Roman Polanski's £21 million film The Ghost Writer will be premiered during the 60th Berlin Film Festival from 11 – 21 February.
Based on the best selling novel The Ghost by Robert Harris, Ewan McGregor stars as a ghost writer hired to pen the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister Adam Lang, played by Pierce Brosnan. The politician is facing criticism for his support of the US during the war on terror. The similarities to real life ex-PM Tony Blair are quite striking but is it really based on his life? Former political journalist Harris, who knows Tony Blair, says he was inspired in part by the fact that the former Labour PM could possibly face a trial for war crimes, but says there are quite a number of differences between the Lang character and Blair.
This novel has a special significance for me. The beginning of each chapter has a quotation from a book called 'Ghostwriting' by UK's top ghostwriter Andrew Crofts. Inspired by these pearls of wisdom, after reading the novel I immediately bought the Ghostwriting book and then contacted Andrew Crofts offering to be his ghostwriter. Well, I thought I would get marks for originality!
To cut a long story short, I ended up promoting Andrew's new novel online (The Overnight Fame of Steffi McBride)and also being mentored by him as a ghostwriter. And what better training for a ghost than the superghost himself?
Now I am a ghostwriter too and throroughly enjoying every moment. I haven't yet been invited to Martha's Vineyard by a politician to write his memoirs, but it's early days…