More than 20 years ago, filmmaker John Sayles received a phone call from Scottish actor Robert Carlyle. “He had a story idea about a Scottish highlander transported to the New World where he would encounter Native Americans and get involved in the French and Indian War. I eventually wrote the screenplay, and the two of us scouted the Scottish Highlands for locations and even parts of Georgia and Canada,” the filmmaker said.
Sayles grew up in Schenectady and became a successful independent filmmakers of the last 30 years with two Academy Award nominations for the screenplays of “Passion Fish” (1992) and “Lone Star” (1996). He could never raise the money to make the ambitious film and, two years ago decided to turn the screenplay into “Jamie MacGillivray” (Melville House Books). He will discuss the novel at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 30, at the Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs.
The epic 719-page book begins at the Battle of Culloden in the Scottish Highlands in 1746 during the Jacobite Rebellion and concludes 13 years later at the Battle of Quebec in Canada. The book follows the exploits of Jamie MacGillivray, who is sentenced to servitude in Colonial America and Jenny Ferguson, a poor young woman also sent in chains to the New World. Their paths cross in the beginning and near the end.
“Both of them are living very different lives than most people at that time,” Sayles said. “This was a time when most people lived their lives and died in the places they were born. Jamie and Jenny are caught up in exciting and dangerous locations. What interested me was how these characters did whatever they could to survive.”
John Sayles presents “Jamie MacGillivray”
When: 6 p.m. Thursday, March 30
Where: Northshire Bookstore, 424 Broadway, Saratoga Springs
More info: northshire.com/saratoga-springs-store, 518-682-4200