Budgets and Markets

Chapter 11 Knight Moves

Summary

Knight Moves was a commercial action-thriller, designed at the outset as a vehicle that would carry Christopher Lambert into the American market. It subsequently served a similar purpose for its German director, Carl Schenkel.

However, as development progressed, it seems that French producer Jean-Luc Defait felt that a direct attack on the American market was too ambitious and he re-fashioned the project to suit the tastes of what he hoped would be a mainstream audience for the film in Europe. In this Defait was undoubtedly influenced by the fact that his star, Lambert, was simply not attractive to US audiences, except perhaps in the video market. It is notable that the film, which was largely financed by pre-sale ...