Ken Follett’s Foray into Film
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collaboration of a director who is already under contract to actually film the
story.” Zuckerman also felt that the project was taking away valuable time from
the writing of Follett’s next novel and that:
[MJaybe it would be wise for someone else to step in; and
then, hopefully, you could reserve the right to review whatever
they do before the picture begins shooting. At that point, I
think it would make a great deal of sense for you to give the
script a final polish; and you would then hopefiilly feel good
about what would be said and done before the cameras.
Zuckerman’s advice notwithstanding, Follett continued work on the project,
perhaps as a writer’s exercise while he developed The Pillars o f the Earth
during that same period of time. In May 1989, two years after completing the
revised first draft screenplay, Follett had completed a second draft screenplay of
Lie Down with Lions, but the delays in the completion of the screenplay and the
production of the film can also be attributed in part to the constantly changing
political situation in Afghanistan. As noted by Geoff Reeve in a letter to Follett
dated March 28, 1989: “... I am so relieved that the Russian withdrawal has
meant we can go back to your story without worrying abou Ѓ