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Robert Harris on Roman Polanski and 'The Ghost'
Roman Polanski’s film of Robert Harris’s novel ‘The Ghost’ is in cinemas. But what was it like to finish a film with its director in jail? Dave Calhoun meets Harris, the former New Labour insider who turned on Tony Blair
At what stage was ‘The Ghost’ when Roman Polanski was jailed in Switzerland last September?‘Well, Roman finished shooting in Germany in May and edited it through the summer. He asked me to come and see a rough cut in early September and I went to Paris and stayed a couple of nights. We talked it through and agreed various things. Then he worked solidly for three weeks to get it how he wanted it. On Saturday September 26, he’d pretty well finished and dashed off to catch a plane to Zurich. The next thing I knew, my wife told me, “Roman’s just been arrested.” It was really shocking.’
Was he able to keep working on it?
‘He received daily visits from his lawyers and they would bring him DVDs of scenes and he would watch them on his laptop. It wasn’t ideal, but he could scribble instructions to take back to the edit. So he was able to do all the finishing touches. I think they were a welcome distraction. Once Roman came out and was in his chalet, we talked a lot.’
You and Polanski were first planning to make a version of your book ‘Pompeii’ together. Was it a blow when that fell apart in 2007?
‘Yes, it was – and a great surprise. His producers had raised $100 million. Chiefly, it was the actors’ strike: no one would commit and studios were using all the actors. Meanwhile, there were dozens of people building sets. It had to be stopped, it was costing so much. Everyone was shattered. But Roman said: “As you know, worse things have happened to me.”’
How did you start talking?
‘Entirely out of the blue. Unknown to me, Polanski was looking for a thriller to adapt. He had read “Fatherland” and wanted to do that, but it had already been made. Then he came to “Pompeii”, and my agent said, “Would you take a call from Roman Polanski? I went home and my wife said, “Oh, some foreigner just called for you from a call centre”. I said, “I think that may have been Roman Polanski.” She replied, “Really? He sounded very foreign.”
‘He called back and it was him: “Hey, are we going to make this movie or what?” I went over, saw him in Paris and talked about it. After lunch I went to his office and he asked, “What are you writing now?” I said I was starting a novel about a ghost writer. “Why do you want to do that? It’s a boring idea.” Then I wrote the screenplay for “Pompeii” one month, the novel the next.’
So when ‘Pompeii’ collapsed, you moved on to a film of ‘The Ghost’?
‘A week or two later I got the advance copies of “The Ghost”. I sent a copy to Roman with a semi-jokey inscription saying, “Dear Roman, Perhaps we should make this. No togas. No volcanoes.” A few days later I was in Dublin and he rang: “You’re right, let’s do this. It’s fucking Chandler!”’
How was it adapting your novel?
‘Roman always does faithful adaptations. I would go through the novel and put it into screenplay form and occasionally miss things out. Invariably, he’d go, “But where’s this line? You left out the line! You left out the fucking line! Put the line back in. How many times do I have to say? The novel is the screenplay!”’
How far did you want the former British prime minister of your novel, Adam Lang, to resemble Tony Blair?
‘We took a view that Lang should not be a lookalike and should not imitate Blair. There are a few things, maybe, like his grin. There are crucial differences between the Langs and the Blairs. Nobody would say that Cherie was politically more shrewd than Tony. No one would say that Tony didn’t have a clue in his pretty little head. There’s no religious motivation in the Brosnan character either.’
Is it naive of me to think it unlikely that there are such close links between the CIA and Downing Street as you suggest in the film?
‘Well, yes, it’s fantastical. But it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. I think there is a gradual realisation since the book came out that there’s something strange about Britain’s slavish relationship with the United States. We don’t have an independent foreign policy.’
Did the book elicit any amusing reactions from Downing Street?
‘Well, Sky News’s Adam Boulton, who is married to Blair’s former right-hand woman, Anji Hunter, wrote a book about Blair and said that his reaction was to call me “a cheeky fuck”. When I told Roman, he said, “Fantastic, we’ll put that line in the movie!” And we did.
‘The other thing was to do with the casting. Someone told Blair Brosnan was in the role and he texted: “Phew, I thought it might be Richard Wilson”.’
So he has a sense of humour.
‘Well, he did then. But I suspect that since the Chilcot Inquiry he and Alastair Campbell are starting to twig that Iraq is not going to go away. This is the judgement of history. This is posterity. It’s not just the media. But the film is in the legitimate tradition of being an entertaining, satirical comment on our times. It should not be seen as a deep wounding attack on Blair.’
Read our review of 'The Ghost'.
Author: Interview: Dave Calhoun
User comments on this story
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- Bud said...
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TFor more on Double Standard in Roman Polanski's case as far as Los Angeles Prosecutors.
See links below:
http://www.fulldisclosure.net/Programs/515.php
http://www.fulldisclosure.net/Programs/515-4.php Posted on May 07 2010 03:28 - Report as inappropriate
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- Sonny said...
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The Swiss Official's and their spokesperson, should study "Don’t assume, otherwise you’ll make an ass out of you and me."
If Swiss Officials are going to be fair NOT ARBITRARY in Roman Polanski's extradition process then Swiss Justice would have to study whether the current Los Angeles Prosecutor's statements regarding what Polanski's sentence was back in 1977 - is true or not.
If the sentence is less than 6 months Roman Polanski cannot be extradited by Switzerland according to their treaty with U.S.A.
Currently it sounds as if Swiss Officials want to discount the original Los Angeles Prosecutor in Polanski's case, Roger Gunson's testimony regarding what the original sentence was, without even looking at it.
For Swiss Justice to assume that California County of Los Angeles Prosecutors always makes authentic statements when they request extradition of Roman Polanski after 32 years is to make an ass out of you and me.
