Alexander Stuart - The War Zone - 20th Anniversary Edition

After Danny’s departure in 1995, I found it difficult to get excited by any other director that Sarah or Eric suggested, even threatening to walk away from the project entirely when I found one proposed director’s take on the material completely lacking in the passion I felt it needed. But the fact that Nic and Danny had worked so hard with me for so long sustained me with the belief that ultimately we’d find the right person.

Perversely, it was when I flew to Los Angeles in early 1996 to discuss with Kiefer Sutherland an entirely different undertaking, a screenplay of Bill Buford’s stunning account of soccer hooliganism, Among the Thugs , that I got my answer – and The War Zone was finally up and running.

Tuesday March 5, 1996

One of the great days! The meeting with Kiefer and Alliance went well this morning – I think they’re going to commission me to write the script of Among the Thugs .

I feel so good by the end of the meeting, I ask to check my hotel voicemail before we leave the room. There are six messages from Tim Roth, whom I’ve never met, saying he’s just read my novel, The War Zone , and wants to direct it as a film. Each message as he tries to reach me grows a little more discouraged – ‘ I know you’re only in town for a couple of days. Let’s meet. ’ He leaves his number, his mobile number, his agent’s number. I call back immediately, talk to him, and arrange to meet at 8:00 tonight in the bar of the Bel Age Hotel.

Now I’m really excited. I call my friend, Susan Ruskin, and meet her for lunch. Move out of my hotel and into her house for a night. I meet Tim at 8:00 p.m. as arranged. He seems much the same in life as on screen – down-to-earth, friendly, still very English despite having lived in LA for six years. I tell him I saw him at the Groucho Club in London a year before. I’d wanted to go up to him and tell him how good I thought he was in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction (which I don’t usually do – I never approach actors), but someone distracted me. Tim tells me he was probably drunk anyway!

We start talking about The War Zone . He loves the book and has a powerful understanding of its themes. He wants to make an uncompromising film about abuse – something that will confront the audience, let them feel the pain. He relates the novel directly to my experience of losing my son, Joe Buffalo. He talks openly and sensitively about the pain I went through, and his strength of feeling and compassion make me feel in turn that he would bring that commitment to the screen.

He wants to focus on the children, make us understand what Jessie and Tom are going through. I think he sees Jessie as more immediately a victim than she appears in the book. He says she’s damaged – which is how I’ve always seen her, but I wanted the discovery to come late, so that you think she’s strong and frighteningly powerful, then you realize why she’s who she is and how she is.

In the novel, I wanted to push the idea of Jessie’s apparent power and culpability, in order to make Dad’s guilt more complex – not simply because I wanted to suggest at the end that the abuse may have been going on all her life, but also to underline the fact that no parent ever escapes the responsibility of being a parent, no parent must ever cross that line.

But I can live with Tim’s approach, because of the emotion I feel he will bring to the film, and because I know that, from a writer’s perspective, filmmaking involves giving up ownership. There’s just no choice, unless you direct the material yourself: it’s a director’s medium and a collaborative effort.

We start discussing films we love, such as My Life as a Dog and Days of Heaven – the way they make you see the world through a child’s eyes. And Tim talks passionately about two of the directors who have most influenced him – Alan Clarke, for whom he made his stunning debut in Made in Britain , and Mike Leigh, for whom he made Meantime – plus a third, Ken Loach, who greatly inspired him.

Talking to him, I never question in my mind whether he can direct – he’s never done it before, and actors don’t always make the best directors, but there’s something about Tim, his confidence, the integrity and power he’s always brought to his roles, that blows away any doubts. More than anything there’s an honesty to him that makes me feel that I can trust him.

He wants to start working on The War Zone right away: he’s impatient to get on, though he has other films to do first as an actor, maybe a year and a half of commitments. For the first time – or at least the first time since Danny dropped out – I absolutely believe that The War Zone will happen. Tim has a passion for it that goes far beyond the film industry – he seems to need to make this film, the way I needed to write the book when Joe Buffalo was sick. And on a practical level, the fact that he’s currently Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Rob Roy , makes me feel secure that, even on such a potentially difficult project, someone in this kudos-driven industry will back him.

This feeling is underlined by the number of times Tim is approached while we talk in the Bel Age bar. A woman comes up, says she’s a fan, mentions the Oscars, and asks for his autograph. She is not alone. Then the manager of the bar approaches us as we are leaving and says, ‘ You’re a legend, Mr Roth, a legend .’ I didn’t know people actually said things like that!

Tim follows me out in his car and as we hit Sunset Boulevard, he pulls alongside and shouts, ‘ That’s the spot where Gary and Kiefer got arrested ’ – a reference to a story I’ve mentioned, which Kiefer Sutherland told me earlier in the day, about his getting arrested with Gary Oldman after Kiefer’s marital near-miss with Julia Roberts. I drive back to Susan’s house, not quite believing the day I’ve just had.

Wednesday March 13, 1996

This past week, I have been in LA, back home with Charong in Miami Beach for about 24 hours, then in Boston visiting Charong’s cousin Cathy, and in New York visiting our friends, Frankie and Andre.

Tonight I call Tim from a payphone at Madison Square Garden, where we are seeing Oasis play live. He will go to England for meetings about The War Zone as soon as the Oscars are over on March 25, then I will go to LA in April to start mapping out our first draft of the screenplay together.

Monday April 1, 1996

Tim calls, excited, from London to say that at his first meeting – with George Faber at the BBC – he was offered the money to make The War Zone . Although I haven’t doubted for a moment that he can direct, I think he is thrilled by this proof that he is being taken seriously. He is meeting with five or six other companies that might finance the film – including David Aukin at Channel Four Films, who has been involved with the project since Danny Boyle. It might be good to have a fresh start, but Channel Four has a great reputation with films as diverse as Trainspotting , Four Weddings and a Funeral , My Beautiful Laundrette , A World Apart and A Room with a View .

Thursday April 4, 1996

Dixie Linder calls from Sarah Radclyffe’s office in London to say that Tim has established a great track record with his meetings with potential financiers – everyone he’s met wants to be involved with the film, even though it’s such a difficult subject.