Film Rights

Film rights to all my work once again reside with me.

Many of you have been agitating for a Falco series on film. (For 'The Age of Treason' see below.)  As a result of that experience, I set some demanding criteria for any new film options:

• Any film production, made with or without foreign partners, would be British in origin and style.
• The production would have very high standards in all areas
• The script(s) would be based directly on the books, in the proper order
• The integrity of all the ongoing series characters would be preserved
• I would have meaningful approval of the director, writer(s), principal actors and at least the first script
• My readers, on this website, would be the first to hear if and when it was definitely going ahead (SEE ABOVE!)

Those criteria were apparently met by the BBC and the books were 'optioned' for a major TV series. Three scripts were prepared, though I made serious comments about them all and felt they needed much more work (this is in great contrast to how happy I am with the adaptations for Radio 4). Now BBC TV have bought a major new series about Romans and although they assure me their interest in Falco remains undimmed, I have doubts. Their option has expired and my inclination is not to renew it. This is very hard to say after three years of work – but on the other hand, I had been hoping for a better situation by now. Please don't be too disappointed. Trust me; you would much rather the books were never filmed at all than that they were filmed badly.

That Other Film....

The Age of Treason. Columbia TV bought, for a very modest sum, rights to 'The Silver Pigs'. This was years ago, when neither Falco nor I were famous. I was persuaded that the producer liked my books for the reasons that made them distinctive, but when I saw the script it lacked my title, plot, dialogue, narrative style, narrative attitude, view of women, view of men, irony, and period authenticity. The only scene I recognised was from a book to which Columbia never owned the rights. I wrote and said what I thought; my name was taken off the film. I have never seen it. This film's existence had the advantage off holding of competing offers. I made it known that I seriously regretted the distress caused to my readers and that only if I was promised better would the rights ever be sold again.

Note: film rights to 'The Course of Honour' remain with me.