The greatest movies never made: David Lean’s ‘Nostromo’

Posted On August 13, 2024August 13, 2024

During the time he became regarded and renowned as one of cinema’s greatest-ever directors, David Lean was a prolific filmmaker who only once went more than three years without helming a new feature between 1942 and 1965, delivering 14 films in that period.

However, a combination of false starts and ailing health significantly reduced his output, with the five-year gap between Doctor Zhivago and the release of Ryan’s Daughter in 1970 being followed by another 14-year wait for A Passage to India, which turned out to be the final movie of an illustrious career.

Lean was attached to mount a new telling of the mutiny at sea orchestrated by Fletcher Christian against William Bligh, which eventually came to fruition as Roger Donaldson’s The Bounty, with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins filling those respective roles. In addition, he was also set to adapt JG Ballard’s novel Empire of the Sun for the screen.

Steven Spielberg was on board to produce the film, but when Lean dropped out of the project, he ended up taking over directorial duties. Having grown up as a massive fan of the influential filmmaker, Spielberg wanted to keep their creative collaboration going under different circumstances, which led to the transformative mind behind Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and ET becoming part of the production team for the in-development Nostromo.

Set in a fictional South American republic, Joseph Conrad’s acclaimed book explores the notions of revolution, political machinations, corruption, and financial manipulation, with an Italian sailor becoming involved in a scheme to smuggle silver out of the country when local rebels stage a coup and seize power.

Stories focusing on the exertion and misuse of power, strong-willed and deeply flawed heroes, the mutual distrust between native populations and outside interlopers, and the different ways in which people from certain backgrounds, classes, and origins react to the same situation had been prevalent in many of Lean’s previous works.

Nostromo carried the additional intrigue of a master director mounting one last epic in the face of his failing health, never mind the ludicrously star-studded ensemble he had in mind.

Lean envisioned the story being told with Georges Corraface in the title role, with support coming from Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Peter O’Toole, Christopher Lambert, Isabella Rossellini, and Dennis Quaid, among others. Old cohort Alec Guinness had already ruled himself out of the running, though, while a young unknown called Tilda Swinton auditioned when Nostromo was gearing up for production.

“It was going to be his last film,” she recalled to The Playlist. “And I remember going to do a screentest and I was very starstruck, overwhelmed. I will tell you the truth: I was uncomfortable all the time while I was in conversation about this film. I was uncomfortable because it was these gatekeepers, this massive production company, massive makeup artists, massive David Lean, massive everything.”

Lean planned to modernise and update the early 20th century setting, but cracking the screenplay proved tougher than expected. He penned the original draft alongside playwright Christopher Lampton, with the pair of them being replaced by Robert Bolt before Lean reassumed command with assistance from Maggie Unsworth.

As it turned out, Spielberg wasn’t being too helpful, either. Even though he idolised and respected Lean, he wasn’t above passing on notes and suggestions to his hero, with Hampton recalling the director met with his would-be protege to discuss Nostromo only to return “very annoyed with a load of notes handed to him by Spielberg”.

Those creative differences eventually led to Spielberg dropping out, but Nostromo was already well on its way to getting in front of the cameras. Awarded the green light with a substantial budget of $46million – the equivalent to around $120m when adjusted for inflation – the first day of principal photography was a mere six weeks away when Lean passed away from throat cancer in April 1991 at the age of 83.

Without its director, the movie simply faded away into nothingness. Nostromo would have been Lean’s final stand in the world of cinema and the last epic from the maestro responsible for The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago, not to mention a filmmaker with two ‘Best Director’ Oscars who’d helmed two ‘Best Picture’ winners and another three nominees, it stood every chance of being a jaw-dropping farewell.

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