Adapting the Story to the Screen
For Jordan, there were major decisions to be made about how to translate the story to the screen. "There's a very particular tone in the book -- it varies between these heartbreaking scenes of loss, with an undercurrent of savagery running through the whole thing, and on top of that there's a comic refrain which binds it all together. So it's kind of a comedy that's not a comedy. There are parts of the book which work filmically and then some that don't, so we had to make some alterations."
Jordan simplified parts of the story, accentuating the relationship between Francie and his best friend Joe, and adding such visual elements as the vision of the town after a nuclear attack, and the appearances to Francie of an image of the Virgin Mary.
"Neil wrote that draft really quickly," remembers McCabe. "And he added a lot of things which made an awful lot of sense in terms of the movie."
Jordan and McCabe also spent hours discussing the peculiar regional dialect of the area around Clones, which incorporates words and slang not frequently heard in other parts of Ireland. Says Jordan, "The language spoken in the Clones area is almost Elizabethan in its archaisms. This dialect and the contrast between it and the argot of American TV and B movies became central to the film." Casting
During the casting process, Jordan found that a very specific tone was needed from the performances. "I've found there's a certain kind of acting that doesn't go with this story at all. The book is exaggerated but in a very particular, grotesque kind of a way. Because the language is so extreme, there's a certain kind of Irish acting which pushes it over the edge into farce, so we had to avoid that."
"I was worried it would be very difficult to establish the right tone," says McCabe. "But I'm a great admirer of Neil's. The first time I saw `Angel' (Jordan's first feature film, set against the backdrop of the Northern Irish Troubles), I was blown away, so I had huge faith in his ability to cope with this story, weaving fantasy and reality on the screen."
For Jordan, making "The Butcher Boy" reminds him of his experience directing the adult fantasy "Company of Wolves" in 1984. "It's a bit more like the world we created in `Company of Wolves' in that it's a very serious film that just happens to be funny as well.
The fundamental challenge, though, was always going to be in finding a child actor who could portray Francie Brady. "The movie is about Francie," says Jordan, "I didn't even want to consider making the film until we'd found someone who could play him. If you can't find Francie, you don't have a movie."
Morris agrees. "If we hadn't found the right child we would have had to cancel the film. There was no short list. It's his film, there's no doubt about it. Luckily, we were shooting during school holidays and he didn't have to miss any classes."
"During the production of `Michael Collins,' our casting director, Suzie Figgis, had a team of casting scouts travelling all over Ireland, videotaping children in schools and drama groups," explains Morris.
It was almost by accident that one of those scouts came across young Eamonn Owens in Killeshandra, County Cavan, only a few miles from Clones. "It was astonishing that in this one school in Killeshandra, we found Eamonn and Alan Boyle (Joe) as well. It seemed so easy, but we knew we had found our main character," says producer Stephen Woolley.
"It was pure luck," remembers 12-year- old Eamonn, who takes the fact that he's starring in a movie quite matter- of- factly. "They'd been to lots of schools, but hadn't found what they were looking for. We had our photos taken and got to read the script, and then four from our class were called for a screen test."
Eamonn's experience with acting was negligible. He says, "I did modeling when I was seven years old for a local clothes shop; I think I made a bit of a fool of myself!" He also plays in the local Killeshandra Youth Band. "We've been to America for Saint Patrick's Day. We marched in Brooklyn and down Fifth Avenue, and we won the competition for the best band."
The young actor quickly took to his new responsibilities. "It was a big surprise to get the part, but it was really good fun," he says. "I think the part suited me down to the ground. Francie's confused -- nobody ever tells him what he's done wrong."
Luckily, filming took place during the summer school holidays, "Eamonn is the movie," according to Jordan. We did read-throughs with about 2,000 kids, but he was definitely the one. The way he's driven by adrenaline --it's hard to describe, but Eamonn has given one of the most extraordinary performances that I've seen anywhere."
"There's something in rural Ireland, which is probably disappearing now with the modernization that's taking place," believes Jordan. "Eamonn comes from this background, which is completely unselfconscious and quite irreverent. He has huge energy, and that's perfect for the part of Francie."
