Author Archives: Sarah Sommer

About Sarah Sommer

Sarah is a journalist and an artist who lives in the city. She loves movies and television. She reads early and often. Sarah also helps out over at BSCkids.com and our other sites!

Gary Ross Explains Why The Hunger Games Trilogy Will Not Be 3D

Almost every movie, if it is remotely action-y, has a 3D equivalent when it is released. Thankfully director Gary Ross realizes that The Hunger Games trilogy isn’t a film series that needs this treatment. He explains why the films will never be released in 3D.

Ross had recently sat down with Josh Horowitz at MTV and talked about his approach to the sequel Catching Fire. He had previously mentioned that the sequel would be cinematically different from the The Hunger Games, but he also confirms it will not be filmed for 3D.

No, absolutely not, no [I wouldn’t consider 3D for Catching Fire]. I don’t think it’s appropriate for this film. I think that if we shoot this movie in 3D, we become the Capitol; we start making spectacle out of something that I don’t think is really appropriate here. There needs to be an aesthetic distance because of the nature of the material, the premise, what they’re doing. I think that cinematic techniques designed to intensify the experience if you feel them that way, aren’t really appropriate. I mean I love 3D, I really do and I think it’s a wonderful tool, I just don’t think it’s the right tool for this.”

I definitely agree that this film trilogy isn’t meant to be filmed with 3D in mind. It would not add to the film, but rather take away from the overall feel. The film shouldn’t look to clean and crisp because of the content, but if 3D is added it takes so much away from the apocalyptic feel of the adaptation.

Director Gary Ross Talks Hunger Games And Catching Fire

The Hunger Games has finally hit theaters over the weekends, and most fans seems to be pleased with the adaptation. But this is only the first book in the trilogy that has definite plans to be adapted for the big screen as well.

The director, Gary Ross, answered questions about the film and its sequel during a Los Angeles press junket.

Ross explained the idea behind the aesthetic look of the film, and why he planned on shooting it the way he did. He also described what the studio thought of his filming the project.

Well it’s also very handheld. There’s also a lot of vérité in it; that was really intentional. I’m trying to capture what was visceral in the books, which is your first-person present tense narrative, and that’s gonna require a certain amount of subjectivity. In order to be in Katniss’ point of view and in her shoes—what being in a character’s point of view is, is restricting the information that the audience has to what that character has, and not being writer omniscient. I’m not cutting from place-to-place, I’m moving in this serpentine, destabilized path as Katniss wanders through this world. That’s not only true in the shooting style, it’s also true in the editing style. My editors are Stephen Mirrione who cut Babel andBiutiful and Juliette Welfling who cut The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and all the Jacques Audiard films, The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet and stuff like that. This was a very conscious decision to create a very subjective style because the books are so subjective, they’re first-person and they’re urgent and you see the world as she sees the world, so that was the reason for it.

As far as the studio’s concerned, I made a little short film with some references in the beginning when I got the gig, and I was very clear what I was gonna do. Part of it was to get the job, but the other thing was if I was gonna get the job, I wanted them to know what this movie was going to be. I wasn’t going to make a slick, glossy over-produced piece of entertainment because then I would be doing what the Capitol did. Then I’m actually putting on the Hunger Games and not making a movie of the Hunger Games. Especially with this premise, it had to feel very, very real and it had to feel urgent, so it was a true use of the word vérité, it had to feel true.

Obviously, it will be quite a while before the DVD is even thought of, let alone the reveals of what deleted scenes fans can expect. But Ross says there were actually only a few scenes that were cut from the film.

No, there weren’t many scenes that I shot that were cut. There were some things from the book that I wanted to put in that I couldn’t, like the Avox subplot, where they came from, things like that. There weren’t many scenes [that I cut], there were a few scenes, but I don’t kind of believe in the whole ‘Director’s Cut’ thing, because this is the director’s cut, the thing I’m doing. There isn’t another version of the movie that I would’ve done, this is my version of the movie that I really intended to do. I think there’ll be a lot of cool supplemental materials on the DVD, but I don’t think I’ll be putting in other scenes that got dropped.

