Category Archives: Columns

5 Changes to Expect In Hunger Games Sequel: Catching Fire

Wether your liked the big screen adaptation of The Hunger Games or not, if you are a fan of the series you are probably just as excited for the sequel to be made into a film as well. Catching Fire hasn’t begun production yet, but the director Gary Ross has mentioned that there are a few things he is likely to change in the sequel.

But knowing some of the changes they ADDED to the first film, we can surmise that they will have to also change their effect on the second and third novel’s adaptation.

You can see five likely changes below:

SPOILER WARNING: The following article presumes you have read both The Hunger Games and the sequel, Caching Fire Proceed at your own risk.

The Riot in District 11

They showed this scene happening in the film right after Rue’s death. I get the reasoning behind it. It is more moving, stirring and emotional. However in the novel series, District 11 only sends her bread as thanks for her kindness. We do eventually see a riot in the district but it is not until the second novel when Katniss and Peeta head there for the Victory Tour. It ends with an old man whistling and then promptly being shot to death with Katniss and Peeta hustled out.

Because the film had the riot occur during the games of the first movie, there are several ways they could handle the original riot. They could have another riot, but that seems like it would be sending a message that the Capitol isn’t strong, but also a message that the riots are stronger and more driven now. Or they could write out the riot and just mention it, that is a little lazier. Or they could take out the Victory Tour all together.

Either way they will have to adapt the screenplay and story to account for the other riot already occurring.

No introduction of hovercrafts removing bodies from the arena

The film left out the fact that Capitol Hovercrafts came to retrieve bodies of dead tributes. That Peeta and Katniss use this as a way to know where tributes are in the arena. This may seem like a small detail but it is important at the end of the sequel Catching Fire.

At the end of the novel when Katniss breaks the force field, a hovercraft swoops down and picks her up and its important because she initially fears that she is being kidnapped by the Capitol. Those who haven’t read the books, i.e. those who just saw the movie, don’t know about the capabilities of the hovercraft or what their showing up normally who mean for the character.

This should be a relatively easy fix with a little backtracking in explanation of the Capitol, but only if they decide to keep the ending of the move the same as the book. If they don’t fans will be pretty upset but it would be easier than having to reintroduce the hovercraft technology.

A lot of District 12 details were left out

We got to see the district briefly but the inner workings of the district were left out. Such as the relationship between the district people and the peacekeepers, Darius hanging out at the Hob, and even the idea that her hunting at all is somewhat illegal. The hunting issue becomes major when Gale is whipped in public during book two.

Considering much of the second novel takes place in District 12 we can hope that they will spend more time describing the ins and the outs of Katniss’ home. Either that or it will be glossed over even more to get more quickly to the Quarter Quell.

Watching the Gamemakers worked in the first movie, but it won’t in the second

We know from the books and even a bit in the novel that Katniss knows how the gamesmakers think when creating the games. Seeing the gamemakers work in the first one was a nice touch but it will definitely not work the same if incorporated into the second book.

Much of Catching Fire‘s Quarter Quell is left in the dark because our protagonist, Katniss has no idea what they are planning till about halfway into the games. Because the Quell is special consequences, she doesn’t know what they are planning or how they have the arena laid out until halfway through she kind of sorta figures out the clock-work.

If they choose to incorporate the gamemakers scenes into the second film, we will lose the sense of confusion the audience shares with Katniss in the novel. Hopefully since Gary Ross has already stated things will be a little bit different, he will take a note from the novel and let us keep our shared perceptions of the Quell with Katniss.

Katniss and Peeta never have a confrontation about their feelings for each other

One of the things I disliked the most of the movie adaptation of the first book (don’t get me wrong, I still liked the movie) was that Peeta and Katniss don’t have the talk where it is revealed that she may or may not have been faking it for the cameras. The audience learns that his feelings are very clearly real but we are not so sure about Katniss. The film, unfortunately, leaves it without that confrontation.

