The Double Death of Véronique

Two films, one story, diverse results. Jeremiah Cullinane examines the respective failure and success of When the Sky Falls and Veronica Guerin.

For the second time in a decade two films were released relating the exact same real-life recent event in Irish society, and featuring the same main and secondary characters. Both films involved an internationally-known director and lead actress. Structurally and editorially the two films were virtually identical. Yet one bombed miserably, while the other went on to set one of the highest box office marks ever for an Irish film in Ireland. Of the two production companies, one is now bust, while the other went laughing – well, chuckling mildly – all the way to the bank. What went so right, or so wrong?

Second Time Lucky?
Few people seem to remember When the Sky Falls. Joan Allen was in it. And Patrick Bergin, and Pete Postlethwaite, and lots of familiar Irish faces as well. Allen played our most famous journalist, Vero-er, "Sinead Hamilton," famous internationally for all the wrong reasons. Veronica Guerin had become our JFK: as many people have put it, everyone in the country remembers where they were on 26 June 1996 when they heard she had been murdered. Her story, her fight against the Dublin gangsters, the perhaps foolhardy risks she took, and her demise contained all the ingredients for a good, if not great film. So it was no surprise that one should emerge, especially since she herself had had a hand in scripting it. But a second film as well? Especially after the poor performance of the first?

According to Veronica Guerin's Irish producer Morgan O'Sullivan, Jerry Bruckheimer had a Guerin picture in development before even hearing of the preparations of When the Sky Falls. He decided to wait it out and see how the first picture did. Only if it was a failure would he attempt his own version. It was a ballsy decision. It meant that with the same story, a proven flop at the box office, he was convinced, and would lay down a €17m budget to prove it, that he could tell it better.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 99