He also confirmed that he will be working on the next film, Catching Fire, the second novel in the trilogy.

I am attached to the next film and I’m intending to do it, I haven’t had a chance to think about it yet. […] It’s not like I’ve had a chance to think about Catching Fire but yeah it’s my intention to do the next one. They’ve asked me to do so.

In case you are worried about the second film having a different feel than the first, Ross says there will be differences but nothing is set in stone yet.

I think that there may be some aesthetic departures from what I did here, but I don’t wanna talk about them yet not because I’m being evasive, but just because they’re so half-baked I wouldn’t be doing myself justice in the process if I talked about them prematurely, but I think there may be some differences, yeah.

Ross also took time to explain the problems with the editing process. What scenes were the most difficult and which were the easiest when it came down to the editing.

Some things that I thought were going to be really, really difficult I had prepped so much for that they fell in so nicely, like the Tracker Jacker sequence or even The Reaping. They’re so unimaginably difficult with the number of axes you’re shooting and what the storytelling is, like The Reaping is eight pages and you need to cover it so specifically. The Tracker Jacker scene is basically vertically configured over 80 feet in a tree and we’re really in the trees and Jen’s really climbing the tree with harnesses on, and the crew’s hanging out of trees and scaffolding and stuff like that, so they were very, very daunting in the run-up to them, in the prep, but they actually fell in very easy—and the fire sequence—‘cause we were ready for them.

Other stuff, it’s always like a three-page dialogue scene where you just kind of get in there, and I don’t remember anything in particular, but none of this was actually that hard. We were so prepped, it wasn’t like I ever got in the weeds and felt buried on any particular day. Any director, if you really ask them, will tell you that the toughest thing to do is like a dinner table or a dialogue scene because you need to keep that electricity maintained throughout the course of the film. But to be actually honest with you, this thing was a blast to shoot and it wasn’t bad. It was very difficult physically, but I felt pretty clear. I mean I had a great time doing it, I really did. I didn’t ever feel in the weeds, and I have felt in the weeds before, and I didn’t on this one.

The sequel, Catching Fire, has been given a release date on November 22, 2013.

Official Production Blog For Ender’s Game Begins

Production and filming has begun on the adaptation of Ender’s Game written by Orson Scott Card and with the production beginning, the production blog has also begun.

It seems after years of rumors, and hopeful fans, the science-fiction cornerstone novel is finally making it to the big screen. 

Even though production has begun, we do have to wait a while till se see any trailers or official images. However, the film’s producer Roberto Orci has at least given us a new production blog that fans of the novel and adaptation can follow in the meantime.

At the Tumblr Ender’s Game blog you’ll be able to follow updates from the set, from both Orci and guest bloggers, and presumably photos too. Right now there’s just one image up, and while it’s not especially thrilling, it’s worth sharing anyway.

Right now, the blog hasn’t revealed anything incredibly tantilizing but be sure to keep an eye on the blog to see everything they release over the course of the production.

Ender’s Game is set hit theaters on March 15th, 2013.

The cast that include several award winners is as follows:

  • Asa Butterfield – Ender Wiggin
  • Harrison Ford – Colonel Hyrum Graff
  • Abigail Breslin – Valentine Wiggin
  • Hailee Steinfeld – Petra
  • Aramis Knight – Bean
  • Moises Arias – Bonzo
  • Jimmy Pinchak – Peter Wiggin
  • Suraj Parthasarathy – Alai
  • Conor Carroll – Bernard
  • Khylin Rhambo – Dink
  • Brandon Soo Hoo – Fly Molo
  • Ben Kingsley – Mazer Rackham
  • Viola Davis – Major Anderson
  • Caleb J. Thaggard – Stilson
  • Stevie Ray Dallimore – John Wiggin
  • Andrea Powell – Theresa Wiggin
  • Nonso Anozie – Sergeant Dap

Showrunner Glen Mazzara Teases Season 3 of “The Walking Dead”

Most fans are probably already counting the days till season 3 begins for AMC’s mega-hit series, “The Walking Dead”. After the amazing season finale last week, we are all ready to see Michonne kick some ass next season.