This means they will either have to include it in the beginning of the film adaptation of Catching Fire or they will have to keep up the less strained more ambivalent relationship between the two. Hopefully the former is what they decide because it is a crucial moment for the characters that sets the tone for their relationship the rest of the series. It also helps set up the love triangle with Gale, without her back and forth feelings for the two we have a less credible love triangle.

Catching Fire is scheduled to hit theaters on November 22, 2013.

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.

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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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!

34 Differences Between the Hunger Games Book and Movie

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::::Note: there may be spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched the film or read the novel::::

For those fans of the series who have already seen the film, you may have noticed more than a couple things that were changed when it was adapted for the big screen. Some of them made sense, and some of them didn’t. Some of the changes I realize were necessary when adapting the novel, but others seemed like they were changed out of laziness or disregard.

Either way, below are the 31 changes between the novel and movie. I also attempted to put them in order they would have appeared in the novel.

1: Gale and Katniss first thing

Book version: Katniss meets Gale early in the morning before The Reaping. He presents her with a loaf of bread with an arrow in it that makes her laugh.

Movie version: They meet and he shares a small loaf of bread with her. There isn’t anything there.

Significance lost: We don’t see how close the two are. We get they are friends but the arrow in the bread shows how much he knows her. That he would try to make her laugh on such an awful day in a way that is uniquely special to her is important in characterizing their friendship.

2: Haymitch at the Reaping

Book version: During the Reaping, Katniss sees Haymitch fall of the stage drunk.

Movie version: Non-existent. We do not get to see the level of drunkenness of Haymitch to the point it is in the novel.

Significance lost: Haymitch doesn’t get established as a drunk as early on. Katniss remarks that he is worst mentor because of how drunk he always is, but in the film we don’t meet him till later.

3: The Mockingjay Pin

Book version: Katniss receives the pin after The Reaping from a pseudo-friend Madge, who is the daughter of the governor of District 12. From here we learn the symbolism behind the pin and the bird it represents. As well as foreshadows the fact that Katniss and the mockingjay are viewed similarly by the Capitol, as in something that was a product of the Capitol but never meant to exist.

Movie version: Katniss buys/procures the pin on the day of the Reaping at the Hob and gives it to her sister, who later gives it back. There is little to no explanation behind the actual Mockingjay and its relationship with the Capitol.

Significance lost: Very little. It is understandable when it comes to time management to write out a character who forwards the story only a little. The only thing lost is Katniss’ realization that she kind of, sort of had a friend in someone other than Gale.

4: Peeta’s father bringing cookies

Book version: While waiting in the room after The Reaping, Katniss is surprised to see Peeta’s father enter. He gives her a pack of cookies that he made, a luxury in the District, before saying goodbye.

Movie version: The only characters who get to visit Katniss before leaving is Prim, Gale, and her mother. Peeta’s father is never even mentioned.

Significance lost: It is one of the first times Katniss is realizes there is more to people than she thought. Also a hint that Peeta’s folks already felt like she would be the winner. Because he never gives her the cookies, we don’t get to see her throw them out when she realizes that she might have to kill Peeta and that bothers her.

5: Gale saying goodbye:

Book Version: Gale gives her a tearful goodbye, and before he can say much is pulled out of the room. It is strongly implied he was going to say he loved her or cared for her.

Movie Version: Gale never gets forced out of the room, and his goodbye is emotional but doesn’t have the underlying feeling that he wants to say he loves her.

Significance lost: It is the first set up for the back and forth that Katniss experiences regarding Gale and Peeta. She acknowledges that he would have probably said he loved her. Her feelings remain ambiguous towards both characters in the film, but in the novel we see more of her back and forth.

6: Haymitch’s words of advice

Book version: When Katniss and Peeta get to talk to their mentor, Haymitch, for the first time, they ask him for advice which he just laughs as says, “Here’s some advice, stay alive.”

Movie version: His piece of advice for the tributes is simply, “Embrace the prospect of your imminent death.”

Significance lost: We lose a bit of the comedic relief, however the line in the film is much more dramatic.

7: Haymitch and Food

Book version: When Haymitch is finally seen eating and not drinking, it is a sign to Katniss that he is starting to take training them seriously.

