Category Archives: Optioned Books

New Post-Apocalyptic Trilogy Heads to the Big Screen

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Yet another post-apocalyptic novel trilogy has plans for the big screen. Black Forest Film Group told Variety that they have plans to adapted the trilogy “Quarantine.” (The series was originally called Quaranteen). The first novel in there series, “The Loners” (which will be the first to be adapted) is set to be released this July.

The official synopsis is as follows:

The Thorpe brothers are on their own. Ever since their mom died, and their dad took a big job, David’s been forced to play parent to his epileptic younger brother, Will. He knows he’s got to teach Will how to take care of himself sooner rather than later. But when a mysterious explosion rocks their high school one morning, David realizes he needs to teach Will real survival skills, if the two of them are going to make it out alive. With the explosion, a deadly virus is unleashed on the school. The virus only infects teenagers in their peak puberty years, causing them to lose their hair and making them lethal to adults and children. Within minutes, every faculty member is dead. The military quarantines the building, opening fire on any escape attempt and installing bi-monthly food drops. After a year of quarantine, with no adults around, all of the social cliques have developed into gangs – The Nerds, The Geeks, The Freaks, The Skaters, The Pretty Ones and Varsity – and without a gang, it’s almost impossible to survive.

Because of an old grudge, David is hated by Varsity, the scariest gang in school. Because no gang wants trouble from Varsity, nobody wants David or Will as a member. Now, more than ever, the brothers need to work together, but if the school doesn’t kill them, sibling rivalry will.

In this dark and captivating debut, Lex Thomas takes readers on a thrilling ride of a high school where fitting in is a matter of life-or-death.

The novel’s authors, Lex Hrabe and Thomas Voorhies (under the pen name Lex Thomas), will adapt their tale into a feature screenplay, which is already being eyed as a potential franchise.

There is no word yet on who they are eyeing for the roles, or a projected release date. But with the popularity of The Hunger Games, I am sure they will want to have it made a released quickly while people are still yearning for post-apocalyptic story lines and tween romance.

Tackling The Hunger Games Film – A Review With Illustrations

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Elena-

I have to start this discussion by donning my hipster glasses and saying, “I liked The Hunger Games back when it was called Battle Royale.”  Because seriously, after watching this movie I am embarrassed for Collins at how similar her first book is to the Japanese original.  I mean, I thought the story sounded similar before I saw the movie (no, I have not read the books), but I figured the execution would make it obvious the similar premises were coincidental…holy crap, no.  So many details were the same, just shifted to a different world.  It really was like she just re-told the story in a different context.  If the similarity between the stories was truly convergent creativity, someone at her publisher needs to be fired for not knowing the market of dystopian gladiatorial games better and asking her to make it less similar in edits.

More specifically than the idea of the government forcing teenagers to fight to the death as a display of state power and a punishment for rebellious violence, we have:

-The opening scenario with weapons and supplies in the middle to either be fought over or abandoned to the player’s disadvantage

-The protagonists’ strategy of run to the fringes and let the bulk of the competitors kill each other off

-The manipulation of the game environment by the gamemaster in order to herd the players who run to the fringes back to the others

-The clear announcement of who has died so the competitors know who is left to kill

-The gang mentality where some of the players group together to kill everyone else off first

-The super crazy psycho killers who are masterful players—in BR they were past winners, here they are the District 1 and 2 kids who train for the games their whole lives

-The two protagonists who manage to remain morally superior, only killing those who attack them, shielding the weaker as they can, and relying on their trust in one another to make it through the game

-The ending where the two lovers won’t kill each other and defy the gamemaster and survive…and the gamemaster does not.

There is just no way this is anything except an American re-envisioning of the original.  The parallels are too pervasive and consistent.  We live in an age of remakes, so I wouldn’t even care that it’s a remake—hell, as remakes go this is an impressive and exceptionally creative one, and if they were all like this I wouldn’t mind them so much—except for the disavowal of a connection.  I think it’s publisher-driven, because they didn’t want to get sued or have to pay rights.  Fine.  Keep your plausible deniability…but the rest of us know better.

Removes decorative spectacles.

So, now that my bit of truth-telling is out of my system, what did I think about the movie?