Showrunner Glen Mazzara has already begun teasing the new season that kicks off next October. He recently did a conference call interview with a handful of journalists and explained what we can expect out of Season 3.

When asked about what we can expect from the band of survivors in new season, Mazzara spoke about the new character of Michonne.

Michonne is one of the lead characters in the graphic novel so we’re excited to finally introduce her. She is a loner, she’s a kick ass character and she’s very dynamic so we really see her as a very, very important addition to the cast. She’s a significant character and she’ll be carrying a lot of story so we’re excited about her.

We’re also excited about (Danai Gurira) who is the young actress who is going to play this role, so we’re lucky to have her and look forward to seeing what she does with it.

As we have discussed here at the site before, T-Dog’s lack of character development, well actually a lack of anything remotely resembling a storyline, and Mazzara has admitted to having the character left to the side. But he promises to develop the character more fully in Season 3.

You know what? The T-Dog question, I’m glad you’re asking that. I’ve been surprised at this because I’ve worked on shows before that have had characters in the background and have been on a slow burn. If you look at Dave Rees Snell’s character Ronnie from the Shield, that was a character that we brought along throughout that series and he had a very significant role at the end.

With T-Dog, I’ll admit, T-Dog has been off to the side and has been forgotten and part of my goal as showrunner was to really address developing Rick’s character and some other stuff. So poor T-Dog was left by the side and that’s something that now that he has survived the finale we’re going to correct. I think (IronE Singleton) has done a fantastic job of establishing a character and making people interested in him with just very, very little to say.

But you know, that’s the strength of the show. I think moving forward hopefully we’ll make it a strength and that’s a character we’re looking to develop in a significant way. So that’s a fair question and you know, we haven’t done our work yet with T-Dog but we’re going to roll up our sleeves and get to it.

Do you hate Lori? If so, you are not alone. Many find her irritating, incapable, and frustrating. She can’t seem to keep tabs on her own child, and causes many of the problems within the group. Mazzara addresses her character but says he doesn’t find her as irritating as the fans do.

I think Lori is a compelling and interesting character. I think she is realistic in a lot of ways and she’s certainly a character that people are talking about so I don’t find her irritating.

But I think it’s interesting that people are so focused on her and, you know, I think the work ahead of that is to see where in Season 3 we have to look at the Rick and Lori relationship a little more closely. She’s the one who put Rick and Shane in motion to try to kill each other and so that’s an interesting place for us to start and we’ll certainly examine that character. I just don’t know if we really need to start creating false speeds to make her more likeable. That’s not part of the plan for us.

AMC and the producers have announced several major storyline for the new season such as the casting of David Morrissey as the much-anticipated character of The Governor, as well as the prison as a location in the much of the upcoming season, and Danai Gurira as Michonne. Many are wondering if the prison will be only in season 3 or if it will be something we can expect to see for a while. Mazzara has confirmed that he sees the prison going longer than just the third season.

That’s a great question. Right now I do see that prison as a significant storyline for Season 3 and into Season 4. I do think that’s a major storyline. But as you know, we were on the farm for longer than perhaps people wanted even though there were reasons for that.

But I think what we want to do is make sure that that prison does not become claustrophobic. I think the farm played a little claustrophobic for people. The farm — now that the entire landscape has fallen to the zombie apocalypse and zombies are literally at the gate of the prison — if you see the graphic novel, that prison is really a very, very small safe corner and there’s a lot of danger around. So it won’t feel like we are bottled up in the same way that we were on the farm in Season 2.

So I do think that prison is a significant storyline but we’re interested also in opening up the world too. There are other factors out there in the world, other groups so I think that Rick’s group is really stumbling into a much larger world.

