Would Cecil F. have prefered to be Cecil B. ?

In a comment on a previous post, someone asked whether Forester would have prefered to be a director, or at the very least stayed in the medium of film, given his view about the tedious nature of writing. I honestly think the answere is no. If you want to read about his involvement with Hollywood, look here. I read an article in the archives of the Globe and Mail detailing his frustration over the casting of the movie version of Hornblower. From it, and other sources, I would guess the reasons why to be 1) He did not like the politics of Hollywood. 2) He had no interest in creating the visual/audio/ artistic part of film. 3) He saw Hollywood as a means to an end: allowed him the money to be able to live how he wanted and allowed him to participate in the war (Hollywood propaganda effort). Further proof is that he rarely did anything for Hollywood that was not an adaptation of something he had written as a novel or short story first. (P.S. : Olivier never played Hornblower. The movie wasn't made for 11 more years. Eventually, the honour went to Gregory Peck in 1951, while the year he was suppose to star in the Forester picture, Olivier starred instead in a film called "That Hamilton Woman". What was his character's name? Horatio. Photos are left: Olivier, right: Peck)
Here is the G&M bit:
"there's a neat bit of adroit skullduggery behind Warner's formal announcement that Laurence Olivier is to star in "Captain Horation Hornblower". C.S. Forester, author of the story, was hired by the studio to write the screen version. When Forester reported at the studio he was told that Errol Flynn Would be starred in the picture. Mr. Forester was not particularly happy about that, because, knowing the character of his brainchild inside out, he did not think Hornblower was the type that could be correctly portayed by Flynn. He even made such a suggestion to the studio executives, who listened with all deference due to an author pedigree and then quietly replied: "We understand how you feel, nevertheless..."
So Mr. Forester went back to his office and wen to work on a script for the film version. The script turned out to be one that wouldn't suit Flynn at all. Mr. Forester knew he was turning out a script that wouldn't fit Flynn-- and the studio knew it too-- because after they read it, they sent for Olivier. The Globe and Mail, April 30, 1940.