My novels in film

Several of Ken's novels have been made into movies or TV mini-series, and he fulfilled a life-long dream of appearing in front of a movie camera, with a small role in two of them. He is also the executive producer of White Wedding and Paradise Stop.

Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth

The eight-hour limited series of The Pillars of the Earth premiered on Friday 23 July in the United States on the Starz channel and in Canada on the Movie Network and Movie Central channels, and will be screened in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 in October..

Ian McShane, Donald Sutherland, Rufus Sewell, Matthew Macfadyen, Sarah Parish, Hayley Atwell as Aliena (pictured), Eddie Redmayne and Gordon Pinsent headline the star-studded cast for the US$40-million adaptation.

The series is directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (Heroes, Saving Grace, Into the West), and has been adapted by award-winning writer John Pielmeier (Emmy winner Hitler – The Rise of Evil and Emmy nominated The Memory Keeper’s Daughter), who will also play the role of 'Cuthbert'. Ken had a small role as a merchant.

The series was produced by Emmy and Golden Globe nominated Tandem Communications (Ring of the Nibelungs, Impact, Lost City Raiders) and multi award-winning Muse Entertainment (Human Trafficking, Tales from the Neverending Story, Durham County) in association with Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe nominated Scott Free Films (CBS’s series Numb3rs, Emmy nominated minis The Andromeda Strain and The Company).

>> Ken's blog
>> See the cast principal members

>> Production image gallery
>> More about the director and crew

Paradise Stop

Paradise Stop is the second film from writer/director Jann Turner and South Africa stars Kenneth Nkosi and Rapulana Seiphemo, after the huge success of their debut feature White Wedding. Ken is the executive producer.

Set in a small South African town, Paradise Stop is an hilarious high-speed action comedy which centres on lives of two 'big men', the best of friends, but who work on opposite sides of the law. It pits the honest hardworking Detective Potso Mogopudi (Rapulana Seiphemo), a good cop in a rotten system, against a host of small town crooks and big city sharks.

His friend, Ben Khumalo (Kenneth Nkosi) is the owner of the ‘Paradise Stop’ Truck Stop. This is the meeting place for longhaul carriers travelling across the border and while – on the surface – Ben’s establishment is as sharp and clean as one of his suits, round the back and under the table there are all kinds of dodgy dealings.

Paradise Stop is peopled with a cast of eccentric characters – the arrogant mayor, a spirited small-time gangster’s lackey, an easily beguiled desk sergeant, a simple-minded swimming pool maintenance man, and a feisty, sexy security investigator – who all become embroiled in a madcap comedy of errors.

> Watch the Paradise Stop trailer and the 'making of Paradise Stop' video
> See the Paradise Stop website and Jann Turner's website

White Wedding

2009. Ken is the executive producer and his step-daughter Jann Turner the director of this South African comedy. White Wedding stars South African actors Kenneth Nkosi and Rapulana Seiphemo (both of whom co-wrote and co-produced the film with Jann) and English actress Jodie Whittaker.

The film tells the story of two friends, Elvis (Kenneth Nkosi) and Tumi (Rapulana Seiphemo), who are heading from Johannesburg to Cape Town for Elvis’s wedding. Along the way, the pair meet Rose Jodie Whittaker) – a young English doctor who has fled the altar after finding that her fiancée was serially unfaithful to her. The unlikely trio hit the road together but things don’t go according to plan...

White Wedding was chosen as joint winner of the Audience Award for World Cinema at the Mill Valley Film Festival (along with An Education, by Lone Scherfig) in October 2009.

> See the White Wedding website and Jann Turner's website

Novels in film

Eisfieber

Germany, 2010. Directed by Peter Keglevic. Starring Heiner Lauterbach as Stanley Oxenford, Isabella Ferrari as Toni Gallo, Tom Schilling as Kit Oxenford, Matthias Brandt as Nigel Malone, Anneke Kim Sarnau as Daisy Mac, Bülent Sharif as Elton and Katharina Wackernagel as Mandy.

The Third Twin

1997. Directed by Tom McLoughlin. Starring Kelly McGillis as Dr. Jeannie Ferami, Jason Gedrick as Steve Logan and Larry Hagman as Berrington Jones. Also released as 'Ken Follett's The Third Twin'.

Key to Rebecca Lie Down with Lions

1994. Directed by Jim Goddard. Starring Timothy Dalton as Jack Carver. Also released as 'Red Eagle'.

On Wings of Eagles

1986. A five-hour TV mini-series. Directed by Andrew McLaglen. Starring Burt Lancaster as Lieutenant Colonel Arthur E. 'Bull' Simons, Richard Crenna as H. Ross Perot and Paul Le Mat as Jay Coburn. With Louis Giambalvo, Jim Metzler and Lawrence Pressman.

Eye of the Needle The Key to Rebecca

1985. Directed by David Hemmings. Starring Cliff Robertson as Major William Vandam, David Soul as Alex Wolff, Season Hubley as Elene Fontana and Anthony Quayle as Abdullah.

Eye of the Needle

1981. Directed by Richard Marquand. Starrring Donald Sutherland as Faber and Kate Nelligan as Lucy. With Stephen MacKenna, Philip Martin Brown and Christopher Cazenove.

Trivia ...

I had the opportunity to act in two of my own works, appearing as the 'manservant' in The Third Twin and as a merchant in The Pillars of the Earth!

Links

You can find out more about any of these films at the Internet Movie Database.