The Lizard King is a 1988 Australian television film about a woman who comes from France to Australia in search of her son.
[1][2] It was one of a series of TV movies that were made as a part of a co production deal between Revcom and ABC.
Three were to be made in Australia, three in Europe with Australians; the common theme was to be "sentiment".
Nowra was reluctant to work on a project that came from someone else's idea but enjoyed collaborating with Chapman and had just read Jules Verne's Mistress Branican which had a similar plot and felt the offer was too serendipitous to refuse.
Nowra later said he thought Nottage did a good job as director but was dissatisfied with the limitations of working for television.