I liked it more than I expected to.  While it was worse than I expected in terms of seeming like a rip-off of another book/movie (BR was also both), it was better than I expected in terms of immersion and character engagement.  I could see what makes the story and the setting so intriguing and why so many people are obsessed with the series.  It had that crack-like quality of plausible WTF that is so fun and enticing and contagious.

Rachel-

What I liked:

Jennifer Lawrence. I like her for lots of reasons. That she has a normal body, an expressive face and a killer sense of humor is a given. All pros. She also IS Katniss. She’s got that whole stoic, tortured survivor-girl thing DOWN. I loved her. I’m not convinced her acting was the product of Director Gary Ross’ actual direction or if this girl just has incredible instincts. She was wonderful in Winter’s Bone. I’m tending to give her all of the credit. She even made all those stupid costumes look great.

Elena-

Absolutely agree that credit goes to Lawrence and not Ross here.

Rachel-

The rest of the cast was pretty solid. I wasn’t convinced of Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch but he sold it. Josh Hutcherson’s Peeta was perfect (if a little TOO enthusiastic about conjuring paint and brushes, plus his “confused” face pretty much made me laugh EVERY SINGLE TIME), but every time he did his shit eater grin during the interviews I thought, “damn you, Peeta!” It’s hard to judge Liam Hemsworth’s Gale, since he only had about five lines, but he seemed capable of killing many squirrels.

Elena-

Gale was a total Spiller! Ergo…husband material?

Rachel-

Exactly! TOTAL Spiller! Even if the actorkid is dating Miley Cyrus. We can forgive him youthful indiscretions. Anyways, where was I?

I thought Elizabeth Banks’ Effie was perfect. Stanley Tucci’s Caesar Flickerman was delightfully manic while Lenny Kravitz’ Cinna was…well he was really bad. The only stinky acting in the entire flick. Whenever he was on screen I could hear the rest of the crew wandering around the set in my head because it was always so jarring.

Elena-

Banks was one of the stand-outs for me, too.  I forgot she was in it, and it took most of the train ride for me to figure out that she was Effie.  I didn’t find Cinna that bad, but perhaps not as charismatic as he should have been to gain Katniss’s immediate and absolute trust in his vision as a designer?

Rachel-

Whatever. He came off as a creepy weirdo.

I also liked that they chose to do so much of the filming on location. Mostly because the stuff they didn’t do on location looked like crap.

Elena-

I was so underwhelmed by the capital city and the buildings in it (did the night shot of the city look like New York to anyone else?).  I mean, maybe Katniss and Peeta don’t know any better, but we do.  That shit was not impressive.  And the sets around President Sutherland looked so…fake!  The capital is made out of plastic.  How has the revolution not happened already?

The fashionistas of the capital were right up my alley, though—my lavender Marie Antoinette Mardi Gras wig would work perfectly at a sponsors party, for example—and I thought the costume and make-up design were off the charts for the city folk, even if the in-games costumes were l-a-m-e.

Rachel-

The in game costumes were whatever. The Chariot costumes? YOU GUYS… is that what you envisioned when you read the description of the flaming cape/unitard thing? IS IT? Complete with terrible TERRIBLE CGI? And she’s got her hands above her head the whole time, even when the chariots park themselves in front of President Snow (TEAM SNOW!) she’s still got her hands above her head and Snow is starting to talk and she’s STILL GOT HER HANDS ABOVE HER HEAD… .
What else did I like?

The adaptation: Look, we all know it’s fucking hard to adapt a book into a film. It’s a lot of story to fit into two hours. Characters and side stories will be cut. Scenes will be streamlined. These things are a given. The Hunger Games manages to feel like it’s a page by page recreation even when it is not, and that is awesome.

I also liked that extra scenes were added that covered the things happening during the arena time. Adding in the riot in District 11 was really smart. Totally sets us up for the next books.

Things I didn’t like so much:

The Pacing. If there is one fundamental flaw in the entire film, it is that there wasn’t enough time spent in creating relationships between Katniss and the other characters. It’s REALLY important that Katniss have emotional connections to people. But even though Gary Ross sent us through all of the preparations before The Hunger Games begin, there just wasn’t any connection between Katniss and the other characters. It was a problem that kept coming up whenever a scene occurred in which the audience was supposed to be emotionally moved. I had a really hard time with this. When people died, I didn’t care. I was more interested in seeing Katniss survive whatever the next crisis would be. I regarded other characters as nuisances. This was especially true with Peeta and Rue.