For Fiona Shaw, who plays Mrs. Nugent, the film was a remarkable experience. "I don't play so much a character as somebody's nightmare of a character. In the end I decided that her snobbery, her desire to be someone else or somewhere else, is what drives her. She's somebody who would have aspired, in a rather ridiculous way, to these icons of the period like Jackie Kennedy."
To play Benny Brady, Francie's tortured, alcoholic father, Jordan turned to his long-standing working partner, Stephen Rea. "Besides anything else, Stephen is a brilliant comic actor," says Jordan of the Belfast- born performer, who received an Academy Award nomination for his central performance in "The Crying Game."
Rea was only too happy to work for the sixth time with Jordan. "Benny is a small part, but a crucial one," he emphasizes. Jordan also opted to have Rea provide the voiceover narration by the "older Francie" throughout the film. "Stephen is superb at a certain very specific kind of comedy, a very serious comedy."
For Rea, the opportunity to work on "The Butcher Boy" was more than welcome. "It's very much Neil's kind of story -- very strange, but very moving as well." As a Northern Irishman himself, he particularly appreciated the power of the language spoken by the characters, which is very specific to the county of Monaghan, which runs along the border between Northern and Southern Ireland. "Monaghan is perfect, because it's not necessarily the international image of Irishness; it's got that sort of dark, Shakespearean, Northern thing." The same was true of the locations the filmmakers found there. "Clones is a very dark town, and it's remarkably beautiful in a strange way."
For production designer Tony Pratt, "The Butcher Boy" presented a series of logistical challenges, combining the real town of Clones with interior and exterior sets on the sound stages at Ardmore Studios, just outside Dublin. "We found a lot of what we needed in Clones itself, but we also had to build interiors, and of course the post- nuclear set. I think that Neil wanted to make the environment somewhat more stylized than it would be in reality. For Mrs. Nugent's house, for example, we used quite strong colors to convey that sort of high-kitsch suburban taste of the period."
Costume designer Sandy Powell worked closely with Pratt to achieve the desired look, particularly in the character of Mrs. Nugent, Francie's hated enemy. "At first, Neil wanted Mrs. Nugent in black, but black was wrong -- we needed that vitriolic bile green which you saw a lot of at that time. Mrs. Nugent thinks she's special, and one way of expressing that is through her clothes."
According to Fiona Shaw, Powell asked her what color she preferred to wear, and she decided on green. "And she chose these nightmarish, awful greens which gave her this cartoonish quality."
"Throughout the film, we tried to keep the colors vibrant, to avoid anything that was too visually depressing," says Pratt. "Neil wanted a beautiful-looking film, to set this very harsh story against a backdrop of beautiful imagery."
Production designer Tony Pratt says, "This film is one of the most interesting I've worked on. It's a smaller production than `Michael Collins,' for example, but we did some really interesting work, with the dreamscapes and the optical effects on the apparition of the Virgin Mary, for example. Also, we used a lot of those things -- comics and television -- which feed Francie's imagination."
Jordan agrees that this is an unusual film to be backed by a major studio, but believes that "there's something in this story that crosses boundaries. The book is very popular in France and Germany and the States, and has been translated into many languages. There's something in Pat's depiction of childhood that speaks to a lot of people, and I hope this film will do the same."
Geffen Pictures Presents A Neil Jordan Film: "The Butcher Boy," starring Stephen rea, Fiona Shaw and Eamonn Owens. The music is by Elliot Goldenthal; the film editor is Tony Lawson, A.C.E.; and the production is designed by Anthony Pratt. The director of photography is Adrian Biddle, B.S.C. The executive producer is Neil Jordan and the screenplay is by Neil Jordan and Patrick McCabe, based upon the novel by Patrick McCabe. "The Butcher Boy" is produced by Redmond Morris and Stephen Woolley and directed by Neil Jordan. It is distributed by Warner Bros., A Time Warner Entertainment Company.
