Gangs of New York set to hit screens

The film we've all been waiting for is finally set to explode across our screens...and already it has collected a clutch of prestige Golden Globe nominations (traditionally a sure sign of further success in the Oscar race).

Director Martin Scorsese's epic Gangs of New York, which he first planned way back in l978 and which was hit by script, funding and release problems when he finally got around to making it, has collected Globe nominations for Best Dramatic Film and for Best Dramatic Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis).

Audiences have waited a year to see the blockbusting story of the 19th century battles between the Irish and Italians in New York, which at the time suggested it was heading for Box Office failure. That hasn't, certainly in the States, been the case and Gangs looks set to be one of the big hits of 2003.

"Ever since I was a child growing up in lower Manhattan," says Scorsese, who at one time seriously considered going into the Catholic priesthood, "I was attracted by the tales of old New York. When I began exploring the streets and neighbourhoods, I began to discover clues to an extraordinary but fairly unknown period in the city's turbulent history.

"That period of around the l860s was overflowing with terrific stories ... there were, for example, the gangs that reckoned they were true Americans, as 'native Americans' ... they were the white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant stock from Holland, England, Scotland and the Scots-Irish from the North of Ireland. On the other hand there were the Irish, who were coming to America in vast numbers. They were largely uneducated, escaping famine and coming with a blind faith that America offered the solution to all their ills.

"They would be taken up by Tammany Hall politicians making all sorts of promises - for their votes - and the locals began to fear this growing political power, particularly as it was likely to be greatly influenced by the Vatican.

"So the film is set against the bitter fight to the finish between the Catholic and Protestant groups, with the corrupt politicians waiting in the shadows."

This, adds Scorsese, is when America was formed and defined, the time of the American Civil War (still the most costly of wars, in human terms, ever fought by Americans).

The problem, as seen in his film, is that the more established 'natives' viewed the sheer number of incoming Irish with increasing alarm: "There were just so many of them, all arriving at once. They were uneducated and they spoke a different language ... but mainly the fear lay in them being Catholic. And everybody began living in a boiling, seething powder-keg. And when it did blow, New York saw the most violent riots in American history."

Scorsese originally planned to make the film in early l980 but the failure of Heaven's Gate (in l980) - still considered the greatest disaster in the history of the Hollywood cinema - frightened studios away from costly and ambitious historical dramas.

These days, of course, nothing is quite what it seems in the movies, which is why 19th century New York had to be recreated in the famous Rome Cinecittia Studios.

With a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, Brendan Gleeson and, in a key cameo role, Liam Neeson (he plays an early victim of a brutal murder, which forms the background of the plot as DiCaprio, his son, sets out to avenge the death), there is, naturally, a strong Irish element to Gangs. Even U2 contribute The Hands That Built America on the final credits.

Gangs of New York opens on January 10.

Gangs of New York is a guy's film ... but one of the best things in it is the performance of Cameron Diaz, in the only major female role as Jenny Everdeane.

"She is a very gutsy lady," explains Diaz, "She was a Bludgeon, which was a pickpocket ... but she wasn't just a pickpocket, she had brains and she knew the dangerous streets of New York. She used her brains to do her work.

"She would dress as a maid and walk around the big houses she was planning to rob. In those days there were so many maids and servants working in those houses that nobody ever thought of questioning just another female in a maid's uniform.

"These girls would case the house and then steal all the valuables. If they weren't caught they took their loot and headed West for a fresh start."

Daniel Day-Lewis, the Irish actor who was persuaded back to the screen to play the evil Bill the Butcher in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, is running hot as a favourite for an Academy Award come next March.

It won't be anything new for the enigmatic 45-year-old Day-Lewis, who lives in Co Wicklow, for he won one back in 1989 for My Left Foot.

He has deliberately kept away from the screen for several years - Gangs is his first film in five years - yet he remains one of the industry's most talented actors.

He is also constantly surrounded by controversy. He had to issue a rebuff to suggestions that he annoyed the crew on Gangs by keeping in character, when not acting. His curt answer was that was the way he got into a difficult role and he wasn't about to change his ways.

And even though Gangs is certain to bring him more major screen honours, he is adamant that he will return to his semi-obscurity when all the fuss has died down: "I really have to be forced to get involved in making films these days.

"Whenever I make a film I always wonder if that's all there is to it? I always feel empty when I complete a film.

"And I'm not sure it's something I want to do again in the future. I don't have any plans for future films. I've managed to avoid it for the past five years!"

He says he just wanted to get away from films for a while. His last one was in 1997, Jim Sheridan's box office failure, The Boxer.

Having worked successfully with Scorsese on The Age of Innocence, Day-Lewis was intrigued by Gangs: "For one thing, Marty is a hard man to escape from. He's such an outstanding moviemaker and a great storyteller and as a person you have to travel the world to avoid him.

"When he started to tell me this great story about the gangs that ran New York in the 19th century, I was hooked.

"And my character is a fascinating one. I was drawn to the character's capacity for violence. He makes no excuses for what he is. His character is driven by resentment ... he hates all the people suddenly arriving in America. Bill is actually the sort of guy I'd like to get to know better."