I KNOW!

Stop screaming at me and let me explain.

Peeta is awesome. He’s a natural actor, a charismatic boy with a sympathetic heart. Strong on the inside and fluffy on the outside. The exact opposite of Katniss. I get it. But in the film he barely has any skills at all. He’s basically dead weight. Sure he can smile and interview well but once he gets in the games it was all “I’m just going to wander around and then lay in this mud and be useless”. When it comes time for Katniss and Peeta to join back up, that pivotal scene in which Katniss screams out Peeta’s name never happened. Peeta’s injuries were also not as terrible in the film as they were in the novel. We end up with this weirdly awkward scene in which Katniss takes care of a fellow District 12 tribute with weird stalker tendencies and an inability to respect Katniss’s boundaries. Then they kiss, and it’s like…huh? She likes him? WHY?

And I’ve read (and love) the novels. What the hell must this film be like for someone who hasn’t read the books? Is there any emotional connection at all?

Elena-

Ha, ha, ha, let me jump in and give you my take on these issues.

In terms of connections to characters other than Peeta—Rue was the only other character it seemed like Katniss was meant to have a connection with.  And I felt like her reaction to Rue’s death was a projection.  I didn’t think there was much of a connection between them except that she saw Rue as an analog for Prim, and what might have happened to Prim if Katniss hadn’t taken her place, so when Rue died Katniss had this weird translation of having failed to protect her sister, because Rue was like her sister.  It wasn’t about Rue; it was about Katniss.

Now, when it comes to her and Peeta…I literally did not know (and still do not, not having read the books) if Katniss was in the cave nursing Peeta and going to get medicine for him because she actually gave a shit about him or if it was because she’s the protector type and could not have lived with herself for not saving him, the same way she could not have lived with herself for not saving her sister.  Did she mean the kiss, or had she finally grasped that maybe they should play to the cameras?  So as to there being a connection between them…on his part, absolutely.  On hers…I still don’t know.

Also, Team Peeta! I liked him so much better than Gale! JV Hemsworth might be more objectively hot, but I find Hutcherson cute as hell, so that’s a wash…but I liked Peeta’s character better.

True, Gale didn’t get to do much but be the strong silent sulking type, and Peeta was not exactly heroic—at least, not at first.  But he exhibited a level of self-awareness and insight that I gravitated to almost immediately.  Peeta recognizes that he doesn’t have the skills to survive a death-match, and he can admit that he never went out of his way to be kind even to the girl he had a crush on.  The best he could manage was a careless act of charity that rated Katniss only minutely higher than the family’s pig.  In the games he certainly doesn’t kick ass and take names (and that is even with the fact that his part apparently got butched up somewhat from his role in the book…or at least that’s the impression some of my book-reading friends have given me).

But Peeta is one of the supporting players who set up Katniss for the big win, which she could not have done completely on her own.

See, here’s the thing—and book people may disagree with this, and that’s fine, but this is how this played out in the movie, and so we will just have to agree to disagree—Katniss is surrounded by people who play the part of the game that she refuses to play, for her, and she survives because they did.

Her producers (whatever the hell Effie and Haymitch and Cinna were called…they seemed like producers to me so that is what I’m calling them) were obviously the most creative in the group.  The other producers should all have been operating on Cinna’s philosophy of “I want to make them NOTICE you,” instead of paying homage to what had been done before.

Haymitch gives Katniss and Peeta the advice of “make them like you,” which Katniss basically disregards and which Peeta grabs like a lifeline.  He is hamming it up to the crowds from the beginning, while she sits there all better than that and disgusted; he grabs her hand as they roll around on fire so everyone can see that they consider themselves a team, and then he jokes with the interviewer and admits that his special girl is in fact one of his competitors.  (Hell, he’s smart enough to manipulate her into holding his hand on the chariot in the first place, which I don’t think was a move calculated to the crowd, just a desire for comfort and contact until she rejected it, at which point he was like, “how can I convince her to touch me?”)  His admission of his crush was true, but his decision to admit it was a conscious spin on his character as a competitor, and it paid off.  It made Katniss part of a larger story that made her seem human and relatable, when on her own she was perhaps too strong and intimidating.  Everyone wants to root for an underdog, and the doomed love angle made Katniss and Peeta as a pair underdogs; when on her own she was a favorite.  Would she have gotten the sponsor who saved her leg without the producers who made everyone notice her and Peeta’s actions to make them feel sorry for her?

