Thread 26 : To feel disappointed - and disgusted and vindicated now too - after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 25 IS FULL

Please see the OP of Thread 25 for all the links to The Observer's reporting and podcast series, our threads one to 24 and so on.

After 25,000 posts there are still new things to discuss:
BBC Sounds - Secrets of the Salt Path - Available Episodes
If you are posting about a podcast, please start your post with the episode number you are commenting on, for clarity and to help others avoid spoilers if they wish to do so.

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse are welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from at least some of the Observer exposé items before posting. The Observer's excellent podcast series The Walkers (link in Thread 25) covers most things.
To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Remember, even Hollywood rabbits attract the odd flea: please do not engage with drive-by scolders who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. For over 8 months we have done amazingly well together for 25 very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

As ever, as we embark on our 26th thread riding the community charabanc, keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider.

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 25 IS FULL: www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5485730-thread-25-to-feel-disappointed-and-disgusted-and-vindicated-now-too-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

You have probably nailed it with any publicity terms being subject to time limitations. SW seems to have good legal advice on standby so presumably she is ensuring that nothing is being done to undermine her position that they haven't misled anyone or stolen anything (apart from fudge) hence the delays in the release of the film and the publication of OWH.

Do I need to read the book before watching the film?

Not at all. The film stands on its own, but reading the book might give you deeper insight into the characters and the journey.
*

The above is the Q&A on the SWCP website. They are intrinsically the same brand, to me.

I think I’d have been slightly baffled by the film without reading the book — I think that without SW’s ‘ordinary little old me and my adorable dead sheep’ internal monologue working overtime at the start to try to make embarking on a famously difficult 630-mile walk with a dying man and no money seem like a gutsy, if eccentric, move, rather than an inhumane and illogical one, you’re already on shakier territory.

Then you have the problem that there are only two real characters and very little dialogue, so it’s endless shots of two people walking and in a tent, not saying much. And I think GA being most famous for playing Thatcher, and other steely characters, infects her portrayal of SW so you find yourself wondering why ‘Raynor’ is walking ahead by herself on many scenes, with ‘Moth’ limping far behind. Is she sick of him, is their marriage in trouble? Etc.

They'd have been better off casting someone like Sally Lindsay for likeable ordinariness.

Mind you, I’ve always wondered why anyone thought it was going to film well, and why GA tried to buy the film rights herself.

I wonder who has decided to go ahead and release the film in America and what their intention is. There is no way that the film is going to be released without the scandal being talked about, anybody who Google's TSP is going to find plenty of articles relating to the deception. Is this release a deliberate attempt to raise the profile of the scandal in America?

As @NervesofSteel says the actors cant sit on a sofa for promotional interviews and lie about the film. Is the Idea to quietly release the film and wait for the controversy to follow, maybe those involved want a wider audience to know how Raynor duped them. They have a film that was expected to win awards, because it was supposed to be a true story of triumph over adversity, now the film and everything that was said about it by those making it can no longer be claimed, they can't trot Raynor and Moth out, or the actors, whoever tries to give an interview is going to be asked about the controversy.

I don’t think it’s anything to do with the Observer revelations. I assume the film production company (who, let’s remember, aren’t at fault here, unless again, like PRH, it’s for failures in due diligence) will always have planned for US distribution. We don’t know whether they had a distributor who pulled out in 2025 because of the Observer story, or whether the producers stalled things for a while so that wasn’t the main story when the film came out in the US, and potentially damaged it there.

From their POV, presumably, they made a product in good faith that they want to get seen as widely as possible. And even aside from that, it seems probable that not distributing TSP overseas would have a negative impact on whether they get subsequent projects greenlit or not.

I mean, it’s not hard to imagine that Marianne Elliot is fuming with SW. Her first film as director, and it turns out to be a made-up story by scam artists rather than something true, hard-hitting and emotional, and that’s probably what the film will always be remembered for, or at least tainted by. But she can’t say anything publicly without wrecking things still further. ME’s production company with Chris Harper got wound up at around the same time, but don’t know if it’s related.