Polanski's lawyers filed a motion in Los Angeles County Superior Court on 4/29/2010, seeking access to the sealed transcript of testimony by Los Angeles prosecutor, Roger Gunson, concerning the Santa Monica Judge's sentencing plan for Roman Polanski in 1977.
Polanski's California lawyers motion contends that Los Angeles prosecutor Roger Gunson’s testimony proves that an extradition request by Los Angeles Prosecutors filed with Switzerland last year included a false depiction of the sentencing plan by Judge Laurence J. Rittenband made 33 years ago.
There are two other lawyers who support retired Los Angeles Prosecutor Roger Gunson's testimony one of whom is the victim's lawyer Laurence Silver.
The 2009 Los Angeles Prosecutors request to Switzerland said that Judge Rittenband sent Mr. Polanski to prison in 1977 for a psychiatric study so he would “be in a better position to reach a fair and just decision” before sentencing,
but this is not true, since there was one other immediate psychiatric study of Polanski when he was first arrested and before the Judge let Polanski leave the country to make a movie, and before he came back and underwent a second pyschiatric study at Chino prison.
while the Los Angeles Prosecutor Roger Gunson in Roman Polanski's 1977 case, has testified that Roman Polanski’s prison stay at Chino was to constitute his entire sentence, and lawyers Douglas Dalton for Polanski, and Laurence Silver for Samantha Geimer agree.
Also it is documented in newspapers in Feb 1978 that the original Santa Monica Judge Laurence J. Rittenband would have sentence Polanski in absentia so why is that not happening now to end this nonsense?
Isn't all this torment just to add more clout to the DA's desire to become the next Attorney General, at the expense of another famous person who apart from serving his time at Chino, is harmless, and also to deflect attention from the Santa Monica Courthouse Judicial and Prosecutorial corruption against Roman Polanski in his case, which caused him to be in a Catch-22 situation and flee? Posted on May 01 2010 12:18 - Report as inappropriate
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- Sonny said...
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The Swiss Official's and their spokesperson, should study "Don’t assume, otherwise you’ll make an ass out of you and me."
If Swiss Officials are going to be fair NOT ARBITRARY in Roman Polanski's extradition process then Swiss Justice would have to study whether the current Los Angeles Prosecutor's statements regarding what Polanski's sentence was back in 1977 - is true or not.
If the sentence is less than 6 mon Posted on May 01 2010 12:18 - Report as inappropriate
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- Mapleson said...
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May contain Judicial & Movie Spoilers
Some may find Polanski?s latest movie The Ghost to bear no resemblance to reality, or to his current situation, but this isn?t true since certain aspects mirror Roman Polanski?s own demise in America in 1978, which was not all his own doing.
In the movie there are two ghost writers, who never meet, because the first one dies, before the other arrives. Both are linked by the same manuscript, the same people, the same location, the same corruption, the same cover-up, and the same set of circumstances which seeks to silence and kill them for exposing corruption.
In the movie the first ghost writer perishes under strange circumstances much as Roman Polanski did In America by flight by the end of January 1978 due to Judicial & Prosecutorial Misconduct against him.
Just like the movie, and in reality, a second victim of Judicial corruption exists, who experiences what Polanski experiences - in the same Santa Monica Courthouse years later.
In reality, the Judge in the second victim's case has was promoted to the California Court of Appeals by the former California Governor on police brutality day,
just as Jay S. Bybee, who signed the Torture Memos for the Bush Administration, was promoted by the former President to become a judge on the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2003.
In the movie ?The Ghost Writer? a Harvard Professor is linked to the CIA, just as Jay S. Bybee by signing the Torture Memos for the George Bush Administration is affiliated to the CIA.
Bybee also wrote for Harvard an article ?The Tenth Amendment Among the Shadows: On Reading the Constitution in Plato?s Cave, 23 HARV. J.L. & PUB. POL?Y 551 (2000)
As Polanski and another person has been victimized in the shadows of the same Courthouse, by Judicial Misconduct who have never met, but yet whose paths are inextricably crossed through the Judicial corruption they encountered there,
Polanski?s claim of Judicial Misconduct is strengthened further, since the Santa Monica Court?s exploitation of two different sexual assault cases, illustrates how the Court has engaged in a double standard which depends on who the perpetrator is ? i.e. foreign born Roman Polanski or a Santa Monica College, California State employee who is being assisted in covering up his crime of sexual assault- by corrupt police, and the Court itself.
In reality the second victim of the Santa Monica Courthouse sued but instead of any quick resolution, she has been slowly tortured by the endless litigation for nearly 12 years, in addition to being sexually assaulted, framed by the police and beaten up in front of the Santa Monica Judge, and not to forget falsely arrested.
On January 11th 2006 Judge Jay S. Bybee of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, who had signed the Torture Memos for the Bush administration years earlier, wrote a decision in the 9th Circuit U.S. Appeals Court, that has been used by the County of Los Angeles and the Federal Appeal Court to terminate the second victim?s civil rights case which includes the Santa Monica Judicial misconduct against her, the staged hearing, the police brutality in his courtroom in retaliation for reporting police corruption...
Polanski?s movie "The Ghost Writer" warns writers and viewers to not look for the truth, or expose facts that Officials do not want you to expose, because if you dare expose those political facts, or if you dare to report that you were sexually molested from behind by a Santa Monica College photography professor in his class, or if you dare to report Police corruption or Santa Monica Judicial Misconduct you may end up a ghost of yourself, and dead upon arrival.
No happy ending - if you are blowing the whistle on Official corruption, with those in power wanting the corruption to remain under wraps. This view is not nihilistic it is realistic.as shit happens. Posted on Apr 17 2010 12:29 - Report as inappropriate
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