My take-away was that Katniss is basically Harry Potter.  Sure, no one but her could have won the games if they were dealt the hand she was…but she couldn’t have, either, without the help of the people around her.  Peeta is basically Hermione, is what I’m saying.  And I do love me some brains over brawn…

…Which is why, TEAM PEETA!

Ahem.  The uncertainty of Katniss’s motives also made the ending more poignant, because he’s still standing their declaring his love, and I still don’t know what she thinks about the kid.

So maybe that’s a fail.  There were others.

Rachel-

One other thing I hated: THE CAMERA WORK. WHAT. THE. FUCK. It was like watching Cloverfield. The shaky cam with the extreme close ups. I became intimately connected with all the hairs on Jennifer’s Lawrence’s face. That’s how close the camera was all the damn time. And whenever there was a fight it was all, “KIDS ARE KILLING KIDS BUT WE CAN’T SHOW YOU BECAUSE WE’LL LOSE OUR RATING SO PLEASE ENJOY GRUNTING AND BLURRY SHOTS OF TREES. AND BLONDE KIDS, ANY OF WHOM COULD BE PEETA BUT ARE NOT.”

Ya know what doesn’t work when you have super HD close up shots framing the entire movie? Shitty effects. Especially any time at all when there was fire (srsly, the fire outfits for the chariot parade? WTH? It looked like a homemade music video from 1998).  And the muttations. CGI disasters. Totally a product of the film being written, cast, filmed, edited and marketing in a six-month period. Good shit needs TIME. Unfortunately, the film is hobbled by having to rush things.

Elena-

Oh, yeah.  The cinematic filming itself was competent but not special, if excessively soap-operatic, but the effects were obviously a rush job.  And the fires? I thought it was a joke when she said, “oh, yeah, it’s real,” because to me they looked so fake.  Like anyone was fooled!

What bothered me most, though, was the dearth of good violence.  The fact that it was PG-13 really limited the brutality of the games, and that works in opposition to what Rachel has expressed as one of the key themes of the book—our culture’s use of violence as entertainment.  By virtue of maintaining an all-ages rating, this movie could not be so brutally violent that we the audience could question the film as entertainment; we became the people of the capital, watching the games and the deaths for fun.

Aside from the fact that the action sequences are hardly comprehensible because the cameras and edits move so quickly, the violence was disappointing in its utter lack of creativity.  Not a single death in all of the dozen we saw onscreen was memorable?  That’s kind of sad.  If you’re going to riff off of something else, at least take all the good shit (since BR has a few choice deaths).  Or go watch Shoot ʼEm Up and Sukiyaki Western Django a few times to get some good demises to steal from them.

Rachel-

In the end, and I have seen this film twice now, I would look around the theater thinking that I had not drunk the kool-aid that made many of the people around me deliriously happy with the film. While I think the movie is good and happily saw it again, I found it to be anemic. Without the guts that make a film actually emotionally connect with the audience. I feel that if you do not step into the theater with the knowledge that reading the books give you, that you’ve got no chance of really feeling anything while watching the movie.

Elena-

I think the experience of the film for those who haven’t read the books is much more about what you project onto the characters than about what the film directly makes you feel.  There are moments where the emotions swamp you, but in general it’s you consciously projecting yourself into that situation and that environment.  The movie entertains, but it’s not a masterpiece.  I’d watch it again, but it didn’t make me want to run out and read the book.  Perhaps that is the most scathing indictment I could offer.

Rachel-

All that being said…I’m really excited that a science fiction film with a young girl as the protagonist has done so amazingly well at the box office. It makes me excited for the future of this franchise and the future of other unmade films.

E. L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey to be Adapted by Universal and Focus

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It was announced recently that Universal Pictures and Focus Features will partner up in marketing and distribution of a film adaptation of an online best-seller, Fifty Shades of Grey.  This was after Universal Pictures won a major bidding war for the film rights over the weekend, where they promptly announced that they will develop a film .  Written by E. L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey is the first book of a romance genre trilogy called the Fifty series.

