Show Business: One For All: The New Musketeers

(3 of 3)

His early films drew freely on this brand of madness. They also reflected Lester's singular point of view: "I like to look for the absurd in any reality, to see the flies on the pillows in the love scenes. I've always longed to go round to the back of the television news announcer and see that he has no trousers on as he reads the news." Lester's flip view of reality is couched almost entirely in visual terms. "I start from the props and work up," he explains. "I love toys. I find them funnier than people."

For moviegoers, the box office success of the Musketeers means a sequel. Hardly surprising, except that this time the follow-up picture is already in the can. The original four-hour film has been chopped in half, and the producers worked out new financial arrangements with irate actors who found they had made two films for the price of one. The sequel will be released at Christmas.

For Lester, the Musketeers' bonanza means a film making comeback. He has just returned to London from a ship in the North Sea, where he has been shooting his next film, a thriller called Juggernaut about a hijacking on the high seas. This time the man who loves toys has a whole ocean liner to play with.