Editing David Lean (section)

===Last years and unfulfilled projects===

====''The Lawbreakers'' and ''The Long Arm''====
From 1977 until 1980, Lean and Robert Bolt worked on a film adaptation of ''Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian'', a dramatized account by [[Richard Hough]] of the [[Mutiny on the Bounty|Mutiny on the ''Bounty'']]. It was originally to be released as a two-part film, one named ''The Lawbreakers'' that dealt with the voyage out to Tahiti and the subsequent mutiny, and the second named ''The Long Arm'' that studied the journey of the mutineers after the mutiny as well as the admiralty's response in sending out the frigate [[HMS Pandora (1779)|HMS ''Pandora'']], in which some of the mutineers were imprisoned. Lean could not find financial backing for both films after [[Warner Bros.]] withdrew from the project; he decided to combine it into one and looked at a seven-part TV series before getting backing from Italian mogul [[Dino De Laurentiis]]. The project then suffered a further setback when Bolt suffered a serious [[stroke]] and was unable to continue writing; the director felt that Bolt's involvement would be crucial to the film's success. [[Melvyn Bragg]] ended up writing a considerable portion of the script.

Lean was forced to abandon the project after overseeing casting and the construction of the $4 million ''Bounty'' replica; at the last possible moment, actor [[Mel Gibson]] brought in his friend [[Roger Donaldson]] to direct the film, as producer De Laurentiis did not want to lose the millions he had already put into the project over what he thought was as insignificant a person as the director dropping out.<ref>[http://lean.bfi.org.uk/material.php?theme=2&title=bounty] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505070825/http://lean.bfi.org.uk/material.php?theme=2&title=bounty|date=5 May 2008}}</ref> The film was eventually released as ''[[The Bounty (1984 film)|The Bounty]]''.

====''A Passage to India''====
Lean then embarked on a project he had pursued since 1960, a film adaptation of ''[[A Passage to India (film)|A Passage to India]]'' (1984), from [[E. M. Forster]]'s [[A Passage to India|1924 novel]] of colonial conflicts in British-occupied India. Entirely shot on location in the sub-continent, this became his last completed film. He rejected a draft by [[Santha Rama Rau]], responsible for the stage adaptation and Forster's preferred screenwriter, and wrote the script himself.<ref>{{cite web|last=McGee|first=Scott|url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/152548|title=A Passage to India|publisher=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=13 September 2016|archive-date=30 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160330035245/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/152548%7C0/A-Passage-to-India.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In addition, Lean also edited the film with the result that his three roles in the production (writer, editor, director) were given equal status in the credits.<ref>[[Walter Kerr|Kerr, Walter]] (1985). [https://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30A17F8355D0C748DDDAA0894DD484D81 "Films are made in the Cutting Room"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 17 March 1985. Online version retrieved 15 November 2007.</ref>

Lean recruited long-time collaborators for the cast and crew, including Maurice Jarre (who won another Academy Award for the score), Alec Guinness in his sixth and final role for Lean, as an eccentric Hindu Brahmin, and [[John Box]], the production designer for ''Dr. Zhivago''. Reversing the critical response to ''Ryan's Daughter'', the film opened to universally enthusiastic reviews; the film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and Lean himself nominated for three Academy Awards in [[Academy Award for Best Director|directing]], [[Academy Award for Film Editing|editing]], and [[Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay|writing]]. His female star, in the complex role of a confused young British woman who falsely accuses an Indian man of attempted rape, gained Australian actress [[Judy Davis]] her first Academy nomination. [[Peggy Ashcroft]], as the sensitive Mrs. Moore, won the Oscar for best supporting actress, making her, at 77, the oldest actress to win that award. According to Roger Ebert, it is "one of the greatest screen adaptations I have ever seen".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-passage-to-india-1984|title=A Passage to India movie review (1984)|last=Ebert|first=Roger|website=www.rogerebert.com|language=en|access-date=25 February 2020|archive-date=9 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509053520/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-passage-to-india-1984|url-status=live}}</ref>

====''Empire of the Sun''====
He was signed on to direct a [[Warner Bros.]]-backed adaptation of [[J. G. Ballard]]'s autobiographical novel ''[[Empire of the Sun (novel)|Empire of the Sun]]'' after director [[Harold Becker]] left the project. [[Steven Spielberg]] was brought on board as a producer for Lean, but later assumed the role of director when Lean dropped out of the project; Spielberg was drawn to the idea of making the film due to his long-time admiration for Lean and his films. ''[[Empire of the Sun (film)|Empire of the Sun]]'' was released in 1987.

====''Nostromo''====
During the last years of his life, Lean was in pre-production of a film version of [[Joseph Conrad]]'s ''[[Nostromo]]''. He assembled an all-star cast, including [[Marlon Brando]], [[Paul Scofield]], [[Anthony Quinn]], [[Peter O'Toole]], [[Christopher Lambert]], [[Isabella Rossellini]] and [[Dennis Quaid]], with [[Georges Corraface]] as the title character. Lean also wanted [[Alec Guinness]] to play Dr. Monygham, but the aged actor turned him down in a letter from 1989: "I believe I would be disastrous casting. The only thing in the part I might have done well is the crippled crab-like walk." As with ''Empire of the Sun'', Steven Spielberg came on board as producer with the backing of Warner Bros., but after several rewrites and disagreements on the script, he left the project and was replaced by [[Serge Silberman]], a respected producer at Greenwich Film Productions.

The ''Nostromo'' project involved several writers, including [[Christopher Hampton]] and [[Robert Bolt]], but their work was abandoned. In the end, Lean decided to write the film himself with the assistance of Maggie Unsworth (wife of cinematographer [[Geoffrey Unsworth]]), with whom he had worked on the scripts for ''Brief Encounter'', ''Great Expectations'', ''Oliver Twist'', and ''The Passionate Friends''. Originally Lean considered filming in [[Mexico]] but later decided to film in London and [[Madrid]], partly to secure O'Toole, who had insisted he would take part only if the film was shot close to home. ''Nostromo'' had a total budget of $46 million and was six weeks away from filming at the time of Lean's death from [[Head and neck cancer|throat cancer]]. It was rumoured that fellow film director [[John Boorman]] would take over direction, but the production collapsed. ''Nostromo'' was finally adapted for the small screen with an unrelated [[BBC television]] [[Nostromo (TV serial)|mini-series]] in 1997.