The Day of the Jackal 1979 edition

Film adaptations

---- The film The Day of the Jackal was released in 1973, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Fox as The Jackal, Michael Lonsdale as Lebel, and Derek Jacobi as Caron. It follows the novel rather faithfully although it has several cosmetic changes[27]
---- An Indian film in Malayalam titled August 1 (1988), directed by Sibi Malayil, is loosely based on the novel. It stars Mammootty, Captain Raju and Sukumaran in pivotal roles.[28]
---- A film titled The Jackal, directed by Michael Caton-Jones, was released in 1997. The film is loosely based on the plot of the novel and remake of the original film, featuring an unnamed assassin (Bruce Willis) being hired to kill the First Lady of the United States by the Russian mafia. Both Zinnemann and Forsyth lobbied to have the film's name changed to disassociate it from Forsyth's novel.

About The Day of the Jackal

THE CLASSIC THRILLER FROM #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR FREDERICK FORSYTH

“The Day of the Jackal makes such comparable books such as The Manchurian Candidate and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold seem like Hardy Boy mysteries.”—The New York Times

The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world’s most heavily guarded man.

One man with a rifle who can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal.

Frederick Forsyth is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels, including The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, as well as short story collections and a memoir. A former Air Force pilot, and one-time print and television reporter for the BBC, he has had four movies and two television miniseries made from his works. He is the winner of three Edgar Awards, and in 2012 he won the Diamond Dagger Award from the Crime Writers’ Association, a lifetime achievement award for sustained excellence. He lives in Hertfordshire, England.