Movie version: We see Haymitch eat almost immediately after we first see him, although he is drunk at the time.

Significance lost: Katniss sees the change going through Haymitch when he agrees to finally stop drinking and become a real mentor. In the film we see none of the change.

8: Peeta and Katniss Holding Hands Through Ceremonies

Book version: Cinna suggests to Katniss that she and Peeta hold hands to look like a team.

Movie version: In the movie, Peeta suggests it while riding in to the ceremonies

Significance lost: Not much. Both show that Katniss is unsure about Peeta and the games.

9: Advice on Training Together

Book version: Haymitch advices Peeta and Katniss to stay close together and not to show off during the training sessions.

Movie version: It appears they are just thrown in to training where they are only occasionally together, although Peeta does mention that Haymitch told them not to show off.

Significance lost: Eh not a big deal. Film version is more condensed for time purposes.

10: Peeta Talks about his mother

Book version: Peeta’s mom tells him that District 12 might have its first winner, but then clarifies that she was referring to Katniss when she says, “She’s a survivor”.

Movie version: Peeta just says his mom was talking about her, not how he figures it out.

Significance lost: Not much except reaffirming that Katniss didn’t know everyone as much as she thought. Both make her feel uncomfortable as well as pity for Peeta so the change in minimal.

11: The scene between Seneca and Snow

Book version: Doesn’t exist.

Movie version: President Snow tells The Gamemaker not to give the people too much hope.

Significance lost: Takes away from the book sequels where the idea of giving people hope is explored. Good though for those who haven’t read the series.

12: Peeta’s interview with Caesar

Book version: After Peeta admits his love for her; she realizes that everyone is staring at her while he processes the admission. Caesar then says he wishes he could bring Katniss back up to respond to Peeta but that her time was up and it was too bad.

Movie version: Peeta admits his love and Caesar apologizes saying that it was a shame, but Katniss is actually back with her stylists and Effie and Haymitch where no one can see her reaction.

Significance lost: The scenes are pretty accurate, but in the novel, since everyone saw her reaction, s0 she looked even more vulnerable, which added to her rage towards Peeta.

13: Katniss attacks Peeta after his admission

Book version: Peeta admits his feelings for her in front of everyone in Panem. Katniss is furious as she thinks it was just a ploy and pushes him, which causes him to hit an urn that crashes and slices open his hand.

Movie version: Katniss pushes him, but he doesn’t get hurt or even cut himself.

Significance lost: The only thing lost is Katniss apologizing later to him. Not too much lost.

14: Avoxes aren’t explained and no flashback for Katniss

Book version: Katniss recognizes a red-headed Avox who is serving her and has a memory of watching her and another young man try to escape the Capitol before being captured.

Movie version: Doesn’t exist.

Significance lost: This is a huge deal to most fans. Without Katniss recognizing the Avox, she doesn’t get a glimpse into how terrible things in the Capitol actually are. This is her first peak behind the curtain to something she hadn’t realized before.

15: Mockingjay pin taken inside the Arena

Book version: She is allowed to wear the Mockingjay pin after it “barely cleared the review board”. It also mentions each tribute can bring something from the District in with them, and another girl tried to wear a ring that had a hidden knife in it but it got rejected.

Movie version: Cinna hides the pin in her jacket that she is allowed to wear into the Arena.

Significance lost: The movie definitely makes this scene more dramatic. Letting her take it in made the Capitol look a little less strict, but in the film they seem more menacing by insinuating that she wouldn’t have been able to bring it in.

16: Katniss on the platform before the buzzer

Book version: Right before the games, the tributes are on platforms they can’t move off of till the buzzer. Immediately Katniss sees a bow and arrow in the Cornucopia. She wants it, but sees Peeta who shakes his head at her, possibly motioning for her to not to try to get it. She then gets disoriented by the sun and loses track of the bow and Peeta.

Movie version: Peeta clearly shakes his head, telling her not to get the bow. But she doesn’t get disoriented and doesn’t lose track and doesn’t blame Peeta for not getting to the bow.

