Nostromo

At the time of his death in 1991, David Lean was about to start filming an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel, Nostromo. After some initial misgivings about the story and Conrad's prose, Lean became enthused by the scale and potential of a yarn which, once again, featured a deeply flawed 'hero'. Nostromo is an Italian sailor, noted for his integrity, who becomes involved in a plot to smuggle silver out of a South American country, Costaguana, when rebels seize power. The silver eventually corrupts everyone - including Nostromo himself. The film was originally to be a Steven Spielberg production for Warner Brothers, but it was later taken over by Serge Silberman. The script was initially written by Lean with noted playwright Christopher Hampton. Later, Robert Bolt took over from Hampton, and then Lean reverted to writing the script himself, with help from Maggie Unsworth. He was plagued by ill-health throughout the pre-production period, and died just six weeks before principal photography was scheduled to begin. The project was then abandoned.

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