The Day of The Jackal author Frederick Forsyth has revealed he sold the film rights for just £20,000 (around $25,000) – and will get next to nothing from the new $126,000,000 TV adaptation.
Eddie Redmayne, 42, is reportedly earning $12 million as assassin-for-hire the Jackal in the ten-part thriller on Sky Atlantic.
But Mr Forsyth, 86, said he would not be cashing in too because he sold the film rights to his 1971 bestseller decades ago.
He said: ‘The producers of the new TV series have made their deal with the rights holders. I had sold out the rights.
‘With hindsight, I could have demanded a fortune. But at the time, I had never seen £20,000 in my life. Twenty thousand pounds for film rights? Sign, sign, sign, give me a pen, give me a pen.’
But he added: ‘I think the new adaptation has paid me a modest fee for the title. It wasn’t out of obligation, it was a gesture.’
The book, about an attempt to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle, was a runaway success, taking Mr Forsyth by surprise as it was his first novel.
Two years earlier, he was working as a freelance journalist covering the Biafran War. When it ended he returned to Britain, unemployed and unsure what to do next.
He said: ‘I came back Christmas ’69, thoroughly skint. I don’t have a likelihood of a job, don’t have a flat, don’t have a car and don’t have any savings. Then I had this crazy, crazy idea to write a novel.
‘Everybody said you must be joking or mad because the chances of even getting it published are hundreds to one, even thousands.’
Within weeks of publication, the film rights were snapped up. Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars battled to play the Jackal in the 1973 film but the role went to the then unknown Edward Fox because director Fred Zinnemann thought he could pass invisibly in a crowd.
The TV series plot bears little relationship to the novel or film.
But Mr Forsyth said: ‘Provided you stick to the basics of man, ruthless, sniper rifle, target, fee, I think you have got the elements.’
He attended the London premiere last month despite mourning his wife Sandy Molloy, who died a few days earlier after a battle with prescription drugs.
Mr Forsyth lamented writers trashing Britain and its Empire. ‘We discovered tribal wars when we arrived and left behind a nation state. We built and we built. That was the Empire,’ he said.
Chris Hastings is the arts correspondent at The Mail on Sunday
