Falling flat in Hollywood

He is the man who made Irish dancing a worldwide phenomenon. Michael Flatley has performed in front of hundreds of thousands of fans across the globe, sold millions of videos and records and become a multi-millionaire.

But the Irish American still had one dream: to become a Hollywood star. So keen was he, a production company - Dancelord Films - was set up and a massive crew hired to make Dreamdancer.

It would tell the tale of a dancer who found fame and fortune through his feet, closely parallelling the life of Flatley, the lead actor and co-writer.

Now all that remains of that dream is locked in a vault - 120,000 feet of unedited film whose ownership is now a matter for the courts.

Dancelord is in a bitter dispute with the people it hired to make the film, and is facing an investigation which could see Flatley, 43, ordered to reveal his links to the company.

It is being wound up by a High Court order and owes almost £1million - including £112,000 unpaid VAT and a £310,000 fee it promised the film's proposed director, David Wickes.

The creditors, who also include another director Tony Palmer, as well as writers, cameramen and other technical crew, claim that Flatley, who says he was neither a director nor a shareholder of Dancelord, is the man who ultimately controlled it and is responsible for the debts.

Wickes and film and TV veteran Palmer, who have fought a year-long court battle to recover the cash, allege Flatley used nimble legal footwork to distance himself from Dancelord, along with the film's American "executive producer" Michael Mazer.

Neither appeared on the list of company directors or shareholders filed with Company House.

Wickes - who brought The Sweeney and The Professionals to the screen in the Seventies - signed a contract with Dancelord after meeting Mazer at a Soho film office in February 2001.

He received a £20,000 advance fee, plus a pledge of £310,000 as full payment-Rushed to the US to follow Flatley's Lord Of The Dance tour, Wickes directed a crew of more than 80 using 10 cameras.

He met Flatley repeatedly for talks over the script, he said, adding: "He is a charming man and I can still say that I think he'd make a very good actor.

"I saw some of the rushes [unedited shots] and it was fantastic. Absolutely wonderful stuff."

After filming, Wickes returned to London to polish the script, saying: "I worked really hard on it, writing day and night, and finished it in London in four weeks."

But it was to be the last he heard from Flatley, Mazer or Dancelord - which he quickly discovered had not filed accounts for two years, he said.

With Palmer and the other film crew, he sued Dancelord and was later joined by Customs and Excise as they pursued unpaid VAT - opening the way for a high-powered liquidator to be appointed.

During the High Court hearing to wind up the company, Mazer told the court: "Dancelord has, at all times, had the backing of the Flatley entities."

Palmer said: "We don't think Dancelord itself has any money.

"We are trying to get past Dancelord, back to Flatley himself. We realised we didn't stand a chance in Hell by ourselves.

"Every time we tried to find out what was happening they brickwalled us, so our only hope was to get the courts to appoint a liquidator.

"These people have all the powers of the court behind them. They can subpoena witnesses, demand to see bank accounts, the works."

A spokesman for the dancing star said: "Michael Flatley is not a director or personally a shareholder of Dancelord Films, and consequently has no comment to make about this situation."