Victor Hugo novel could be made into a film

Victor Hugo's novel Toilers of the Sea could be translated into a film by a it has been announced.

David Shanks who used to live on the island wants to produce a movie of the book which is dedicated to Guernsey.

The story follows the plight of a Guernseyman called Gilliatt, who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of local shipowner Mess Lethierry.

When Lethierry's ship is wrecked on a perilous reef, Deruchettee agrees to marry the person that saves the ship's steam engine, which Gilliatt eagerly volunteers to do.

Victor Hugo wrote the novel in 1866 while exiled in Guernsey during the rule of Napoleon III.

For David Shanks, it has been his ambition to make the book into a film for over 30 years.

He is looking to raise enough money to develop the movie with the possibility of it being a Anglo/French Co-Production.

Although he no longer lives in Guernsey, Shanks says he has long links with the island with his father Ernest Shanks being the former Deputy Bailiff and his sister still living there.