picture deal for  RKO Radio and Powell had been assigned to direct. They were going  over various scripts in Powells office when the latter was called  away for a few minutes. When Powell returned, he found Wayne  enthusiastically looking over a script that Powell had intended  throwing in the waste basket. It was the screenplay for "The  Conqueror". Powell tried to talk him out of it, but Wayne insisted  that this was the film he wanted to make. As Powell later summed it  up, "Who am I to turn down John Wayne?"