40 million dollars, to be precise. If you're a producer and have that kind of money to shell out to adapt Jeffrey Archer's latest book into a masala money-spinner, it's yours for the making!
40 million dollars, to be precise. If you're a producer and have that kind of money to shell out to adapt Jeffrey Archer's latest book into a masala money-spinner, it's yours for the making!
George Mallory's story needs to be told. At least, Lord Jeffrey Archer seems to think so.
And if all goes well today at a meet-and-greet party at a five-star hotel in town, Archer might just pick an Indian to produce a film based on his latest novel Paths Of Glory. Have 40 million dollars? The film's yours for the making.
Archer has deduced quite a lot including the film's budget, "I need to find the moneyu00e2u0080u00a6 I need a producer. I've found the director (Bruce Beresford; Driving Miss Daisy), who's very keen to direct it."
I'm a storyteller!
In Mumbai to promote his latest novel Paths Of Glory as part of the Landmark Jeffrey Archer Tour, the "storyteller" (he hates being called a writer, and takes pains to point out the difference) was his candid best, talking 19 to the dozen about quite a few things.
u00a0Of course, the focus here is to reveal to our readers that the book he plans to bag an Indian movie producer for, is his latest tome. When told that the bigger buzz is on the movie he plans to make, he retorts, "I'm just doing a book tour but if anybody is in the movie business, I'm available sitting in this room waiting. I've written the screenplay already so there's nothing much to do."
Did Slumdog's success as a book-to-movie adaptation influence his decision in any way to officially get one of his books adapted into a movie in India? The answer is a terse and cryptic, "Possibly..."
But there's no denying that he loved Slumdog Millionaire (the movie and not the book Q&A, which he hasn't read yet). Says Archer, "I understand... having talked to several Indians about Slumdog Millionaire, they're very divided on it. Personally I loved it, damn good story, damn good acting. Can't complain very much."
Given the choice, who would he see playing the role of George Mallory, the hero of his latest yarn? Pat, he rattles off a wishlist: "Christian Bale, Paul Bettany, Damian Lewis."
Why these three? "Well", he quips, "George Mallory was a very-good looking man. Heaven help the actors. He'd have to be strong enough to span Mt Everest and be good looking as well."
Ideally, how soon would he want to get the ball rolling? "Tomorrow? Bruce says we can start tomorrow but we haven't got the money. This one would cost $40 million to make."
Interestingly, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's name got thrown around in the fray as one of the directors who seemed most likely to direct a Jeffrey Archer film. Archer attributes it to the fact that Mehra was present at one of his book readings last year and that's probably where the rumours began. "I did meet him but we didn't get to talk much."
About his next outing, And Thereby Hangs A Tale, he says, "It's a collection of 12 short stories and I go away to write them in August and you'll get to see the copies some time in April-May next year." Ah well, until next time then, Lord Archer!
WIN an autographed book!
Two lucky readers stand to win signed copies of Jeffrey Archer's PATHS OF GLORY. Answer this question correctly:
Which mountain was George Mallory attempting to conquer?
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