Finbarr was quite upset; a film star had been badly injured doing a stunt. Finbarr had always imagined that particular actor as taking the lead part in the film they would make using his novel as a basis.
Finbarr hadn’t started the novel yet as such, but he had a few ideas. He could actually see in his mind’s eye the credits at the end of the movie rolling over the big screen. Of course, everyone in the theatre would usually be standing and walking out by now – during the credits – but in this case they were so moved they remained seated. When the credits finished the audience applauded. That was not that common an occurrence. Clearly they were emotional. Who wouldn’t be after such a gruelling two hours of intense emotion?
It was therefore extremely disappointing to read of the film star’s stunt accident. Of course, there were other actors, but they wouldn’t do as good a job.
There were further problems blighting Finbarr’s plans for a novel: who would play the female lead? The actress he wanted initially was now too old. Of course, they could dolly her up a bit with modern technology but it’s not the same. And then they had plundered the forest for timber, which he had thought would have been the perfect setting for the film.
A final upsetting thing was that Finbarr would have preferred it if the scene used during the final credits had been filmed from a circling helicopter. Filming the final view from a high hill with a telescopic lens was not really the right thing to do.
Problems! Problems! Finbarr was back to square one with his novel writing.