Polanski to direct 'Blair' film

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-09 10:43

Roman Polanski, seen here in May 2007, will direct a film based on a thriller about a former British prime minister rumoured to be modelled on Tony Blair, he said Thursday. [Agencies]

Roman Polanski will direct a film based on a thriller about a former British prime minister rumoured to be modelled on Tony Blair, he said Thursday.

The movie will be adapted from Robert Harris's novel "The Ghost", in which former premier Adam Lang, who is facing the threat of a war crimes trial, hires a ghostwriter to write his memoirs.

Rumours that Lang is based on Blair peppered the British press when the book came out in October, with journalists highlighting that Blair recently signed a contract to pen his memoirs and was a key backer of the "war on terror".

In addition, Harris, whose most famous book is "Fatherland", is a former senior political journalist in Britain and one-time friend of Blair who became disillusioned with him several years ago.

"I have been looking for a political thriller to direct for some time and 'The Ghost' could not be more perfect," Polanski, who won the best director Oscar in 2003 for "The Pianist", said in a statement.

Polanski, a French citizen, will co-write the screenplay with Harris and filming will start next year.

The production could encounter some problems, though -- while the book is set in Martha's Vineyard, Polanski has not returned to the United States since jumping bail in 1977 after being charged with unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

He played down the problem, saying: "It doesn't really matter where you do it... it just has to be somewhere on the Atlantic off-season where you have dunes and empty roads and unlived-in holiday homes."