A Good Year

Ridley Scott started from a newspaper clipping: in 1996 the Times business pages reported a French vineyard with no chateau and no pedigree selling garage wine at over 30,000 pounds a case. Scott, who had owned a house in Provence for fifteen years, put the idea to his neighbour and old advertising colleague Peter Mayle. Mayle did not want to write a screenplay, so he wrote a new novel from the plot they discussed and Scott bought its film rights. The source book came after the film idea. Shooting ran nine weeks in 2005, mostly at places Scott called eight minutes from his own house, among them Château la Canorgue at Bonnieux, Cucuron and Gordes. The estate pool was not the one he had pictured, so a second was dug and concreted nearby and the real one had its bottom replaced digitally. The commercial result was poor: 42.3 million dollars worldwide against a 35 million dollar budget, with Fox booking a 20 million dollar loss. Critics were cold; the CinemaScore grade from ticket buyers was B plus. Freddie Highmore, who plays young Max, drew a Critics’ Choice nomination. A good fit if you want to see how much of a novel written to order reads like a screenplay. Not for anyone expecting the director’s tense, crowded work.