The following newspaper article was written by Paul James and it was published in the Herald Express on 3 April 2008:

Hollywood heart-throb Brad Pitt is poised to play a Torquay-born explorer whose supposed death in the Amazon jungle more than 80 years ago is the stuff of legend. The superstar, recently reported to have married Angelina Jolie, is said to be interested in producing and starring in a film about Colonel Percy Fawcett whose expedition to find the lost city of the Kalapalos Indians ended with the party's disappearance in Brazil's Matto Grosso. News of Pitt's interest in Torquay's famous son was leaked by the film magazine Variety which revealed the superstar would play Fawcett if Paramount Pictures went ahead with the venture. Paramount is said to have bought the film rights to author David Grann's book - Lost City of Z - which tells the story of Fawcett's ill-fated expedition.

Fawcett's last known message was sent from Dead Horse Camp on May 29, 1925, in which he wrote: "We are going to have a thoroughly good time in Brazil until we vanish into the forests for three years or so. You need have no fear of failure."

Four years later Peter Fleming, brother of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, wrote a bestselling book - Brazilian Adventure - about his quest to find the truth about Fawcett and his team.

Further explorations followed which threw up all sorts of myths and legends about Fawcett, among them that he and his party were still alive, had been murdered, drowned and even starved to death. The last expedition, which again failed to penetrate the truth, was undertaken as recently as 1996.

Fawcett was born in Torquay 140 years ago, marrying fellow Torquinian Nina Paterson who lived in Teignmouth.

Nina eventually returned to her home town to live at the Woodhaye Private Hotel in Old Torwood Road.

Her husband originally went to Brazil in 1922, but was forced to retreat after being pelted by natives shooting poisoned arrows. He had become obsessed about discovering a lost city in the jungle which was said to be made of huge stones, featuring a cathedral-like temple topped off with a huge ball of crystal.

Fawcett, reckoned to be the original Indiana Jones, was educated at Newton Abbot College and even played county cricket for Devon.

Percy Harrison Fawcett and Bertram Fletcher Robinson (hereafter BFR) both attended Newton Abbot Proprietary College between September 1882 and July 1885 (see 'BFR Chronology' ).  At that time, this school comprised of just 120 pupils and so there can be little doubt that the two boys were well acquainted.  In July 1885, Fawcett left 'Newton College' and was admitted to The Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in London.  Later, Arthur Conan Doyle (hereafter ACD) collaborated with both BFR and Fawcett over two of his most popular stories (see below).

Between 1906 and 1910, Fawcett undertook a survey expedition to the borderland between Bolivia and Brazil (http://physics.gallaudet.edu/charting/the-park/lost-world/journal-1910.html).  On 13 February 1911, he visited The Royal Geographical Society in London and delivered a lecture entitled Further Exploration in Bolivia to an audience that appears to have included ACD.  During this meeting, Fawcett mentioned his 1908 trip to the Ricardo Franco Falls in Brazil.  These remarks evidently impressed ACD because Fawcett later wrote the following related comments in his posthumously published memoirs entitled Exploration Fawcett (London: Hutchinson, 1953, p. 122):  

...monsters from the dawn of man's existence might still roam these heights unchallenged, imprisoned and protected by unscalable cliffs.  So thought Conan Doyle when later in London I spoke of these hills and showed photographs of them.  He mentioned an idea for a novel on Central South America and asked for information, which I told him I should be glad to supply.  The fruit of it was his LOST WORLD in 1912, appearing as a serial in the STRAND MAGAZINE [sic], and subsequently in the form of a book that achieved widespread popularity.

The Lost World chronicles a journey to the jungles of South America by four men: Edward E. Malone (narrator), Professor George Edward Challenger, Professor Summerlee and Lord John Roxton.  Eventually, they locate a plateau that is inhabited by dinosaurs and two warring tribes of hominids and hominoids.  It was ACD's ambition to write a popular 'boy's book', a tale of suspense and adventure.  Whilst The Lost World is certainly this, it is also regarded as an important early work of science fiction.  The first episode of the serialized story appeared in The Strand Magazine during April 1912 and the full tale was published as a book in October of that same year.  ACD was enthusiastic about this story and dressed as Professor Challenger for publicity photographs.  A silent version of The Lost World was the first film to be screened aboard a flight that departed from Croydon Aerodrome on Tuesday 7 April 1925.

It is interesting to note that there are a number of parallels between the character of Edward Malone and that of BFR.  For example, both spent part of their boyhood in the West Country, fished, hunted and exceeded six feet in height.  Furthermore they each became accomplished rugby players, London-based journalists and loved a woman called Gladys.  It is therefore feasible that ACD modelled Malone upon his deceased friend BFR, who acted as 'assistant plot producer' to The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901). 

His appearance made me gasp.  I was prepared for something strange, but not for so overpowering a personality as this.  It was his size, which took one's breath away - his size and his imposing presence.  His head was enormous, the largest I have ever seen upon a human being.  I am sure that his top-hat, had I ventured to don it, would have slipped over me entirely and rested on my shoulders.  He had the face and beard, which I associate with an Assyrian bull; the former florid, the latter so black as almost to have a suspicion of blue, spade-shaped and rippling down over his chest.  The hair was peculiar, plastered down in front in a long, curving wisp over his massive forehead.  The eyes were blue-grey under great black tufts, very clear, very critical, and very masterful.  A huge spread of shoulders and a chest like a barrel were the other parts of him which appeared above the table, save for two enormous hands covered with long black hair.

Clearly, there are physical differences between Cullingworth and Challenger.  Nevertheless, both characters are 'striking' in appearance and they share other traits too.  For example, Challenger is said to possess ‘…a bellowing, roaring, rumbling voice’ and is very forthright when interviewed.  Similarly, Cullingworth is depicted as a bully who frequently shouts abuse at patients during consultations.  Both Challenger and Cullingworth might also be viewed as scientific egotists who are apt to devise ingenious contraptions.  Finally, both men have furious tempers, a propensity to violence and are marginalized by their peers within their respective professions.  Therefore, it is possible that ACD used 'George' Budd as a model for 'George' Challenger.

ACD published a further two novels that feature Professor Challenger: The Poison Belt (1913) and The Land of Mist (1925).  Both of these stories were originally serialized in The Strand Magazine between March and July 1913 and July 1925 to March 1926 respectively.  These tales were then followed by two related short stories entitled When the World Screamed and The Disintegration Machine that also made their first appearance The Strand Magazine between April and May 1928 and during January 1929 respectively.  These last two stories were republished as The Maracot Deep and Other Stories (1929).

There have been a total of seven full-length films that feature the characters of Professor Challenger and Edward Malone and at least one television series.  The first film was The Lost World (1925) and it starred Wallace Beery as Challenger and Lloyd Hughes as Malone.   The most recent film, King of the Lost World, was made in 2005 and starred Bruce Boxleitner as Challenger and Jeff Denton as Malone.  These films might be viewed as an enduring legacy to the association between ACD, Percy Harrison Fawcett, BFR, GTB and Devon.

To learn more about the proposed film about Percy Fawcett, please follow the links below:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117983214.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/04/05/the-real-indiana-jones-89520-20372842/

http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/news/actor-Brad-Pitt-preparing-missing-rainforest/article-1690221-detail/article.html

I would like to thank Bob Brewis, Penny Brewis, Brian Pugh and Doug Elliott for assisting me with the research for this posting to BFR Matters.

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