NEWS

Peccadillo Pictures and Pathetique Films have announced that production has started on the eagerly-anticipated film of The Wrong People. Robin Maugham’s novel follows a repressed English schoolmaster lured into a web of intrigue in 1960’s Tangier. The story was inspired by the author's own travels in Africa.

In his maiden speech in the House of Lords in 1960, Maugham described “sheikhs who can obtain sexual satisfaction only with very young children” and revealed he had bought a slave in Timbuktu for the equivalent of £37.50. He made this transaction and photographed the money changing hands “entirely in order to come back with the actual proof that slavery exists in the Sahara.”

The man, Ibrahim, was freed. Maugham wrote about his experiences in Slaves of Timbuktu (1961).

The film is directed by Steven Fierberg. 

​

ROBIN MAUGHAM’S CONTROVERSIAL NOVEL TO BE FILMED AFTER 50 YEAR DELAY

The Wrong People, based on the novel by the author of The Servant, began principal photography in the UK on 23 February 2026. The film will also shoot for a week in Essaouira, Morocco.

“The subject was so taboo that a film had been out of the question,” says a representative of production company Pathétique Films. "Now, because we’re so aware of what’s been covered up for years, we want to remind audiences of what the great writer Robin Maugham said so long ago. In addition to the issues raised, The Wrong People is also a superb suspense thriller.”
 
Hollywood star Sal Mineo intended to make The Wrong People his first film as a director. Mineo commissioned two script adaptations from different writers but was unhappy with both and raising further finance proved to be difficult.
 
Original plans to film the book ended with Mineo’s murder in 1976. But 50 years later, a new screenplay by David Griffin has the blessing of Mineo’s former partner Courtney Burr and Maugham’s former partner William Lawrence.
 
Somerset Maugham said his nephew Robin’s novel was “the first for years that I have been obliged to read straight through at one sitting.” The press agreed. “Grippingly told”, said the Sunday Times. “A gripping thriller” - Sunday Express. “Undeniably shuddery” - Daily Telegraph. The book has been re-issued by Valancourt Books.