"Born and raised in working-class New York City, versatile Hollywood director Joel Schumacher started out as an art student. After graduating from Parsons School of Design, he worked for several fashion design firms and dressed window displays at a department store. He found work as a costume designer and screenwriter before turning to full-time directing. After a few TV movies, Schumacher made his feature-length directorial debut with the Lily Tomlin comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman, followed by the Mr. T vehicle D.C. Cab. Schumacher finally hit mainstream success in 1985 with the Brat Pack classic St. Elmo’s Fire.” (Rottentomatoes.com)
The Producer of Veronica Guerin was Jerry Bruckheimer.
“Despite a reputation for quantity over quality, Bruckheimer has remained one of Hollywood’s most successful producers ever, putting his distinctive stamp on such adrenaline-fueled hits as Con Air (1997) and Armageddon (1998).The son of German-Jewish immigrants, Bruckheimer was born on September 21, 1945. He grew up poor, living in a tiny house in a blue-collar Jewish section of Detroit. Dropped off at a weekly matinee by his mother and salesman father, Bruckheimer developed a love for the cinema that eventually channeled him toward photography. He won several local prizes before fleeing Detroit for Madison Avenue, by way of the University of Arizona, where he received a degree in psychology, and on the strength of a Bonnie and Clyde spoof he helmed for Pontiac. The future producer left a lucrative advertising job in New York to accept low-paying film work in the early ’70s, part of the pursuit of his dream. He worked with director Dick Richards on his first few projects, as associate producer on The Culpepper Cattle Company (1972) and producer on Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and March or Die (1977). Bruckheimer began gaining notice through a pair of Paul Schrader films, the Richard Gere hustler film American Gigolo (1979), and the feline horror flick Cat People (1982).” (rottentomatoes.com)
Cate Blanchett played the role of Veronica Guerin.
“Catherine Elise Blanchett entered the world as the daughter of an Australian mother and a Texas-born American father, with two siblings. Her dad died of a heart attack when she was ten and her mother subsequently raised her. Blanchett studied economics and fine art at the University of Melbourne, but — reeling from ennui and dissatisfaction — she set off in search of an alternate vocation and traveled for a period of time, perhaps in search of herself. Blanchett ultimately landed in Egypt, where a chance bit part in an Arabic boxing film introduced her to a newfound love of acting. Taking this as a firm cue, Blanchett harkened back to Sydney, where she enrolled in and ultimately graduated from the highly esteemed National Academy of Dramatic Art. Blanchett later joined the Sydney Theatre Company, where she earned positive notices in a production of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. A subsequent role in Timothy Daley’s musical Kafka Dances won Blanchett a 1993 New Comer Award from the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle, an honor doubled that same year when she gleaned a Rosemont Best Actress Award for her performance opposite future Elizabeth co-star Geoffrey Rush in David Mamet’s Oleanna. The considerable prestige that accompanied these theatrical triumphs led Blanchett to the small screen, where she appeared in various programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including the drama Heartland and the cop series Police Rescue. Her television performances caught the attention of director Bruce Beresford, who cast her in his 1997 POW drama Paradise Road as a shy Australian nurse, opposite Glenn Close and Frances McDormand.” (rottentomatoes.com)
According to MIchal Mikulec Cate Blanchett, who plays the lead role of Veronica Guerin in the film, “spoke to Veronica’s family and friends and watched interviews and listened to her recordings in order to better imitate the habits, and voice gestures of [the] real veronica as closely as possible.” She also hired a pronunciation teacher to teach her the Irish accent. This helped to make the movie more accurate by adding a level of accuracy to Blanchett's character, based on the real Veronica Guerin.
