boorman says "nobody wanted to do it. warners didn’t want to do it, even though i’d made a shitload of money for them." his then-agent david begelman knew the head of 20th century fox wanted to make a film with the director. he said the executive could read the script but needed to make a decision within two hours. "it’s either yes or no," begelman told him. "you have no approvals, and it’s a million dollars negative pick-up". boorman says "the fox guy came to london, and i was very nervous, so we went for lunch whilst he read the script. when he finally came out of the office his hand was shaking, clearly with no idea of what to make of it. begelman went straight up to him and said, ‘congratulations!’ he never gave the poor guy a chance."