In the late 1950s, Forman and Josef Škvorecký started adapting Škvorecký's short story "Eine kleine Jazzmusik" for the screen. The script, named "Kapela to vyhrála" ("The Band Won It"), tells the story of a student jazz band during the Nazi Occupation of Czechoslovakia. The script was submitted to Barrandov Film Studios. The studio required changes and both artists continued to rewrite the script. Right before the film started shooting, the whole project was completely scrapped, most probably due to intervention from people at the top of the political scene, as Škvorecký had just published his novel "The Cowards", which was strongly criticized by communist politicians. The story "Eine kleine Jazzmusik" was dramatized as a TV film in the 1990s. In the spring and summer of 1968, Škvorecký and Forman cooperated again by jointly writing a script synopsis to make a film version of "The Cowards". After Škvorecký fled the Warsaw Pact invasion the synopsis was translated into English, but no film was made.