Right at the end, this has a little bit on the different overseas distributors from before shooting started, but no US one listed:
https://deadline.com/2023/05/gillian-anderson-jason-isaacs-the-salt-path-marianne-elliott-cannes-breaking-baz-1235367761/

I'm not thinking that it's anything to do with the observer @NervesofSteel, just that someone has made this decision and they must be doing so in the full knowledge of the potential fall out.

I didn't read the piece about Marianne Elliott that you posted yesterday @MulberryBrandy, it was pay or accept cookies, I found another article on a site called Deadline (I'm sorry I still haven't worked out how to link articles :) Marianne didn't talk about her mother in the article, but she said about Salray "This was a woman in dire straits, she was in her 50s, and she lost everything including her looks. The love of her life was going to die." I don't think anyone else has mentioned Salray's looks being among her losses, not a very kind thing to say.

Interesting to spot the words or phrases omitted from this article eg adaptation/true story/real life. If you did not know the background you might well think it is a fictional account.
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/gillian-anderson-jason-isaacs-the-salt-path-trailer-1236701693/

Thank you @SaltyTea, you are right, they have omitted anything suggesting that the film is based on a true story, no mention of the book.

It's implied by RaySalWinn in TSP though. Grant's lasagne scene and her breakdown at Tintagel are two moments of self-pity about her desirability towards MothTim that spring to mind.

I agree Salray denigrates herself in TSP @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree, but for Marianne to say it about Salray in an interview, I don't think anyone else has done that.

A similar story here - no mention of true story or even based on a book.

The end of the article invites readers to comment by sharing their views on the new North American deal. There is only one comment and it would not seem out of place on these here threads....indeed, maybe it was posted by a charabancer?

https://www.netflixjunkie.com/hollywood-news-gillian-andersons-latest-award-winning-feature-lands-major-distribution-deal-for-us-and-canadian-audiences

Thank you for the article @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree, what a great comment, it certainly has the feel of a charabancer, along with the username. Even if the film gets released as fictional the comments will be made, articles will appear and the whole can of worms will be opened. I can't see the film being left to stand alone, they won't be able to stop people commenting in reviews or on social media. Maybe the fact that little has happened here, Salray has kept her prize, PRH has continued to support the book, there might be a perception that they can release the film and it won't attract any controversy.

I did archive it but it didn't work so hope this is ok:

The inside story of The Salt Path's transition from book to film

In the link to Variety shared by @SaltyTea it says this:

Rocket Science negotiated the deal on behalf of filmmakers. Watch the first trailer for “The Salt Path” above.

So this is their site, where TSP is under Completed:

Rocket Science Industries Limited

Thanks for the link to the Rocket Science page @MulberryBrandy i have just read the article called selling TSP via their news link for the film. It highlights just how much effort went into making the film a success and how heartbreaking it must have been for those involved when CH broke her story.

I hadn't realised TSP was a best seller in the Netherlands and wonder what reactions have been to the scandal in other countries.

Thank you so much @MulberryBrandy, Marianne must have been feeling very emotional at that first meeting with Raynor, such a shame for Marianne that in wanting to tell inspiring stories of older women, she ended up with Salray. I do feel for the filmmakers, I'm sure they must have been shocked when Chloe's story broke @SaltyTea, they really believed in Raynor and Moth, it would be interesting to know how other countries have reacted to the scandal.

Yes, it’s quite a weird thing to say, especially as, while I think SW is a cold-blooded thief and exploiter, as well as a compulsive liar, she’s hardly the Bride of Frankenstein.