Tensions within our band of survivors have been growing throughout the series almost to the point that we wonder whether they will be destroyed by themselves or the zombies. Mazzara assures us that the zombies will not take a backseat and their threat will always be there.

Zombies will never take a back seat, okay. We will always have the human drama and we would like to introduce a significant human threat. We love writing the zombie material and I think those zombies are now fully integrated into the world. We’re not waiting for the zombies anymore to reach us. They are there; they are within our eyesight all the time and part of the landscape. So we expect there to still be a balance of zombie and human threat but the zombies will never take a back seat on this show.

For fans of the comic book series, the introduction of Michonne was about time. Mazzara talked about whether the show will start reflecting the fantastical nature of the graphic novel.

That’s a great question and let’s be honest- the reason that the character is cloaked at the end was because we had not cast the actress yet so that was a cheat there. But it’s interesting because we were thinking about that character during the casting process and we were just wondering how theatrical IS Michonne? That’s quite a theatrical entrance and that was something that we didn’t realize at the time.

But then yesterday we were in the writer’s room talking about her and her back story and a lot of the writers had very heightened pitches and my own sensibility is to keep the show grounded, to keep it gritty. That’s where I’m comfortable as a writer and as a storyteller.

So I do think that that’s an interesting character and that she feels like she stepped off those pages right into the show. I think that’s exciting. That’s a challenge for us but I think we know how to keep it real and keep it grounded because if it doesn’t feel real, I think the audience will not be able to put themselves in the immediate circumstances of the story.

Season 3 is set to begin in October and has been given an extended episode order of 16 full episodes.

Watching The Midnight Premiere For The Hunger Games – A Review

Last night I braved the crowds (full of tweens and despondent parents), the imminent bad weather, and staying up past my self proclaimed bed time for a movie that I have been waiting to see for MONTHS. The Hunger Games finally premiered in theaters last night, and I will go ahead and say this: It was FANTASTIC!

But I am going to take this review in three parts: Pre-movie, the actual film, and the aftermath.

Pre-film:

I have never attended, or wished to attend, a midnight premiere of a film. That is, until The Hunger Games was in the picture. I LOVED the trilogy, I read it in like a three day period and have been anticipating the film since then. So I’ll admit it, I bought tickets to the midnight viewing the day they were available.

I, as a 23 year old adult, totally geeked out for this film. Thanks to our sponsored giveaway from SkinIt, I had a Hunger Games skin on my tablet. While waiting in line, I got tons of compliments for it. Many said they wished they had one like it. The SkinIt skins look seamless. I had it for a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and it fit PERFECTLY.

I also fit in, probably too well, with all the tweens and young kids there, with my District 10 backpack that was custominzed with my name and Capitol citizen number, and my Down With the Capitol t-shirt. That’s right, I wore those things… But it was great.

One of the best things about going to a midnight premiere is the camaraderie. All these people that love a story as much as you do, all experiencing something that you all know is going to be HUGE. I kind of enjoyed that. For once I wasn’t lame for being so excited because everyone else was as excited I was.

The Film:

OH MY. This film was just as good as I thought it was going to be. I had been anticipating this film so much that I was a little worried that I would be disappointed. But I was surprised how closely it actually followed the book.

Honestly, there were a few things they changed that caught my attention, but they changes didn’t detract from the film, or affect the overall story.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss surpassed everything I could have expected from her. She is one of the best actresses I have seen in a long time. Every scene was so full of emotion. During the reaping day scenes I really felt and saw her terror when she volunteered. She knew how to act like she knew she was heading to her death. So much acting chops in one actress. I cried during the goodbye scenes before they left for the Capitol. I was so impressed the way she ran through the forest, dodging fireballs, and was able to pull herself up into trees. She embodied everything that is the character of Katniss Everdeen. I honestly do not think that any other actress would have been able to pull it off like she did.

I have mentioned before my love for Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, and it was reinforced by watching the film. He truly embodied the character I had pictured when reading the novel. He easily slipped between love sick baker boy, to warrior with the careers, to weak almost dying tribute. Hutcherson is a very talented actor who made the perfect Peeta.

