‘My life’s not a book. It’s a f****** movie script.’
If NYC-based filmmaker, Brian Kerrigan, plays his cards right - and by all accounts he’s doing just that - his US production company, Triskal Films, will very soon turn these immortal words uttered by former WBU world welterweight champion, Eamonn Magee, into a reality.
Magee’s biography, ‘The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee’ written by Paul D. Gibson in 2018, went on to scoop a number of awards, including UK Sports Book of The Year, for its raw, no-holds barred account of Magee’s remarkable life inside and outside the ropes.
Magee’s belief his life is a movie script is now coming to fruition as Dublin native Kerrigan moves the project toward full production.
Kerrigan, who has resided in the United States for almost three decades, was in Belfast recently to sit down and film some interviews with Magee, his family and other key figures in the Ardoyne man’s life to put together a “teaser” or trailer for the major production studios.
Indeed, Triskal has already received an early interest from Mark Wahlberg’s “Unrealistic Ideas” whose hugely successful film based on the life of ex-boxer Mickey Ward ‘The Fighter’ grossed over $130 million at the box office.
Wahlberg may well be the perfect fit to bring Eamonn’s story to the silver screen. Kerrigan also hopes to pique the interest of ‘The Big Five’ (US) Production Co’s as well as the likes of Netflix, Apple TV, HBO etc.
“There are many similarities between Wahlberg and Eamonn in that they were both born in the summer of 1971, both came from large families of boys and had troubled pasts but ultimately became devoted fathers.”
And fatherhood is the central theme of the script. Kerrigan first began to look at various angles to tell such a tale back in 2018 and when a friend had passed on Magee’s biography, it became clear that was the perfect fit.
Kerrigan was admittedly leading a colourful life at the turn of the millennium, but on September 11, 2001, life would change beyond all recognition with the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York. Kerrigan, whose trading floor was on the 25th floor of the North Tower that day, managed to escape and survive, but a friend working on the 105th floor of the same building did not.
As fate would have it, his deceased friend’s second son was born two weeks after his own son Jack in December 2001.
Therefore, the story of fatherhood was one he wished to tell and Magee’s story is one in which that theme is central: his relationship with his own father, and then, having to deal with the nightmare scenario of burying his own son, Eamonn Jnr, who was murdered in 2015.
“I was off the rails at that time and leading a chaotic life, but the whole events brought fatherhood fully into focus for me, so the story of two fathers and two sons is one I want to help tell,” Kerrigan added.
“I met up with Paul (Gibson) when he was out in New York with Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes fighting in Madison Square Garden and then later when I made the trip to Belfast, met Eamonn. I told him about myself, my own troubled past and my interest in fatherhood, which also seemed to resonate.”
Therefore, the screenplay is about a troubled boxer rather than just simply about boxing as a sport.
It digs deep into fatherhood and the changing roles of fathers into the 21st century.
Critically, though, the movie explores the strength, resilience and love of two mothers (Eamonn’s wife Mary, and mother Isobel) hell bent on raising their children well despite almost insurmountable odds.
This is a roller-coaster movie of, at the end of the day, acceptance.
“Meeting Eamonn again recently was great as there is a smile back in his eyes.”
The appeal of Eamonn’s story is that it’s Irish, which is always a win around the world, but the underlying themes are universal” Kerrigan explained.
“Isobel and Terrence ‘Doc’ Magee raised four boys, old school, like 99 per cent of parents in the 1970s and 1980s.
“Mary and Eamonn tried to raise their own kids with that approach despite Eamonn’s admittedly violent and turbulent life in and out of the ring.”
Ultimately, this is a Belfast movie through and through. So, early conversations with Magee, Gibson and Kerrigan helped develop this idea and now there is a clear plan.
The script for the movie is finished and the teaser forms the centerpiece of the movie’s marketing material i.e pitch-deck. The goal now is to align correctly with the right production partners in the US, UK and Ireland.
Brian Kerrigan can be reached at bjk@triskalfilms.com