The announcement was made by Universal Pictures’ Chairman Adam Fogelson and Co-Chairman Donna Langley.  Both went on to say,

The ‘Fifty Shades’ Trilogy is a one-of-a-kind series of stories and we’re thrilled to be collaborating with E. L. James to bring them to the big screen.  Like so many readers all over the globe, we’ve fallen in love with ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.’ It’s a special story and working with Focus, we hope to bring audiences a film they can enjoy as much as they loved the book.”

James Schamus, Chief Executive Officer of Focus Features said,

At its core, this is a romance of the most emotionally resonant, but delicate, order – and we look forward to working with our colleagues at Universal to transform E. L. James’ vision into a great film.”

That’s the clean version of how the story is being sold by Universal and Focus.  It gets better.

Initially the book was distributed by an Australia based publisher The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House.   The book has since turned into an overnight literary success has begun to sell an estimated ten thousand copies per day.  The e-book format of the book currently holds spots on the bestseller list on Amazon, The New York Times and Barnes & Noble.

Is it because romance is a high sell point that sales are doing well?  Certainly Twilight can’t be to blame here, can it?  Well, yes, it actually is to blame but there’s a twist.  The story was inspired by the popularity of the Twilight series.  James actually published the book independently online then took it down when the popularity caught on.  The book was then picked up by The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing, then bought by Vintage Books; part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; a major U.S. publisher.  This romantic story is actually bondage erotica which has been dubbed online as, “Mommy Porn.”  I on the other hand will go with what my high school English teacher called all romance novels.  Cliterature.

The Fifty series deals with sexual behaviour that is usually considered taboo; aside from porn that is.  The story seems to have hit a target audience of adult females who have continued to spread the message almost virally online.  While there are those that do this openly, a lot of women are also living in the luxurious anonymity of cyberspace.  Free to be unrepressed and vocal about it.

The clean version that will appear on most sites talking about the news in passing will be as follows:  The Fifty Shades of Grey story; in a nutshell; is a story about a relationship between 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey and college student Anastasia Steele.

Forget that the names even matter. The story romanticizes female sexual submission which revolves around a graduate student who falls in lust with an dashing, older billionaire.  The man is handsome, wealthy, and has some extravagant bedroom appetites.  Who says you can’t buy happiness?

The Fifty trilogy also includes titles Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, in which the couple’s relationship is further explored.  I’m not sure how much more freaky things can get after the first book, but it’ll be fun getting there.  Bow chikka wow wow!

6th Annual BSC Book Tournament Match up: Uglies vs 21 Erased

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Round 3, The SemiFinals of the 6th Annual BSC Book Tournament begins with match-ups between those left in the Female bracket. 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.

2: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld vs 21 Erased by Barbara Rayne

 

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 29th, and results will be announced on Tuesday, March 30th.

6th Annual BSC Book Tournament Match up: The Line vs Dark Parties

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Round 3, The SemiFinals of the 6th Annual BSC Book Tournament begins with match-ups between those left in the Female bracket. 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: The Line by Teri Hall vs Dark Parties by Sara Grant

 

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 29yh, and results will be announced on Tuesday, March 30th.

You can continue to the next one here!

BSC Book Tournament Round 3 Winners

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The third round between our Global Catastrophe vs Future Apocalypse has concluded! It was a tough round with many close calls, but in the end the fans spoke up and we have the winners for round 2. Next we have Finals for each bracket. We will match up this winner with the one from the other bracket for the championship.

Congratulations to each of the winners from the match-ups! And also congrats to the female lead bracket that edged out the male leads completely!

You can see the two winners who will face off below:

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien

So be sure to check back on March 31st, to begin voting on the finals, and check in with us on Twitter for updates on the competition!

Warner Bros. to Adapt John Twelve Hawks’ The Traveler

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Warner Bros. is currently in the works for developing a potential trilogy based on the Fourth Realm book series.  Written by John Twelve Hawks, the first book called The Traveler will be adapted for the big screen, Deadline reports.

