In the US. . .

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The film contains elements from the first five books and goes beyond them. To make it more exact, the books have covered the years 1623-1628 and the film has gone all the way to the end of the story in 1643. Readers already know what the ending is and when exactly it happens, because, as you will have seen from book 1, the saga is supposed to be written by the boy Íñigo in his old age, and as narrator, he has revealed as much already. But what things happen in between, we still don't know.

Book 6 is already out in Spain (I have read it already), and it doesn't represent a departure from what we have seen in the film, as it deals with a season of corsairing in the Mediterranean, but book author Pérez-Reverte has said that he won't feel obliged to follow the events that happen in the film, which he didn't write at all. What is more, he has given some examples of things happening in the film that won't happen, for sure, in the books, and one that 'it's still a secret', which means that it will probably happen, and maybe in a slightly different way.

As for waiting for at least the first five books to be translated into English before seeing the film, my guess is that you won't see more than one a year, so if 3 is out soon in 2007, 5 should be out by 2009. Reverte wants the translation to be done quite scrupulously due to the time he invested in the original old-sounding language from four centuries ago, a feel he wants replicated in other languages.

The film is out on dvd to rent from January 3, with subtitles in English, and to buy from February 7, with some extras and a commentary track. A longer cut is on the line too, in two years' time.

The whole saga will be no less than 9 books long (Reverte's health and other writing commitments permitting), and the titles of the three forthcoming novels have been released already. One of them will take place in Italy and another in France.