Polanski to direct 'Blair' film

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

LONDON (AFP) — Roman Polanski will direct a film based on a thriller about a former British prime minister rumoured to be modelled on Tony Blair, he said Thursday.

The movie will be adapted from Robert Harris's novel "The Ghost", in which former premier Adam Lang, who is facing the threat of a war crimes trial, hires a ghostwriter to write his memoirs.

Rumours that Lang is based on Blair peppered the British press when the book came out in October, with journalists highlighting that Blair recently signed a contract to pen his memoirs and was a key backer of the "war on terror".

In addition, Harris, whose most famous book is "Fatherland", is a former senior political journalist in Britain and one-time friend of Blair who became disillusioned with him several...