On 22 July 1969 Bagley had visited Iceland to conduct research for what would become his first espionage novel, and the first of his published novels to be researched on location, the consequence of which is a story displaying a detailed authenticity of background. It was to become one of his most popular novels, which would inevitably attract the attention of film producers.
Since its publication on 28 September 1970 there have been a number of occasions when options were agreed for film and television rights on Running Blind. All of these ultimately failed until BBC Scotland acquired the rights in 1977 and produced, in Bagley’s own words, an excellent three-part adaptation for television dramatized by Jack Gerson. However, before that it all started with Hollywood, and this is the story of Bagley’s visit to Hollywood and his own attempt at writing a screenplay.
Not long after initial publication Bagley was approached by Hollywood film producer Aaron Rosenburg who asked the author to visit Los Angeles in order to write a screenplay for the novel. It was reported in the TorquayHerald Express that Bagley and his wife would leave for Los Angeles on Wednesday 18 November 1970 and would be there anytime from six weeks to two months. 1
A research trip to the Sahara followed the Hollywood visit, which was reported on by George Black in an article for the Totnes Times by George Black on 26 February. Black writes:
They spent seven weeks in Los Angeles while Mr Bagley worked on the film script of his novel Running Blind. The American producer, Mr Aaron Rosenberg, hopes to start shooting in Iceland in June or July. Mr Bagley met Mr Rosenberg, who produced Mutiny on the Bounty, for talks in Los Angeles, but the cast and director have not yet been chosen. Mr Bagley visited Iceland in 1969 to gather material for the book and told me he had just received a congratulatory telephone call from the Icelandic Ambassador in London. 2
The telephone call from the Icelandic Ambassador in London actually occurred during an interview conducted by Chris Mullin at Bagley’s home in Totnes, and was mentioned in the Mullin’s article. 3
The Hollywood visit had been utterly frustrating for Bagley, and was later described more fully in an article appearing in the Icelandic publication Tíminn two years later in April 1973. This article included extracts from a previous interview Bagley had conducted ‘some time ago’ with a Norwegian newspaper. An extract of the interview is shown below:
It was a terrible experience, one I never want to go through again. Everything you’ve read about Hollywood is true. I was honoured when I was told that the book was going to be made into a movie and that I should travel to Hollywood to write the script. But my experience in the movie capital was unfortunately unpleasant. I stayed for three months, and during that time nothing but endless meetings were going on about the script. There I sat with one good idea in mind and around me a group of high-ranking men who argued and argued, but could not come to any agreement.
Endless meetings. I never managed to get my own opinions across, but the high-ranking men kept patting me on the back and saying that this was going perfectly well. They tore ‘Running Blind’ apart and then put the story back together so that they could tear it apart again. I politely suggested many times that we now start with the manuscript itself. And they just smiled at me and said that this was going wonderfully well. When they had finally cut and trimmed the story, so that it was unrecognisable, the director told me to start writing the script. But I’ve never been able to write with a group of people around me with endless observations and comments. By this time I was bored to death with Hollywood and wished I had never written Running Blind. The stupidity, prevaricating and general pettiness ultimately reached a peak one day, when we all sat at a round table and discussed for three days in a row whether the girl in the picture should say: “Hello darling. It’s great to see you” or “Darling, how marvellous to see you, come right in”. They could not reach an agreement and the scene was deleted. And I myself left Hollywood and have not thought of going back there. 4
Clearly the Hollywood experience had turned out to be quite an unpleasant one for Bagley and 1971 had not started well. It continued to be a troublesome year for the author, for in that year he started four books, all of which collapsed somewhere between chapters four and six. He attributed this period of writer’s block mainly to his Hollywood trip, and as the year progressed Bagley became increasingly frustrated with the movie industry. Writing to Francis Bennet, responsible for dramatization rights at Collins Publishers, he explained:
One thing that frets me about the film industry is that the movie moguls are hypnotised by instancy – a book must be written now, now , now. Several of my past products would make good films in my opinion… Running Blind is a very good bet, good action, small cast and not too expensive. But you’ve had to sell the novel and not the first draft film script I wrote. It was the first script I’ve written and I don’t go a bundle on it – best to keep it hidden, in my opinion. 5
Hidden, destroyed, or filed in another archive that screenplay remains, as there is no trace of it in Bagley’s archive papers in Boston.
In an interview with Dennis Barker from The Guardian, published on 23 February 1972 there was more insight into Bagley’s thoughts on film options for his novels:
A very cool thinker, Mr Bagley – he can even say nuts to film producers who want him to write scripts. He has worked on a script in Hollywood, but the film was never produced. Film rights of two of his novels have been sold, and options on another two have produced cash.But no films have been made yet out of any of them. I am interested in films, but I will no longer jump through hoops for producers – they are all talk and no action. 6
The situation improved somewhat the following year when, on 31 January 1973, Geoff Reeve Productions Ltd., in association with The Rank Organisation took up a twelve month option for film and allied rights renewable for a further six months on Running Blind, to commence on 1 March that year.
NEXT: Read contemporary Icelandic press articles about the GEOFF REEVE PRE-production of Running Blind
References
- Image © Tíminn (1973). ‘Út í Óvissuna og Desmond Bagley’ (15 April 1973, p. 13).
- ‘Totnes couple for America.’ Torquay Herald Express, 14 Nov. 1970, p. 3. ↩︎
- ‘Desmond Bagley revisits the Sahara.’ Totnes Times, 26 Feb, 1971. ↩︎
- ‘Desmond never knows how his thrillers will end.’ The Independent, 7 Ma. 1971, p. 13. ↩︎
- ‘Út í Óvissuna og Desmond Bagley.’ Tíminn, 15 Apr. 1973, pp.13, 39. ↩︎
- Bagley, Desmond. Personal correspondence to Francis Bennet, Collins Publishers, London. 18 July 1971. The Desmond Bagley Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University. Unpublished. ↩︎
- ‘Fortunes in men’s eyes.’ The Guardian, 23 Feb. 1972, p. 10. ↩︎