The whole movie was an emotional roller-coaster that kept you enticed from beginning to end. I felt the same way about the novel when I read that, and was excited to see that that feeling translated to the big screen.

Rue’s death. Seriously. Tears. My face was a waterfall. They overlayed Katniss’s breakdown from her death with scenes of the riot beginning in District 11. It was just. Beautiful. My very manly boyfriend attended the film with me, despite not reading the books, and even he shed a tear at Rue’s death. If you don’t cry or at least tear up at that scene then you are not human!

There is only one scene that was missing from the film that I really wish had been included. When Peeta is still healing in the cave, instead of being put to sleep by the medicine by Katniss, he merely fell asleep. I loved that scene in the novel, and was a little disappointed that it played out differently in the film.

Something I liked that they changed was the way Thresh kills Clove near the end. It was incredibly brutal in the novel, but they tamed it down in the movie. I don’t think I could have handled seeing it the other way.

Every scene with the cornucopia was perfect. Just how I imagined it reading it all those times.

Aftermath:

Gary Ross is a surperb director. He was able to translate the novel almost flawlessly to the big screen. Fans of novel will not be disappointed with this adaptation. Once you get into the film, you stop thinking about the things that are different from the novel and you just fall in love with the characters from the novel all over again.

A big part of why this adaptation is so great, is truly the actors. They were so incredibly talented that they became their characters totally.

As we were leaving, I didn’t hear anyone saying anything other than praises for the film. Even those who had obviously gotten drugged their with their friends, family, and significant others, left the film as a fan.

This is one of the best book to film adaptations I have ever encountered. I don’t think any fan of the book will be disappointed with the way the film played out. It also will make new fans out of those who haven’t read the book.

So, go see it! It is totally worth it.

The Hunger Games Was Almost a Television Series?

Can you imagine The Hunger Games television series? No, I don’t mean they are thinking of creating one (although they might I don’t know) but rather, fans almost got a television series INSTEAD of the mega blockbuster hit film hitting theaters tonight at midnight (of which I will be in attendance).

According the NYDailyNews, Producer Joe Drake supposedly revealed at the Cinema Society’s post-premiere party for the picture on Monday night, that the project was almost adapted into a series for the small screen. Apparently this was a big reason on why the 2008 novel took so long to become a major motion film.

Although there was no reason given for why the switch was made from television to film, I’m pretty sure most people are probably happy with the decision.

The film hasn’t even premiered yet and it has already begun breaking records at the box office. It seems it will be one of the biggest pictures of the year.

The Hunger Games is the movie adaptation of the bestselling novel by Suzanne Collins. It is followed by the sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay. 

The plot for the film is as follows:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the governing body, the Capitol, of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Katniss Everdeen volunteers as a tribute to save her sister from going in to the ghastly arena. She is joined by Peeta Mellark, a boy she knew who once saved her life.

You can see the official cast below:

  • Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen
  • Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark
  • Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy
  • Willow Shields as Primrose “Prim” Everdeen
  • Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne
  • Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket
  • Lenny Kravitz as Cinna
  • Paula Malcomson as Mrs. Everdeen
  • Amandla Stenberg as Rue
  • Alexander Ludwig as Cato
  • Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh
  • Isabelle Fuhrman as Clove
  • Jacqueline Emerson as Foxface
  • Leven Rambin as Glimmer
  • Jack Quaid as Marvel
  • Donald Sutherland as President Snow
  • Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman
  • Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane
  • Latarsha Rose as Portia

BSC Book Tournament Semi Finals Match Up: Legend vs The Eleventh Plague

Round 3, The SemiFinals of the 6th Annual BSC Book Tournament begins with match-ups between the Global Catastrophe and Future Apocalypse brackets. If you missed it, you can see our announcement of the brackets here as well as the unveiling of the full tournament schedule here. But now it is time for the voting to start!

We are keeping each round in its own post, but don’t worry! They will all be linked together to make it easier for you.

