During the pandemic, Gerald McMorrow won the blessing from Douglas Adams’ estate to option Douglas’ version of The Sibylline Books, ‘Sifting The Embers’ – his epilogue from the wonderful book ‘Last Chance To See’ and turn it into a short film.

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In a flourishing ancient city, a mysterious woman arrives and offers to sell twelve large books containing all the knowledge and wisdom in the world for a single sack of gold. When the kings’ people refuse, she burns half of the books and departs. After a harsh winter, she returns and offers the remaining six books for two sacks of gold. Finding the increased price outrageous, they refuse, and she burns half of the books again before leaving. The following winter brings famine and disease, and the people again refuse to pay four sacks of gold for three books. She burns two more and leaves. On her final visit, they finally pay 16 sacks of gold for just one book...

Gerald recalls “I first read ‘Last Chance To See’ when I was in my twenties, (an already avid Douglas fan) and have reread it endlessly. As we find the planet in the state that it is in, the fable seems all the more pertinent; not just gradual animal extinction and climate change, but the general sense of mass stupidity in all aspects of how we treat the world and each other.

We shot ‘Embers’ in Marrakech with a small budget and the good will of many actors and technicians. I hope the story is as resonant to you as it was to me when I read it all those years ago.:

Film coming soon…