After a bitter struggle for rights, lasting over a decade, one of Bohumil
Hrabal's best loved novels 'I served the King of England' is to be turned
into a film. The palaver surrounding the rights put the project on hold
for more than ten years, and embroiled the famous Czech directors Karel
Kachyna, Jan Sverak and Jan Hrebejk. Jiri Menzel, who won an Oscar for his
dramatization of the Hrabal novel 'Closely Observed Trains', has finally
been selected to direct the film. Rosie Johnston has more on the story: