By Gordon Thomas
Friday, October 6, 2006
The voice, which had persuaded kings and presidents, spoke softly: "Would it be possible for Mambo to rescue Brad from a landmine?"
Her question broke the immense silence of dawn at Shamwari, that precursor to when the sun rose and burned the skies.
With its six ecosystems, the game reserve in South africa's Eastern Cape is a vast landscape of looming kloofs, vistas of veldt and dark rivers. Filling the reserve are lions, rhinos, giraffes, bok of all kind, zebras and hippopotami.
Towering over them all are the great herds of elephants. These magnificent beasts are survivors of the thousands of elephants that fall to ivory poachers. Outlawed, they still stalk and kill for tusks that end up as billiard balls or trinkets in bazaars.
It was Shamwari where I chose to set my screenplay, Mambo. and it was there, deep in the bush, that Diana's call came.
"Brad" was Brad Pitt. He was to star in the movie. Other key roles would be taken by Gene Hackman and Embeth Davitz, a rising actress after her memorable role in Schindler's List. She would play "Beth", Hackman her father, "Tom".
The movie had already attracted the Discovery Channel's "animal Planet" to send a crew to film the preparations. The venerable Times of London had despatched a team to Shamwari to cover the many steps in creating a multi-million dollar movie.
and, at the centre of it all, was Diana.
after she had posed her question, there was silence on the satellite phone link. I sensed she was waiting for my reaction. Others have portrayed her as cavalier, demanding and manipulative. My experience had been that Diana was anything but. She respected all kinds of professionalism. None more so than those of us who work at the coalface of creativity. In the weeks we had spoken, she had shown this.
Now, on that late august morning in 1997, came that familiar girlish laugh: "Maybe it could be a whole minefield. That would be a perfect way to draw attention to the terrible evil of those awful weapons."
Then, with quiet emphasis: "after what I have seen there is nothing more wicked than landmines", added Diana. It would be the last conversation we shared.
Nine years later those words still ring in my ear. Diana had called from the Jonikal, the magnificent yacht of Mohammed al-Fayed, the Egyptian-born owner of Harrods, of Knightsbridge, the "Royal" store.
On board with her was Mohammed's son, her lover, Dodi, the movie producer.
He had made the classic "Chariots of Fire" and had seen in Mambo a chance to fulfil Diana's passion for protecting wild life and continuing her campaign against landmines.
Diana had agreed to be the film's Executive Producer. In movie terms it was not a crucial position, but her role meant it would have a good chance of attracting finance. and Diana had developed a good grasp of film- making and raising money. She had said to me: "I've done it for charities. I see this as another one".
She knew, just knew, the landmine scene would work. For her it was a dramatic punctuation mark in the script I was writing.
But a day after she suggested the scene in which Mambo would rescue Pitt from a field sewn with landmines, she was dead, along with Dodi. Both were killed in the first hours of Sunday morning, august 30, 1997, in a car crash in a Paris underpass.
For weeks I had criss-crossed Shamwari with its owner, adrian Gardiner. at night we had sat deep in the Shamwari bush listening to the distinct sound of the elephants: the fluttering and vibrating as air passes through their nasal passages. By day adrian had pointed out how the skin of an elephant's forehead indicates that infra-sonic vocalisations are taking place. He called it "the song of the elephant". I had told Diana; she had responded: "Can't wait to hear it".
adrian had explained that something beyond memory seems to inform elephants, enabling them from often a great distance to detect the whereabouts and activities of other elephants.
By night in Shamwari's Royal Lodge – so named because it was there that Diana and Dodi were to stay shortly before their deaths – adrian spoke long into the night of the intelligence of these magnificent creatures, of their capacity for love and compassion, of their complex social structure.
In the early hours I would begin to add to the structure of the script. Turn my notes into dialogue. Create, from what I had seen, filmable scenes.
I had sent the first draft to Diana at Kensington Palace, her London home, before she had set off to Sardinia to be with Dodi. She had finished reading while they cruised aboard the Jonikal in the Mediterranean.
She had suggestions. The film should be: "a cry from the wild. a film that would enable people to understand these extraordinarily intelligent and sensitive, gentle creatures so that they, too, would join in the fight to save them from further suffering and ultimate extinction".
Her words became the leitmotif for all I wrote. Then, on that last Sunday in august 1997, came the shocking news she was dead.
I was out in the bush talking to a sangoma – a witch doctor – when a Shamwari ranger came hurtling up the track. Close to tears the young zoologist told me what had happened.
In a week's time Diana and Dodi had planned to come to Shamwari to tour the locations. They would have stayed in the Royal Lodge with its four-poster bed and personal chef. On the day they would have arrived, Diana was buried.
What Hollywood called "the magic connection" was gone. Diana, who had become a driving force, was no longer there to nudge and charm the money men.
Then the great tusker designated to play Mambo died. The witch doctor said the animal succumbed from a broken heart. I told Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, about this. He asked to see the bone-thrower. They sat for 40 minutes in the witch doctor's kraal talking about Diana. Charlie Spencer emerged close to tears. He just kept saying: "She's at peace. I am so glad to hear that".
I found another elephant in Zimbabwe. But President Robert Mugabe flatly refused to allow him to travel to Shamwari unless he received a cool $750,000 to "set up a film school in Harare". For film-school say back-hander. The actors faded – as actors do – from the scene.
Now, nine years on, the screenplay is in the hands of new producers, Lynda Cope and David Blake of accolade Films, London. She sees it like I do, a story that still confronts the reality of africa today. New stars are to be cast. My choice for the starring role is Kate Beckinsale. The budget is coming together. Filming is planned to start next year.
Expanding civilisation, and its need for more farms and ranch-lands, is reducing the elephant's freedom to roam. Elsewhere, the poachers hunt ruthlessly with their muzzle-loaders, high powered rifles and automatic weapons more suited to warfare than the "sport" of killing for ivory.
Mambo is designed to dramatise the unequal battle between elephants and man.
It is the story of a young girl, Beth, who befriends Mambo only to find that her own father, Tom, a ranger, has placed him on the cull list. Beth takes Mambo on a journey to a place of safety. along the way they encounter and escape all kinds of adventures, pursued by Beth's father. Mambo saves Beth's life from poachers. Father and daughter are reunited. and Mambo earns a well-deserved reprieve.
Diana said it was just the kind of movie her sons, William and Harry would like. Let's hope her wish comes true!
Gordon Thomas 2006
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