonathan Cavendish won't comment on reports that Kevin Spacey has agreed to take the central role, but agrees that he is in negotiation with a "major American actor".
What is it about Cahill that has attracted so much interest from film-makers since his death. "He was a remarkable man, very clever, very cunning," says Boorman. "In an earlier incarnation he would have been a leading mafioso. He and all the people around him felt rejected, that he owed nothing to society. And he did it all with a great deal of wit. Also, the paramilitary ambience of crime during that period is very interesting."
Sue Austen, producer of Cast A Cold Eye, is well aware of the other two films, but believes that: "they are much more related to each other".
"Our film isn't just the Martin Cahill story. It's a story about a Dublin gangster coming up against an IRA character and a policeman character, both of whom we've invented, and the three of them constantly circling each other. It doesn't deal with any of the events of his earlier life. We start at the time of the O'Connor's raid, and go straight down the line with an exciting piece of drama. We've compressed the events, going through the whole Killakee episode up to his death, and our other characters' reaction to it."
"Our film isn't about Martin Cahill," Cavendish also insists about Ordinary Decent Criminal, in which many incidents and all the names of characters have been changed. "But there will be parts of the story which people will recognise. We were stimulated to borrow some parts of the life and the experience, and yes, a Dublin audience will certainly recognise those. It leaves us room to invent and to shape, and in Gerry Stembridge we have one of the greatest Irish writers of his generation to do that."
During the development process, Little Bird and Boorman's company, Merlin, went to court over some of the rights involved in the story. "Essentially, that was about legally enshrining the rights of each of us to make the film we want to make," says Cavendish. "Part of the agreement is that we're not allowed to comment on each other's films. We just let each other make them. We're making very different films, anyway - ours is more character-driven. It's a classic gangster story."
"We own the right to Paul Williams's book, The General," explains Boorman, who describes his film as "a study of the man, his origins and his relationship to society".
Austen says: "There have always been situations in which people are making more than one film on the same subject. They'll all be different and hopefully they'll all be worth making." Cavendish agrees that each film has its own particular emphasis. "It's worth making one biopic from the story, but there are serious limitations to making more than one. From what I understand of the BBC script, it's more of a police procedural, while ours is more of a character study. But English and Irish films are going through a boom period, and this is riveting source material. I don't think it's particularly unusual - just look at how many films have been made about Al Capone."
But will the people who suffered violence at the hands of Cahill and his associates feel that their suffering is being exploited for entertainment and financial gain? Boorman doesn't think so: "I believe that people who would have been hurt by Cahill will find this film particularly interesting - he's certainly not glamorised."
Even if there's no intention of glamorisation, the reality is that films inevitably encourage identification with their central characters, a fact of which Austen is well aware. "He isn't glamorised, but he is the central character," she says. "It's a relatively difficult line to draw. There are some situations where he is represented sympathetically, particularly with his children, and the different women with whom he had relationships. That lulls you into a sense of security, but then he will do something brutal and nasty to somebody else."
Both The General and Ordinary Decent Criminal have been the subject of criticism in the tabloid press on this count, which Cavendish rejects as mischievous and ill-informed. "Three or four years ago we looked at the background to the story and the morality of it, and decided that Cahill was somebody it would be quite easy to glamorise, which wouldn't be helpful. One of Gerry Stembridge's great strengths is comedy, and there's certainly some of that in this script, but they decided we were making Martin Cahill funny. It was a typical tabloid story, putting one and one together and getting five."
Boorman is also critical of some of the media coverage The General received while filming in Dublin last year. "While we were preparing to shoot the film, there were stories in the press about how the lives of members of the crew were being threatened. It was totally untrue - we never had any problems from the criminal community or from people who had suffered at his hands - the only problems we had were from the press."
Austen feels that it's pure coincidence that the three films are being made at almost the same time, but agrees that the widespread international coverage of the crime situation in Dublin since the death of Veronica Guerin has probably been a factor in drawing film-makers' attention towards the Dublin crime scene. The interest doesn't just stop at Cahill, either - two separate films about Guerin are currently in development, with one scheduled to go into production later this year.
"For us, it's a chance to make a modern, fast-paced action thriller."