25/43
The Jackal is an elusive assassin who makes his living carrying out assassinations for the highest pay. He soon meets his worthy rival in a tenacious British intelligence officer who tracks him down in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe. Check out our list of renewals and cancellations to see if your favorite show has been picked up. Forsyth worked as a freelance journalist covering the Biafran War. When it ended, he returned to Britain, unemployed and unsure of what to do next. He said: “I came back Christmas ’69, completely broke. I have no chance of getting a job, I have no flat, I have no car and I have no savings. Then I had this crazy, crazy idea to write a novel. ‘Everyone said you must be joking or crazy because the chances of seeing it published were hundreds to one, even thousands.’ Within weeks of publication, the film rights were snapped up. Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars fought 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 blend in unnoticed in a crowd. (Air Mail). Quoted in The Graham Norton Show: Denzel Washington/Paul Mescal/Saoirse Ronan/Eddie Redmayne/Blossoms (2024). I have to agree with many other reviewers, this is a great production with a good atmosphere and Eddie Redmayne does a great job in the lead role of the Jackal, but the female lead ruins it all. It’s a complete miscasting with an actor who fails to show any facial emotion no matter the situation and almost comes close to overacting, perhaps in an attempt to compensate for a lack of understanding or appreciation for the character. The character is obviously meant to be confident and knowledgeable, but her portrayal is that of an arrogant “know it all” woman who, for one, has no regard for rehearsals as she carries her suitcase through the general office. It’s just so annoying and unbelievable.