'Per Fine Ounce' screen treatment registered with Writers Guild

25-Jul-2010 • Literary

Press Release
Ronald Payne, agent for the Estate of Geoffrey Jenkins, announced Thursday that a 'Screen Treatment' based upon and suggested by the original novel PER FINE OUNCE has been registered with the 'Writer's Guild' in the United States. The original novel, written by South African thriller writer, GEOFFREY JENKINS, was commissioned by Glidrose Productions (now Ian Fleming Publications) in 1966 and completed that same year, featuring James Bond 007 in the first 'Bond continuation novel.' The novel was never published, and the manuscript believed lost, except for 18 pages which surfaced in 2004.

The new 'screen treatment' has removed all traces of James Bond and the supporting characters from that series, but plot elements concerning gold smuggling and the original location of South Africa, which reverted to Geoffrey Jenkins, are retained with a 'possible motion picture sale in mind,' Payne said. Commander Geoffrey Peace, who first appeared in Jenkins's first novel, "A Twist of Sand," which was also made into a 1968 United Artists film starring Honor Blackman, and Richard Johnson as Peace, is the new hero of PER FINE OUNCE.

"We are working very hard to establish a Commander Peace adventure film franchise," Mr. Payne said, from his offices in Virginia. "Commander Peace is the only character with a direct link to Ian Fleming and the original world of 007," Payne said, referring to "A Twist of Sand" and its 1959 publication debut. "Ian Fleming was a close, close friend and mentor to Geoffrey Jenkins and championed Jenkins's first novel in one of the best reviews it ever received, helping it along to classic thriller status."

Payne also said that 'Geoffrey Jenkins Publications' is in negotiation talks with a major American novelist for the writing of a series of Commander Peace continuation novels. Shakespearian actor and film star, Robert Winston Mercy, who as 'Robert Winston' starred in the films, "Blood Thirst" and "Double Barreled Detective Story," is scheduled to record both "A Twist of Sand" and its sequel "Hunter Killer," (1966) next year.

Robert Winston Mercy made his uncredited television acting debut in the "Maverick" television episode, "Thunder From the North," starring Sir Roger Moore in 1960. "I was the Sergeant who arrested Sir Roger and locked him in the stockade at Fort Casper," Mr. Mercy said. Mercy, who won the Silver Star in Korea in 1951 for "leading a bayonet charge against heavy gunfire from the North Koreans and Chinese attack forces," has recently published his memoir, "I Hear No Bugles." In the 1960s, he was a semi-regular in the classic MGM-TV series, "Combat!" and went on to star in the motion pictures, "The Eternal mask," and "Horror From Beyond." He also made many guest starring appearances on such television shows as "Dr. Kildare," in an episode with Oscar winner Dean Jagger, and MGM's "Flipper." Other TV credits included appearances in the Warner Brothers series, "Cheyenne," with Clint Walker, NBC's "The Man and the Challenge," "Highway Patrol," with another Academy Award winner, Broderick Crawford, and "McCloud," starring Dennis Weaver. His last television appearance was in an episode of "Superboy," entitled, "The Werewolf."

All of Geoffrey Jenkins's 16 thrillers, which have sold 140,000,000 copies throughout the world in fifteen languages, are available from iUniverse Reprints.