Award-winning screenwriter and novelist Richie Conroy introduces his football mockumentary Fran the Man, which hits Irish cinemas this April.
My phone rang. It was Collie McCarthy, a producer friend of mine.
"Did you hear about Ballybrack?"
Collie was talking about Ballybrack FC who, in an ill-advised attempt to have a match postponed, lied that one of their former players died. It made the international news and brought the world of grassroots soccer into focus. Collie was about to produce his first feature film, I Used to Be Famous, for Netflix. He was looking for his next one.
‘What about Fran, have you ever thought of making a feature film?’
Fran was a mockumentary series I made with Mark Hodkinson and Eimear O’Kane about a hapless assistant manager of an amateur soccer team. A friend with funny bones, Darragh Humphreys, starred as Fran. He brought pathos and truth to the character. We made two series of Fran with support from the BAI, Setanta Sports and family and friends who we roped in for bit parts.
I told Collie that I had a kernel of an idea about Fran having to go undercover to stop match-fixing. We agreed it had potential so I set off to do some research.
For the match-fixing story to work, it had to be a big match, what if the club qualified for the FAI Cup for the first time in their history?
I watched many feature documentaries as I could including the work of Werner Herzog, Lauren Greenfield and of course Christopher Guest. It made me think about the mockumentary from the point-of-view of the fictional director, why did she decide to make a film about Fran?
Fran the Man is a feel-good comedy and a love letter to football and to the selfless volunteers who give of their time to enable others to play.
My answer came from two sources. First was Jon Ronson’s book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed and second was Aoife Kelleher’s documentary One Million Dubliners. There’s a jaw-dropping twist at the end of Aoife’s film which must have forced her to reimagine everything in the edit room. I knew something similar would help Fran the Man move away from a typical sports story.
Screen Ireland were very supportive and I wrote a couple of drafts of the script. Then it was time to find a director.
My phone rang again. This time it was Mum, who's always there to offer pearls of wisdom.
"There was a filmmaker on the radio earlier, I didn’t catch his name but I think you should listen back to it."
She was talking about Stephen Bradley who was promoting his book Shooting and Cutting. I bought it and read it and loved it. Collie sent the script to Stephen who read it twice and phoned Collie to say that he’d love to come on board. We met in Dún Laoghaire where I grew up. The character of Fran was shaped by managers (and their team talks!) I had encountered over the years playing for Dalkey United and Trinity College. I remember one match, we beat Loughlinstown 7.1 after leading 6.0 at half-time. Afterwards, I overheard their manager say "well done lads, ye drew that second half." I love that way of thinking - always trying to find the positives even if it is a little delusional.
Stephen and I chatted about films we liked, we were on the same page. We worked on the script with our script editor, Lois, while Collie got the finances in place. We assembled an incredible crew and cast including Ardal O’Hanlon, Deirdre O’Kane, Amy Huberman, Risteard Cooper, Toni O’Rourke and Darren Dixon, not to mention all the supporting cast and cameos. Cameras rolled last March in St Joseph’s Boys Football Club.
Fran the Man is a feel-good comedy and a love letter to football and to the selfless volunteers who give of their time to enable others to play.
Life has come full circle. I now manage an under-13s girls team and, who knows, perhaps I’m inspiring the next generation of comedy screenwriters with my annoying team talks.
Fran the Man is on general release in cinemas across Ireland from 11th April.
