It was his book Shogun that starred Richard Chamberlain in 1980 on NBC where everything took off. Or to be fair, the book Shogun, released in 1975, became a bestseller just as Tai-Pan had in 1966. It often took Clavell years of research to write his Asian series of books. Noble House came out in 1981. It was shortly after Shogun came out in 1980 as a huge mini-series that the Clavell books popped up everywhere in paperback. And so I began my reading of the doorstop thick books of Clavell.
The Chamberlain Shogun series was a monster hit in North America (a total failure in Japan). While there had always been fascination with Japan especially after WWII, this introduced an interest in the early origins of contact between west and east. A theatrical version of an earlier Clavell novel was made in 1986 in China and was box office failure. It focused on the origin of Hong Kong but tried to cram too much into a movie format.
Noble House, written in 1981, raced up the bestseller list in the year after Shogun was aired. Not surprisingly, U.S. networks raced to acquire it for mini-series broadcast. The subjects for mini-series such as Roots and Shogun focused on large casts and more detailed stories than one hour police or hospital procedurals and the like.
The casting for Noble House suggests that some of TV and film's leading men were considered and either rejected the role or weren't able to do it. Timing is everything and for 1988, Pierce Brosnan became available when his series Remington Steele ended but his chance to play James Bond passes when Timothy Dalton was cast instead.
The series Remington Steele was one of the most popular and influential show in the 1980s. Airing on NBC, it starred Stephanie Zimbalist as Laura Holt, a woman who runs a private investigation service but creates a fictional male owner to overcome doubts about a woman-led company. Pierce Brosnan, played a con-man who took on the persona of Remington Steele and the two formed a partnership. While he lacked her skill as a investigator, he quickly learned.
The show innovated the "will they or won't they" romantic sub-plot used used often now. With no Remington Steele, it is unlikely there would have been no Moonlighting. The show had legions of fans who loved Zimbalist as a relatable character who got things done but usually did so with some guy who got credit, in this case a fictional person who eventually became real.
Pierce Brosnan was an incredible actor to have available for Noble House. Deborah Raffin was cast in the female lead. Surprisingly, one of Raffin's films in the U.S. has become popular in China and she was one of the most famous of Hollywood leading ladies in that country. Filming took place in Hong Kong while still under British rule. Instead of the 1960s storyline of the books, the TV series bumped the time to 1980s Hong Kong.
The series had a mix of exotic and western at the same time and Pierce Brosnan as Ian Dunross was dashing and debonair for the whole four episodes. John Rhys-Davies made just as suave villain as Quillan Gort. The Clavell plot was slimmed down but still retained a bit of romance, espionage, action and thriller all at once. And the Noble House headquarters building using the the Jardine Matheson building was breathtaking.
Noble House has appeared on Prime before but it is never there for long and sometimes it seems like 10/15 years before it reappears but this is a great movie if someone has seen the old Shogun and new Shogun and loved Clavell's books. The original series was up against Winter Olympics programming and didn't fare as well as Shogun But make no mistake, Noble House is worth binging now.
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