The story is officially described as follows:

In London, Maya, a young woman trained to fight by her powerful father, uses the latest technology to elude detection when walking past the thousands of surveillance cameras that watch the city. In New York, a secret shadow organization uses a victim’s own GPS to hunt him down and kill him. In Los Angeles, Gabriel, a motorcycle messenger with a haunted past, takes pains to live “off the grid” — free of credit cards and government IDs. Welcome to the world of The Traveler — a world frighteningly like our own. In this compelling novel, Maya fights to save Gabriel, the only man who can stand against the forces that attempt to monitor and control society. From the back streets of Prague to the skyscrapers of Manhattan, The Traveler portrays an epic struggle between tyranny and freedom. Not since 1984 have readers witnessed a Big Brother so terrifying in its implications and in a story that so closely reflects our lives.”

This dystopian future merged with science-fiction/fantasy has certainly caught the attention of everyone with the recent release of The Hunger Games in theatres.  The story however does sound oddly reminiscent of the author’s own obfuscated identity.

In times past, some authors were all about wanting to remain anonymous.  Now days, books are written keeping in mind how the pages might translate better to film.  Authors themselves take on a celebrity status and get a lot of media attention; so to possibly sell the story more.  For some authors, remaining anonymous is their way of being judged for their writing.  This isn’t so for John Twelve Hawks; known as JXIIH and J12H to his fans.  For Hawks, this is his way of staying off the grid, just like his character Gabriel.

In fact, Hawks’ American publisher states that he has never met his editor.  All communications are done either via the internet or an purportedly untraceable satellite phone.  Probably to make things more irritable, a voice scrambler is tossed into the mixed.  Man, that’s got to annoy the editor on those calls.

To top it off, according to Joe Regal, Hawks’ agent, “He lives in New York, Los Angeles and London.”  The same locations where The Traveler is set.

So the story is taken largely from the writers life.  Sure it might be a bit eccentric and there’s room to wonder if this is all a gimmick, but hey, write what you know!

Depending on how The Traveler does in the box office, all three books of the series might be adapted to film as well.

Mistborn Saga Heads to The Video Game World

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Best-selling author, Brandon Sanderson, will see his epic fantasy series Mistborn hit the video game world late next year. The news was announced by Little Orbit who will be responsible for bringing the novel series to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC and Mac.

Mistborn is a fantasy trilogy written by Sanderson that was published by Tor Fantasy is 2006 and 2008. The series consists of Mistborn: The Final Empire, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension, and Mistborn: The Hero of Ages. There was also a stand-alone short novel titled,  Mistborn: The Alloy of Law that was released in late 2011.

Mistborn is set in a dark world of ash, mist, and gothic fantasy creatures, dominated by a seemingly immortal villain known as the Lord Ruler. It also follows individuals who use a powerful rule-based magic system known as Allomancy that allows them to temporarily enhance their physical and mental abilities by ingesting and “burning” flakes of metal. Those who have the ability to burn a single metal are called Mistings, and those who can burn all metals are known as Mistborn.

The game will be an RPG and features an original storyline created by Sanderson. It will be set several hundred of years before the first novel took place. The game also features a unique system that puts Allomancy into the hands of the players. You will play as Fendin “Fiddle” Fathvell who must quickly master his Allomatic abilities before his entire family are destroyed by the forces at work.

Matthew Scott, the CEO of Little Orbit stated,

I’m a huge fan of the series, and I cannot wait to get this into the hands of gamers. Between the distinctive magic system, the story twists Brandon has planned for the game, and the rich depth of character skills, we’re creating something very unique for players to enjoy.”

Sanderson, is also a veteran of video game story development. He recently has completed development on the Infinity Blade II video game including the accompanying Infinity Blade: Awakening novella. Along with writers the Mistborn series and Stormlight novels, he has also finished work on the final novel in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Sanderson has been labeled “one of the most popular new fantasy writers to emerge in the last ten years.”

In regards to the new game based on his series, Sanderson said,

As an avid gamer, I’m extremely excited by this opportunity. The chance to write the story for a Mistborn game while working with a team of talented developers is, quite literally, living a dream.”

You can get more information about Mistborn and its upcoming game at the official website. 

About Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is the co-author with Robert Jordan of the #1 NY Times bestselling Wheel of Time novels The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight, and a top 10 NY Times and international bestselling author for his novels The Way of Kings and Mistborn: The Alloy of Law, all published by Tor Books in the US. An award-winning author, he is published in 25 languages, with global sales in the millions of copies. His Mistborn saga has become a multi-faceted brand, with a film in development from Paloppa Pictures, and a classic tabletop RPG released by Crafty Games in 2011.

