Editing David Lean (section)

====''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]]''.