 His third script was "Thirteen Days", based on the memoirs of John F. Kennedy advisor Kenneth O'Donnell.The semi-fictional script (which showed O'Donnell counseling Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis) was commissioned by producer Armyan Bernstein, who had read "Dawn's Early Light".Bernstein initially approached Self with the idea of a love story set against the background of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but Self convinced him to jettison the love story and write a straightforward history picture with O'Donnell as the "everyman" stand-in.