the script, but his feeling that the story would be better focusing on the American spy did not tally with Hitch's own ideas. The final blow to the Lehman-Hitchcock relationship came when the writer decided to remove the double agent's escape from prison out of the adaptation. After an argument with the director Lehman left the project and Norman Lloyd (an old friend of Hitch's) took on the job. In a hurry to get the ball rolling, Hitchcock suggested that Lloyd start work on the screenplay straight away, but the writer refused, stating that they were unprepared. Hitchcock, angry at Lloyd's objections, fired the writer and decided to work on the screenplay himself. Throughout the epic pre-production saga both Universal and the various writers involved were worried by Hitch's failing health. Eventually, the director was forced to abandon the project, as his health continued to decline. What was intended, as a grand farewell to his followers, never came into fruition and the world was unfortunately left with the rather uncharacteristic Family Plot as the final work of one of the cinema's greatest directors. 07. DAVID LYNCH'S RONNIE ROCKET Based on a script director David Lynch had penned over a whole decade, Ronnie Rocket was a project close to its creator's heart. Intending to combine many typical Lynchian thematic obsessions -- including an idealised image of 1950s culture, an industrial design aesthetic, midgets and physical deformity -- Ronnie Rocket was the film he originally intended to make after Eraserhead (1976). After