Irish actor Colin Farrell has gone from television star to Hollywood heartthrob in the space of just a few years starring in Tigerland, Miami Vice and Alexander.In the early nineties a young Colin Farrell almost followed a football career after showing promise as a goalkeeper, Yet he went on to attend The Gaiety School of Acting to pursue an acting career.However he dropped out of the school and went on to be cast in BBC's Ballykissangel as Danny Byrne.He stayed with the show from 1998-1999 starring in eighteen episodes before he turned heads in Hollywood and made his American film debut in Tigerland.Set in 1971, when America was a nation divided over the escalating violence and bloodshed of the Vietnam War, Tigerland begins when thousands of young soldiers had already lost their lives to the war, and thousands more were preparing to enter combat. In Fort Polk, Louisiana, a group of young soldiers-in-training has conflicting opinions about the war. Jim Paxton (Matthew Davis) is an idealistic romantic who sees Vietnam as potential inspiration for future novels and romantic war stories.

Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell) is a rebellious antihero who decides that he wants no part of the army or the war and begins to disobey orders, trying to get expelled from the infantry. Paxton and Bozz become leaders to a small group of young draftees, and Bozz inspires them to question authority.

As they enter Tigerland, a training process in which the soldiers simulate combat in the Louisiana wilderness, the men begin to realize just how far they will go to stay out of the war.

The role of Private Roland Bozz in Joel Schumacher's 2000 movie Tigerland proved to be Farrell's breakthrough part.

American Outlaws and Hart's War followed but both did not do well at the box office.

He enjoyed success with, as well as proving himself capable of being, a supporting actor in Minority Report which was released in 2002 and starring Tom Cruise.

In the year 2054, in Washington, D.C., murder has been eliminated thanks to Precrime, a program that uses the visions of three psychics, called Precogs (an abbreviation for precognitive thinkers), to arrest and imprison would-be murderers before they have a chance to kill.

Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, a Precrime enforcer who believes in the system for his own personal reasons--years back his young son was abducted, and he has dealt with the loss by becoming a high-strung Precrime officer.

The director of Precrime (Max von Sydow) is eager to take the program national, and feels threatened by an ambitious federal agent (Colin Farrell) who is bent on finding a flaw in the system.

When Anderton finds himself accused of the future murder of a man he's never met, his faith in Precrime is instantly shaken. He goes on the run, and is trailed by the relentless Precrime police.

More success soon followed as his 2003 movies Phone Booth, The Recruit and S.W.A.T all did well at the box office.

Phone Booth, which was shot in just twelve days, was made on a budget of just $10 million so a gross of over $91 million at the box office was a success as Farrell re-united with director Joel Schumacher.

With an all star cast of Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J and Olivier Martinez S.W.A.T was a big hit for Farrell as it grossed over $207 million at the international box office.

For the best part of 2004 Farrell turned his back on the big budget pictures in favour of working on independent movies.

At Home at the end of the World was perhaps the most successful of these projects as Farrell portrayed bisexual character Bobby Morrow.

The film earned some positive reviews and Farrell was nominated for an AFTA Award for Best Actor and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film.

Alexander, which was directed by Oliver Stone, was next for Farrell who played the lead role.

The film was met well by some and poorly by others as well as courting controversy by openly depicting the conqueror as being bisexual.

Despite grossing $167 million it only just exceeded it's budget of $155 million.

A collaboration with Heat's director Michael Mann and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx was next as they brought hit television series Miami Vice to the big screen.

Ricardo Tubbs (Academy Award® winner Jamie Foxx of Ray, Jarhead) is urbane and dead smart. He lives with Bronx-born intel analyst Trudy, played by British actress Naomie Harris (28 Days Later, upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean II and III), as they work undercover transporting drug loads into South Florida to identify a group responsible for three murders.

Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrell of S.W.A.T., The New World) ]to the untrained eye, his presentation may seem unorthodox, but procedurally he is sound] is charismatic and flirtatious until-while undercover working with the supplier of the South Florida group-he gets romantically entangled with Isabella, the Chinese-Cuban wife of an arms and drugs trafficker.

Isabella is played by the Chinese actress Gong Li (Raise the Red Lantern, Memoirs of a Geisha). The best undercover identity is oneself with the volume turned up and restraint unplugged.

The intensity of this case pushes Crockett and Tubbs out onto the edge where identity and fabrication become blurred, where cop and player become one-especially for Crockett in his romance with Isabella and for Tubbs in the provocation of an assault on those he loves.

Despite receiving many negative reviews upon release the film went on to gross over $163 million opening at number one at the American box office.

His new role as hitman Ray in In Bruges sees him team up with Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Finnes.

In Bruges is released 18th April.

FenaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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