34/47
The Jackal is an elusive assassin who makes a living by carrying out high-paying hits. He soon meets his partner in a tough 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 made it. Forsyth worked as a freelance journalist covering the Biafran War. When that ended, he returned to Britain, unemployed and unsure of what to do next. He said: “I came back at Christmas ’69, completely emaciated. No chance of a job, no flat, no car and no savings. Then I got this crazy, crazy idea to write a novel. ‘Everyone said you had to be kidding or crazy because the chances of it even getting published were hundreds to one, even thousands.’ Within weeks of its release, the film rights were snapped up. Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars were in the running to play the Jackal in the 1973 film, but the role went to a then-unknown Edward Fox because director Fred Zinnemann thought he could pass through a crowd invisibly. (Airmail). Mentioned on The Graham Norton Show: Denzel Washington/Paul Mescal/Saoirse Ronan/Eddie Redmayne/Blossoms (2024). I have to agree with many other reviewers, it’s a great production with good atmosphere and Eddie Redmayne does a great job as the Jackal, but the female lead spoils it all. It’s a total miscasting of an actor who can’t show any emotion on his face no matter the situation and who almost approaches overacting, perhaps to compensate for a lack of understanding or appreciation of the character. The character is obviously supposed to be confident and experienced, but her portrayal is that of a cocky ‘I know best’ woman who, on the one hand, has no appreciation for the evidence that is being carried around the municipal office with a suitcase. She is so irritating and unbelievable.