The Holcroft Covenant (1985)

Interesting facts

• Budget: £8M
• Based on: The Holcroft Covenant
• Filmed in: Germany

The Holcroft Covenant is a 1985 thriller film based on the 1978 Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. The film stars Michael Caine and was directed by John Frankenheimer. The script was written by Edward Anhalt, George Axelrod, and John Hopkins.

Production

The film was part of a five picture slate from Thorn EMI in 1985, others including A Passage to India, Wild Geese II, Morons from Outer Space and Dreamchild.

Edy and Ely Landau bought the film rights to the novel along with The Chancellor Manuscript. They worked with John Frankenheimer on The Iceman Cometh and asked him to direct.

The first draft of the script was done by Edward Anhalt. However, when John Frankenheimer became attached as director, he got John Hopkins to do rewrites. The director was unhappy with these then arranged for George Axelrod to rework most of the screenplay. Frankenheimer called the film "a conspiracy movie" about "a man's search for his father". The director added, "I love Ludlum. I'm a great fan of Ludlum. I buy Ludlum's books.

"The script I worked from was relatively humorless," says Axelrod. "When John and I suggested adding much more humor, the producers said they didn't want a Walter Matthau romp. But John told them he could take the script of Some Like It Hot and turn it into a social documentary on the effects of gang warfare on the music business in Chicago during Prohibition and how that affected women's liberation - and that they needn't worry about him being t…

Planning was complicated when Ely Landau had a stroke so his wife had to take over the bulk of producing with Mort Abrahams. Frankenheimer said "They were no help and were in the wrong profession. It was actually the completion bond company — Gertrude Soames, the film financer, and David Korda, who worked for them — who came to our rescue."

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