RARE: Early draft of TAI PAN written by George MacDonald Fraser (1979)

Description

There was a time when James Clavell was one of the most popular authors on the planet, based primarily on the success of his novel, Shogun.  All his other novels were optioned by film studios and most became bad movies.  Tai-Pan had great potential, so it endured decades of development.  At various times, Patrick McGoohan, Steve McQueen, Roger Moore and Sean Connery were in contention for the lead role of the swashbuckling Dirk Struan, who in this tale is responsible for Hong Kong becoming the West's entryway into Asia.  The tale is filled with rogues, the emperor's henchmen, lusty ladies, and a horrendous typhoon.
People who tracked the progress of Tai-Pan say that this screenplay would have made the best movie.  It was written by famed novelist George MacDonald Fraser, author of the Flashman books, so he was familiar with this time period, the English empire, politics, knaves and bad behavior.  Reportedly, this was the screenplay that attracted Steve McQueen to the project.
Alas, the producer lost the rights which ended up in the hands of Dino de Laurentis, who made a laughably bad version starring Bryan Brown in the mid 1980s.
174 pages.  good condition.