"The name's Ronan, not Ronin."
Rainy Day's been shopping a screenplay around Hollywood for ages now. It's a surreal take on the James Bond myth. The hero is called Johnny Ronan, but whenever he gets to utter his name in the film's key scene, and this is the USP, he encounters a spelling issue. "The name's Ronan, not Ronin," he says, just as he's about to put the evil Mr White or Mr Black away. It's all a bit of an inside joke, really, as "Ronin" is an allusion to a 1998 film starring Robert De Niro as a former CIA operative who joins a gang of thieves attempting to steal a mysterious object for an IRA splinter group.
But because fact is much more entertaining than fiction, events have overtaken our screenplay and the public prints are now reporting that "A Dublin property company backed by developer Johnny Ronan, who is taking a break from his business activities, owes almost €400 million..." The story has taken on an Ian Fleming dimension because Ronan's reason for the time out arises "from the recent high-profile media coverage of aspects of his personal life which he believes has the potential to distract attention from his business interests."
And why would his personal life be distracting? Well, there is the feeling in financial circles that Johnny Ronan's "private jet jaunt to Morocco, with former Miss World Rosanna Davison, could affect the attitude or approach taken by the company's bankers and Nama, in providing new funding to the group." And if you're asking if this is the same Rosanna Davison who is the daughter of singer Chris de Burgh, the answer is yes.
Coincidentally, "Casino Loyale", the working title of the first Johnny Ronan film, features a high-speed car chase in Paris. Sometimes, you can't make this stuff up fast enough!
