English author Lawrence Osborne to script film adaptation of war memoir 'River of Time'

Known for his thriller novels that usually have an exotic locale setting, English author Lawrence Osborne is set to write a big-screen adaptation of Jon Swain’s cult Khmer Rouge memoir ‘River of Time’. 

Lawrence will not only write but executive produce the project with Nicholas Simon, CEO of Bangkok-based film company Indochina Productions. 

‘River of Time’ has been described by literature lovers as the quintessential memoir of the Vietnam War era, centered mostly on events in Cambodia and Saigon between 1970 and 1975. Jon Swain, an award-winning correspondent arrived in Southeast Asia at the age of 22 and became a key figure among the war correspondents based in Phnom Penh. 

There have been films on his life before. One was played by Julian Sands in Roland Joffé's Oscar-winning Khmer Rouge film ‘The Killing Fields’. 

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Jon Swain said in a statement: "Twenty-five years ago, I finished writing River of Time with an ache in my heart and a tear in my eye. It was my love letter to that lost world and my attempt to make peace with a tumultuous past, to come to terms with my memories of fear, pain and death which I had encountered on an almost routine basis as a young war correspondent in Indochina between 1970 and 1975. ... My hope and belief are that the screenplay will bring to life those devastating times, perhaps even in a more vivid way than my book will ever do, deepening understanding and opening eyes, and over and above everything else be a tribute to all the innocent victims of those terrible wars and my friends who didn’t make it back."

Lawrence Osborne said, "I have been an admirer of Jon Swain's great book for many years, and it has always seemed to me the most perceptive of the memoirs of that time because it evokes the Indochinese world before it was destroyed by the war. Swain was always his own man during the war, and therefore he brings to the memory of it a very personal sensibility. I recognize his Indochina on a personal level, too. To re-tell his story in the medium of film is to come close to a place about which I have my own memories."

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Lawrence is currently at work on the screenplay for 'River of Time'. The makers are aiming to be in production by the end of 2021.