Justin Scott's 8th novel, 'A Pride Of Royals' was published in 1983. "When I first started writing," Justin mentioned on his website, "...I turned out 4 novels my first year." 'A Pride Of Royals' was set during World War I. King George of England and Kaiser (German Emperor) Wilhelm (who was also the King of Prussia 1888-1918) approached American naval officer Kenneth Ash to rescue their cousin Czar Nicholas II of Russia. A ballerina who was the mistress of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich fell in love with Kenneth. One reviewer remarked, "Justin Scott paints a convincing picture of pre-revolutionary Russia...He throws in enough real events and real people..."
Justin acknowledged in 2006, "I had a good time, writing big books...In commercial fiction there's a huge gulf in sales between mysteries and thrillers...The publisher doesn't buy a book they don't like, and the same is true of the readers."
In 1990, Donna Mills hoped to make a movie based on Justin's book. At the time she outlined, "We'll film it in Russia in a co-production with the Soviet Union. They'll provide services such as hotels, transportation, the cameras, the horses and equipment. They're very anxious to do that sort of thing. It's based on a novel by Justin Scott about an attempt by King George V of England and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany to get Czar Nicholas II out of Russia before the Communist Revolution. It's a real adventure story. The only American in it will be a Naval commander. He falls in love with a Russian ballerina. I don’t think it will go to a network. They’re not very big on costume drama." However back in 1986 NBC was.
The mini-series 'Peter The Great', Lawrence Schiller described was "the first totally independent American drama ever to film in the Soviet Union." Brandon Tartikoff added, "As Americans we read about the Soviet Union every day, but we know very little about its history or culture prior to the revolution of 1917. Here is a mini-series that can both entertain and educate." Joel Katz insisted, "If they have historical objections, we listen to them." Lawrence maintained, "Although the texture of the story is very Russian, it deals with the basic human emotions and conflicts to which all people can relate."
Egyptian actor Omar Sharif played Prince Romodanovsky. He recounted, "I love the script but was completely depressed in Russia...I spent 7 months in Russia during the height of one of the coldest winters in history. The accommodations and the food were lousy! I speak 7 languages, and I’m not used to going places where I can’t communicate. This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t work in a place with a hardship – I have many times – but being able to look forward to a good meal at the end of a day makes all the difference."
Maximillian Schell recalled, "People judge countries by the people they meet. When we went there, (the Russians) thought 'these are Westerners.'" However Max stressed the actors did not have any problems with the KGB, "I felt more or less free."
Joel acknowledged, "Communication and translation still has been the biggest problem." Generally the Soviets would provide "everything we needed that we didn't supply...We needed 900 soldiers for a battle. They gave us 900 soldiers." However Omar noted, "They were not efficient in the least. Because of the communist system of payment – there are no classes there and everyone is an employee – the Russians don't care. They are so slow it takes 2 or 3 years to finish one of their own films. An 8-month schedule was planned for this mini-series and it took almost a year to complete." Planning for 'Peter The Great' began in 1983. Trevor Howard played Isaac Newton.