New “Ninteen Eighty-Four” Adaptation In The Works

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One of the fathers of dystopian novels is preparing for a new film adaptation. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has been green-lit for a new big screen reboot. Imagine Entertainment is planning to bring back the famous science fiction dystopian tale.

The novel was written in 1948 by Orwell and tells a tale of the world in the future, now known as Oceania where big brother has taken over every aspect of the world. Individuality and privacy are forbidden and citizens can not escape the overwhelming government of Big Brother. The story follows the events of Winston Smith as he realizes there is more to the world than he initially thinks, and quickly ensues in a passionate love affair with a woman named Julia. But Big Brother doesn’t take this rebellion lightly and he is forced into a world he never thought he would see.

Imagine Entertainment has also teamed up with artist Shepard Fairey, who is most known for his iconic “Hope” poster for President Barack Obama. Fairey may also serve as producer when bringing the novel back to film.

Many might remember that the novel was previously adapted for the big screen in its titular year of 1984. It starred John Hurt as the lead character, Winston Smith. Nineteen Eighty-Four has also had several made for television movies as well.

Fans may remember that Imagine Entertainment is also working on bringing Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series to the silver screen. 

There is no word yet on who will star in the adaptation, or when the projected release date is expected.

I think there is a good chance the film will look amazing, but I have a feeling Hollywood will change the book that I grew up loving when translating it to the big screen.

Paramount to Reinvent Mark Twain with ‘Huck’

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Paramount Studios has recently picked up some work by Andy Burg titled Huck.  While the script is under wraps at the moment, the story will be based on the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Written originally by Mark Twain, the novel is mainly known for the mischievous teenagers Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.  Originally Sawyer was presented as an all American boy who tends to dream big and scheme.  Finn on the other hand is more of an social outcast who’s stuck with making tough moral choices.  While the duo first meet in their youths, the project itself has been touted as a re-imagining, focusing on Sawyer and Finn as young adults.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, there will also be an element of the supernatural involved.

So here is where I get a bit thrown for a loop.  Some sites have been saying that the whole project will be a 21st century makeover, while others say this is a re-imagining closer to Snow White and the Huntsman.  There are a few ways to take this.

One: The story is turned into a contemporary update like Jules Verne’s works have been recently turned to.  See Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.  In this scenario, I see Sawyer constructed out of a high school football quarterback who’s trying to make it big in life; lots of bad choices and poorly made commercial endorsements down by the car lot.  While I see Finn as an emo misfit who tries to solve the world’s problems via blogging and hacking.

Two: The script which is likened to the style of Snow White and the Huntsman, turns the duo into story character slayers.  Both banded together in face of a common foe.  To speak to the rampant slavery that Finn has faced, the story will go the way of True Blood and substitute a supernatural critter in place of the oppressed.

Three: More believable is if this movie is cast from the same mould that brought us Sherlock Holmes.  The adventures become the start of a bromance, so they’ll be in the beginning stages of bro-puppy love.  A  lot of bullet time will be used in fight scenes, while Huck and Finn utilize the most advanced technology known to brass and steam.

From Boomtron, Mina Kelly’s reaction went, “Again, I blame Twilight for this nonsense!”

I don’t think we can actually blame Twilight, but more a cross between the success of the Journey movies and the hype surrounding Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  For those not familiar, these are literary remixes and re-imaginings.  What makes them valuable to studios is two things.  1) How familiar audiences already are with the stories for the nostalgia factor. 2) If the stories are in public domain which means they don’t have to pay for the intellectual property.  It’s now just a matter of who gets to what first.  Look at the Snow White movies that are being cranked out.

Already there’s Sherlock Holmes who’s more action than brains.  Zombies mixed in with Pride and Prejudice.  Honest Abe, the first male Slayer from the Whedonverse.  Then on television we’ll see Detective Edger Allen Poe, macabre crimes unit.  How long will it be before I get to see Hansel and Gretel: Witch Burners?

The movie will be produced by Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark alongside Matt Lopez.  That’s right, the producers of Rise of the Planet of the Apes are doing this.  The same one’s that let Draco Malfoy mishandle animals that would ultimately destroy us.  You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!