I think it’s just another thing that Sally overplayed in her retelling of Moth and Raynor’s journey. In the mythical story of hope found on The Path, Raynor was homeless, was hungry, was dealing with the unbearable news that her beloved husband was going to die much sooner than either of them had ever realised. A woman in those circumstances surely would “lose her looks” through stress and malnutrition alone. The interviewer isn’t seeing the difference between the actual photos of Sally Walker during their spree of walking holidays and the words being fed to her by the same a few years later but it’s obvious when you do look that Sally was the picture of health. She echoes that in her writing (except when in the lasagne scene) but attributes it to the healing powers of nature alone. Sally’s looks are clearly important to her and no doubt she conveys this in person and in her writing. I’m not surprised that the interviewer added this in. She probably thought it would be another thing that all readers would sympathise with; men, because “oh what a shame” and women, because “that must have lowered her self esteem even further!”. As if the huge pile of emotional fodder needed anything extra!!

I wonder if the film has been released now to try to jazz up the American tourist market for SWCP? Americans planning their summer holidays in the next couple of years might well be drawn in by the beauty of the landscape (which is now, if you remove all the bullshit about homelessness and terminal illness, which might well be seen as just the fictional scaffolding for the film by viewers who have no idea that it's even a book, the main selling point)?

It feels as if it is almost her job to defer to the beauty of Moth.

it’s a shame the film couldn’t capture his usual everyday sartorial elegance (turn-up jeans, crisp white shirts and waistcoats). Although it does sneak in one of his favourite knotted scarves.

Raynor Winn and Rebecca Lenkiewicz on The Salt Path | Great British Life

I was quite surprised at how badly the coastline had been shot compared to similar films where the landscape carries some emotional heft.

But this was Marianne Elliott, the director, wasn't it? Who had presumably met Sally in the flesh on a number of occasions. I mean, I get entirely what the 'Oh, fat, ugly, frazzle-haired old me! How could anyone ever look at me when there is a harem of gorgeous blondes offering massages and giant lasagnes?' stuff is supposed to be doing in the book (whipping up readerly sympathy for Everygal Sal), but I think it's quite a weird thing for ME to highlight as one of SW's major losses.

And while I get entirely why any director would have wanted GA attached to the film for the extra profile alone, even leaving aside her acting skills, there's no denying that, even dressed down, 'sunburnt' and with her hair artfully distressed, she still exudes old school actressy glamour. Even in that campsite scene where she looks in the mirror and recoils, she still looks cheekbone-y and fabulous.

It does make you wonder if the film would have landed entirely differently if they'd cast, say, Sally Lindsay and Jason Watkins.

That is interesting that you thought that. In the article, I just shared above, I thought it was amusing that it says about the film:

a surprising element of the narrative is that it doesn’t cover the full 630 miles of the South West Coast Path, but stops at 210 miles in. Ray is philosophical. ‘It’s just the north coast – from Minehead to Land’s End

Surprisingly more accurate in reality compared to the book then!

I think it will just have been the production company trying to get the film seen as much as possible, given that the Observer story landed after a successful UK run but before they'd been able to get a US distributor.

This article is from June 20th, less than a fortnight before the Observer story came out, when Rocket Science and the production company are pleased with how the film has done in the UK and Ireland (it was the most successful film they'd ever made for the producers) and are still expecting to find a US distributor almost immediately:

https://www.screendaily.com/features/selling-the-salt-path-how-international-distributors-are-turning-the-uk-film-into-a-box-office-hit/5206233.article

(The stuff on how the producers chose the exact UK release date is actually quite interesting -- they wanted late spring/early summer, so a time when people are thinking about getting back out into nature, and when there was no British competition for the older market. And the promotion stuff is interesting, too. They collaborated with PRH and targeted regions where the book had sold best, and did special previews with Shelter and homeless charities, and also 'collaborated' (not sure what that means exactly in the context) with Mountain Warehouse, Ordnance Survey maps and the SWCP Association.)

This article is from after the Observer story, wondering what will happen to the film now:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jul/08/the-salt-path-is-a-box-office-hit-will-its-takings-as-well-as-its-oscar-hopes-now-fall-off-a-cliff

So I imagine that getting a US distributor now is the producers and Rocket Science doing damage limitation. Either they've trying all along and this was the soonest they could come up with someone, or they decided to let it lie fallow for a bit to let the scandal die down, and are hoping it won't taint US box office too much.