.
Sadly for both, Kevin Costner had his heart and his mind set on doing a Michael Collins epic. Costner was close enough to filming the yarn that he had finished a preliminary scouting mission to Ireland in the early '90s.
Dispatches of the Costner news reached Jordan, who became depressed, and Neeson, who was beside himself with frustration.
Recalls Irishman Neeson diplomatically: "I basically wanted to ask, 'Look, Kevin, are you going to do the film, because if you aren't, there are a bunch of paddies who are going to make it for a sixpence."
Eventually, Costner backed off without ever hearing from Neeson. And fortunately, the benevolent god of box-office smiled his warm smile on both Neeson and Jordan. See, Jordan directed a hit -- Interview With The Vampire. Neeson acted in one -- Schindler's List -- and received an Oscar nomination in the process.
Jordan says that the box-office business and the nomination made Michael Collins seem more viable to a major American studio, if a little chance-taking commercially.
Still, when the cast and crew started filming in and around Dublin during the summer of '95, it was as though they were doing low-budget work, says Jordan.
At $30-million, the movie (opening Friday) does boast an impressive cast. Neeson is Collins, of course. Alan Rickman portrays Eamon De Valera, a Collins rebel associate turned enemy who fought against Collins in the subsequent Irish civil war of independence.
Aidan Quinn is Harry Boland, a Collins supporter who competed for the attention of Collins' girlfriend, played by Julia Roberts. Yes, Roberts was impressed enough with the story that she passed on her multi-million dollar salary to be a part of the project. Jordan was impressed enough with Roberts' knowledge of Collins to let her join the Jordan-Neeson obsession. All of the Michael Collins moviemakers witnessed the Irish dedication to the subject matter when the filming began.
"When they asked for 2,000 people to show up for crowd scenes," remembers Quinn, Irish by birth, "4,000 would show up. When they'd request 5,000, 11,000 volunteers would be there."
Englishman Rickman -- "I do have an Irish grandmother," he says drolly, "like everybody in the world" -- had to face one of those crowds to make a speech as De Valera. It was his first scene upon arrival.
"It was very daunting," says Rickman, "to be in front of 4,000 extras who had me as an emblem, good or bad, of how they grew up."
Jordan, born and raised in and around Dublin, knows exactly what Rickman is talking about. But Jordan was steadfast in depicting Irishmen working for and against a free Ireland, and perhaps that's why Michael Collins depicts as many dirty Irish deeds as it does British ones. But make no mistake, says Jordan, the Michael Collins point is Ireland for the Irish.
The conservative Brit press anticipated the theme and criticized the Jordan production's "inaccuracies" before it was released in England.
"They have since changed their tune,"Jordan says, referring to the movie.
The director says he's hopeful that might happen in real life, too, with the real negotiators involved in the peace talks.
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