Significance lost: This biggest thing lost is the perceived weakness and vulnerability of Katniss getting disoriented on the platform.

17: Katniss gets dehydrated

Book version: Katniss struggles for a FULL day when she can’t find water nearby. She asks, out loud, for Haymitch to send her water via a sponsor. He doesn’t, which she realizes means she must be close to a stream and she continues on.

Movie version: She finds a pond almost immediately upon running away from the Cornucopia.

Significance lost: This really showed how smart and resourceful Katniss is in the novel. She is able to survive despite being severely dehydrated and lacking substance. The movie takes this scene away, and I feel like we lose a layer of Katniss’ personality.

18: Gamemaker scenes

Book version: Doesn’t exist, though Katniss is able to surmise what they are doing and thinking because of years of watching the games.

Movie version: We see several scenes of the gamemakers at work.

Significance: I think we actually gained something see this. While Katniss is able to describe these things to us, it was nice to actually have it presented visually.

19: Notes with the parachutes from sponsors

Book version: Gifts from sponsors come without notes, and Katniss is left to interpret what each one means.

Movie version: A note comes with each gift (though there are less gifts shown), making it easier to keep Haymitch’s thoughts in the narrative.

Significance: I think this also takes away from Katniss’ resourcefulness. In the novel she is able to anticipate what Haymitch wants in order to get what she needs. Although since the film is told in a different narrative, the notes do convey what Katniss figures out herself in the novel.

20: Rue pointing out the tracker jacker nest

Book version: Katniss is hiding in the tree above the careers, when she is startled to see Rue in a tree next to her. Rue points out the Tracker Jackers, but it serves more as a warning to Katniss who is in the tree with them. Katniss then figures out to drop the nest on the careers and warns Rue to run.

Movie version: Rue gestures to Katniss to drop the nest on them.

Significance: Once again the resourcefulness of Katniss. But the film does use the change as a quicker way to develop Rue as a friend to Katniss.

21: Katniss tripping on the Tracker Jacker venom and Rue

Book version: She gets stung several times before having a very hallucinogenic experience and passing out. She awakes to find Rue has put special leaves on her stings that is pulling the poison out and saved her life.

Movie version: She does get stung and she does trip out but it is much milder than the book described. She wakes up with the leaves on her but no explanation is given about what they do and she doesn’t keep any in case she needs them in the future.

Significance: Not much just not as elaborate as the book describes.

22: Rue’s death

Book version: Rue is speared by a boy from District 1 while still in the net before Katniss can cut her loose.

Movie version: Katniss frees Rue from the trap, but then is killed by the spear after a sense of false hope.

Significance: Makes her death all the more saddening. Much more dramatic and uses the opportunity to give Katniss a less-hard side to her personality.

23: District 11 and the Revolt

Book version: Doesn’t exist.

Movie version: After District 11 sees Rue die, they revolt against the peacekeepers.

Significance: We do see a revolt in that district during book 2. Adding it to book makes the scene much more dramatic and emotional, but takes away from the scene that is in the sequel, which is witnessed by Katniss and Peeta.

24: Katniss doesn’t receive any bread from Rue’s district

Book version: After Rue’s death, Katniss receives bread from Rue’s district, which she Katniss figures was a symbol of appreciate for her acts toward Rue. She also surmises it took all their money to pay a sponsor to send her the bread. An incredible act for the poorer districts.

Movie version: Doesn’t exist.

Significance: We really miss out on seeing the transition that Districts are starting to look toward and Katniss and root for her to win.

25: The Rule Change Announcement

Book version: Katniss still upset about Rue, but moving on hears the rule change and before she can help it, she yells out Peeta’s name and then immediately realized that was a mistake because it could giveaway her location so she clasps her hand over her mouth and then sets out to find him.

Movie version: She doesn’t yell his name out in excitement, but merely decides to go find him.

Significance: I loved this scene in the novel. It is one of the first times Katniss is not thinking of surviving. It is also the first time she shows she cares for Peeta albeit without realizing it.

