From bestseller to box office

Paisley author explores why thriller A-lister was at one time Hollywood's highest-paid screenwriter

- TAYLOR MURRAY

Paisley author Brian Hannan has delved into the Hollywood archives as he tells the fascinating story of how work by a Scottish writer regularly hit the big screen.

King of the Action Thriller, Films from the Mind of Alistair MacLean is about the 18 films made from books written by the aforementioned Glasgow author.

These include Where Eagles Dare, The Guns of Navarone and Puppet on a Chain.

Not only was Alistair the world’s number one bestseller for more than a decade, he was also the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood.

MacLean’s films starred the likes of Gregory Peck, David Niven, Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, future James Bond Pierce Brosnan and double Oscar-winner Anthony Hopkins.

“It was pure luck I wrote the book,” Brian, who runs Abbey Books on Paisley’s Wellmeadow Street, told the Express.

“I write a daily blog - themagnificent60s - about films of the 1960s which now gets about 80,000 views a month but, back when I was only getting 1,000 views a month, I was contacted by Dillon Kastner, son of the producer of Where Eagles Dare, who sent me his father's archive.