1: Legend by Marie Lu vs The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

 

Be sure to check back next week for the results of round 2 of our book tournament. If you experience any technical issues with the polling, please email Sarah@boomtron.com with the problem. Polls will be open until March 25th, and results will be announced on Tuesday, March 26th.

You can continue to the next one here!

BSC Book Tournament Semi Finals Match Up: Birthmarked vs Ashes

Round 3, The SemiFinals of the 6th Annual BSC Book Tournament begins with match-ups between the Global Catastrophe and Future Apocalypse brackets. If you missed it, you can see our announcement of the brackets here as well as the unveiling of the full tournament schedule here. But now it is time for the voting to start!

We are keeping each round in its own post, but don’t worry! They will all be linked together to make it easier for you.

1: Birthmarked by Caragh 0’Brien vs Ashes by Ilsa Bick

 

Be sure to check back next week for the results of round 2 of our book tournament. If you experience any technical issues with the polling, please email Sarah@boomtron.com with the problem. Polls will be open until March 25th, and results will be announced on Tuesday, March 26th.

Check back on March 27th to begin voting on the semi finals for the male vs female brackets.

Papercutz Slices Releases New Parody “The Hunger Pains”

Papercutz is known for their publishing of great graphic novels for all ages and types of readers. Their Slices series is styled from the best MAD Magazine satires that incorporates abject silliness and incredibly funny moments. Their new parody, “The Hunger Pains” is the 4th part if their Slices series and features all of your favorite characters from the novel, The Hunger Games… well sort of.

Publisher Terry Nantier said.

“As luck would have it our unauthorized parody graphic novel is available now in bookstores everywhere for fans who just can’t wait. Though not planned, and certainly not part of an overarching marketing strategy, this is the kind of community service Papercutz is famous for.”

“The Hunger Pains” follows young woman, Ratkiss Everspleen beginning on the Day of the Deleting. The heroine volunteers to fight for Ditch 12 in an annual televised battle to the death. Of course her old friend, Peeka Choo, giant blocks of gelatin, highly evolved monkeys, and tin men with chainsaws are some of the obstacles she must battle through until the end.

The series follows their other hit parodies such as “Harry Potty and the Deathly Boring” and “Percy Jerkson and the Ovolactovegetarians.”

Editor-In-Chief Jim Salicrup stated that,

We can’t be more proud of this one. Every page is a rewarding experience, and with a big-budget film adaptation out this week it will find the wider audience it deserves.

Although the movie is based on the actual novel, not their parody. It doesn’t matter because evens fans of the original will find this parody hilarious.

“The Hunger Pains” was written by Stefan Petrucha and illustrated by Rick Parker.

Each Papercutz Slices graphic novel is 64 pages, full color, and 6″x9″. They are priced at $6.99 or $10.99 for the hardcover and you can find them

at all major retailers, bookstores, comic book stores, and digitally on comiXology.com.

ABOUT PAPERCUTZ

Papercutz is dedicated to publishing great graphic novels for all ages. Popular with reluctant readers and gifted readers alike, Papercutz graphic novels for kids, tweens, and teens include a wide range of genres, including humor, action adventure, mystery, horror, and favorite characters. Papercutz hits include THE SMURFS, LEGO® NINJAGO, GERONIMO STILTON, NANCY DREW, and more.

A Hen In The Fox House Written by David Lubar

Back around 1982, I was hired by Sirius Software to design and program games for the Atari 2600. Sirius had originally planned to not only develop the games, but to manufacture and publish them. Since they already published computer games on floppy disks, this didn’t seem like an unreasonable leap. But somewhere along the way, they discovered that the publishing side of the cartridge business would require a substantial amount money. So they found a partner who had an abundance of cash and a desire to be a game publisher. All of a sudden, though I was still an employee of Sirius, I was actually designing games for Fox Games, a division of 20th Century Fox. In retrospect, this was a positive event, since the change meant Sirius took longer to go out of business than they would have without a partner.

