JOHN le Carré makes a telling comment at the end of his novel The Constant Gardener, which we subsequently used at the end of the titles of the film: “By comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard.” As producers of the film, we had a duty to seriously look into that statement.
His novel, which I was inspired to make into a film after reading an advance copy in 2000, is anything but tame. It is a tense thriller about the unethical and manipulative behaviour of drugs companies carrying out clinical trials in Kenya.…
