“I liked the story - that Taming of the Shrew aspect of it,” he continues. “It’s about how porcupines mate. You have two people who are, in their own ways, brutally successful. But the same cold independence that works for them professionally makes them failures at having a relationship. These two could only get together in the middle of very dangerous circumstances.”

“It’s about how porcupines mate. You have two people who are, in their own ways, brutally successful. These two could only get together in the middle of very dangerous circumstances”

All of which made the casting of Crown’s adversary-turned-love interest all the more crucial. The actress playing Catherine Banning, the top investigator assigned the job of tracking down the Monet, had to be coolly professional, enormously glamorous and every bit as multi-layered a character as Crown himself.

“I had long thought that Thomas Crown was one of the truly clever and complex characters in the literature of cinema,” says Brosnan. “He is a powerful man for whom winning is not enough: he craves the stimulation of a good gambit - the more dangerous the better. Moreover, this is a man with no apparent vulnerabilities, who is guarded even in the presumed sanctuary of his psychiatrist’s office.

“What Crown sees in Catherine is a way out of his life. When he falls in love with her, he sees his mirror image. He sees a woman who is formidable, who has brought herself up in life. When Rene Russo’s name came up, I thought ‘Yeah. This is a woman who has had relationships in movies with every big leading man on the map! No trouble believing Crown’s attraction to her: she’s beautiful, capable, witty... she’s perfect.’”

But Russo, whose recent movie career has indeed seen her paired with most of Hollywood’s top male stars - with Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 3 & 4 as well as in Ransom; with John Travolta in Get Shorty; with Clint Eastwood in In the Line of Fire; and with Kevin Costner in Tin Cup - points out that this is really the first time in her decade-long movie career that she has had the chance to play the kind of glamorous part for which her original career as a fashion model had seemed to destine her.

“I really haven’t played this kind of role before,” she insists. “I’m used to playing down the glamour: I’ll play a cop with a headband or a doctor with my hair tied back and very little make-up on. I think this is the first film that’s had a little glam where I get to put my hair up, put on eyelashes and wear gorgeous dresses. It’s also the first film role where I can put a little sexual energy in it.”

And, for those with fond memories of ‘Windmills of Your Mind’, the Oscar-winning song featured in the 1968 film, it accompanies one of the most sexually energetic scenes of the film: rescored for Chico O’Farrill’s Afro-Cuban Orchestra as the tune to which Crown seduces Banning on the dance floor.

United Artists Pictures presents an Irish DreamTime production. Prod: Pierce Brosnan, Beau St Clair; Exec prod: Michael Tadross; Co-prod: Roger Paradiso; Dir: John McTiernan; Scr: Leslie Dixon, Kurt Wimmer, based on the story by Alan R Trustman; Ph: Tom Priestley; Prod des: Bruno Rubeo; Cost des: Kate Harrington; Ed: John Wright. With Pierce Brosnan (Thomas Crown), Rene Russo (Catherine Banning), Denis Leary (Detective Michael McCann), Frankie R Faison (Detective Paretti), Faye Dunaway (The Psychiatrist), Ben Gazzara (Andrew Wallace), Michael Lombard (Procter Bobby McKinley), James Saito (Paul), Esther Cañadas (Anna). International distribution: MGM/UA.