Soon after I started working on my first game, we were invited to a premier screening of two Fox movies, to see if we wanted to use either for a game. I caught a ride to the theater with one of my co-workers, Mark Turmell, who’d just bought a Porsche. That’s not relevant, but I love to name drop.

One of the movies we saw at the preview, Six Pack, had potential. It was about a group of kids and a crusty racer. While the idea of doing a racing game was fun, this was the Atari 2600, which was slightly limited in it’s graphics, memory, and processor speed. (Though our team leader, Larry Miller, went on to write the great racing game, Enduro, for Activision.)

The other movie we saw that afternoon was so inappropriate for our needs, I want to ease into my description of it rather than just blurting out the details. Remember, we were writing video games for a system that was mostly pitched to kids and families. Okay. The 2600 was a game system for the whole family. Keep that in mind. Ready? The movie was The Entity. If you remember it, you can picture my reaction as I sat in that auditorium, having been brought there for the purpose of finding game-worthy material. For those of you who missed this cinematic gem, it’s about a woman who was repeatedly raped by an invisible spirit. Yup. Can you picture how that would translate into a video game? Mommy — why is my joystick slippery? So that was my first taste of the Hollywood glory. But things got better.

For one thing, Fox had money. Which meant they could afford TV ads. I totally lucked out. The ad for my first game was made by the same genius who made Tron. I’ll be the first to admit that the ad was way better than the game. Though the game did include some nice features, like two-player same-screen co-op (because I love hyphenate words), and a pause switch.

At one point, we were told we could base a game on any movie in the Fox catalog. Yeah — any movie. Take what you want. Being a science-fiction fan, I instantly claimed Fantastic Voyage as my own. For those of you who have never seen the movie or read Isaac Asimov’s novel, the story involves injecting a miniaturized crew and submarine into a human body, so the crew can perform delicate brain surgery. Remember — this is for the Atari 2600. So the artery was represented as a parallel pair of jagged lines. The player’s ship had to blast through clots, bacteria, and other hazards. It could regain health by shooting enzymes, which I represented as tiny keys, in homage to what I’d learned in high school biology. The game got progressively harder, mostly by narrowing the arteries. (I guess that’s better than getting progressively narrower by hardening the arteries.)

My next game was named after Flash Gordon, though the connection was pretty slender. Okay — the connection didn’t really exist, except that the game was set in space. A third game, which I had given some sort of slick name like Alpha Mission, was renamed by Fox after a film nobody had ever seen, Space Master X-7. I wasn’t happy about the name, but I was definitely happy about what happened next, because it gave me my greatest piece of nerd credibility. The game had a bit (okay — eight bit) part in Revenge of the Nerds. One of the characters plays it after they get kicked out of their dorm. The game itself was fairly slick. I was trying to emulate the vector-graphics look from classic coin-op games such as Asteroids. For the 2600, it was a pretty nice piece of programming.

Later on, I had a chance to go in the opposite direction. Absolute Entertainment had put together a simulated video game for the movie, Toys. The simulation was created by merging displays from two Super Nintendos. Eventually, I was one of the programmers asked to help create an actual SNES version of game.

I had another brush with the movies years later, when I was offered the chance to write three spinoff novels based on the Lost in Space movie. This offer was made before the movie was released, and before I escaped from my starving-author years. So I had a bit of incentive to take the deal. But I had a feeling it would not be a rewarding project, so I declined the offer. Sometimes, you guess right.

As for my option experiences with my own novels, there’s not much to tell. I’ve had inquiries, and couple near misses, but nothing has crossed the border, yet, from fuel for my daydreams to cash in the bank. But who knows? If I can get the honor of bringing a classic novel by Isaac Asimov to the glory of the 160-pixel four-color screen, anything can happen.

Guest post written by author David Lubar. He has written numerous books and is also an electronic game programmer, who programmed Super Breakout for the Nintendo Game Boy, and Frogger for both the SNES and Game Boy. As a game designer, he designed the game Frogger 2: Swampy’s Revengefor the Nintendo Game Boy Color. He is also known for his Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series.