26: Katniss Taking Care of Peeta

Book version: She finds him camouflaged and uncovers him enough to see his leg is severely injured. She is able to drag him to the water nearby and submerge his leg. Afterward, when she sees it is not getting any better, she uses the leaves that Rue gave her to pull some of the infection out which works a bit but he is still injured enough to need the medicine from the Capitol.

Movie version: She does find him camouflaged but she helps him limp to the water. There she cleans the wound and then takes him to the cave where he remains ill till she goes to the Feast.

Significance: Just a minor change, but shows that Katniss can think on her feet, and also has some of the minor healing abilities that she shares with her sister and mother.

27: The romance is all for the cameras

Book version: In the book it is clear that Katniss believes the “romance” angle is an act to lure sponsor but mentions that sometimes she is left confused by her feelings growing for Peeta and her lingering feelings for Gale.

Movie version: It is unclear how Katniss feels in the movie, whether she thinks it is an act or genuinely feels for him. It is obvious for Peeta that he isn’t playing.

Significance: We lose a lot of the back and forth emotions Katniss feels during this scene. In the novel she acknowledges that she does care for Peeta but also acknowledges that she still thinks about Gale. We lose a lot of the ambiguity when it was translated on screen.

28: The conversation in the cave

Book version: Peeta explains to Katniss how and when he first met her and knew he was in love with her. She regales him with the story of Prim’s goat as well as thanks him for the day he saved her life with the bread.

Movie version: They never have the back and forth. Peeta brings up the day he gave her the bread but tells the story a little differently. She never tells him about the goat.

Significance: We lose the revelation that Katniss’ mother and sister are healers as well as the growing closeness between the two characters.

29: Katniss Doesn’t Trick Peeta to Sleep

Book version: Katniss receives a sleeping potion from Haymitch after playing up the romance for the cameras. She drugs Peeta so she can go to the Cornucopia and get the medicine he needs before he wakes up the next day.

Movie version: Katniss doesn’t drug him, but she does wait until he’s asleep to head to The Cornucopia.

Significance: I hate that this scene was changed. I think we lose the fact that Katniss was willing to do anything to get him the medicine he needed.

30: Thresh’s Decision to let Katniss live

Book version: Thresh lets Katniss live after she talks of helping Rue and not being the one who killed her.

Movie version: Thresh lets Katniss live because he already knew she had been kind to Rue.

Significance: Not much of a difference, just a quicker scene.

31: The tribute-hounds

Book version: The dog/wolf hound muttations are released and Katniss describes each of them having the eyes of the already dead tributes as well as some substantial different coloring, which she finds ghastly and upsets her.

Movie version: They are just wolf/hounds that do not reflect the tributes at all.

Significance: We have a less freaked out Katniss and she also doesn’t get to see that the Capitol has extreme capabilities she wasn’t aware of before, but would have been incredibly difficult to portray well in the film.

32: Katniss still almost kills Peeta

Book version: When the gamemakers announce that they have reversed the rule change, Katniss assumes that Peeta will try to kill her. So she draws an arrow and aims it at him.

Movie version: Doesn’t happen. They just look at each other in shock.

Significance: When she does this in the novel, it signals the fact that there is still some major distrust on her side toward Peeta despite what they have been through.

33: Peeta’s leg

Book version: When fighting the mutts off at the end, Peeta’s leg is once again injured, but more severely when it is attacked. This leads to his leg being amputated and replaced by the Capitol when they are taken out of the Arena.

Movie version: His leg gets bitten, but he is fine.

Significance: The loss of Peeta’s leg is mentioned through the rest of the series. Also shows that despite how far the Capitol has come, there are still some things they can’t control.

34: Peeta’s Realization of Katniss

Book version: Peeta’s finds out that Katniss may or may not have been playing up the romance angle while in the Arena and is completely heartbroken.

Movie version: Unfortunately in the film, Peeta merely says “he doesn’t want to forget” and while upset, doesn’t seem to be completely dispirited and it is never mentioned whether he knows of her ambiguous feelings or not.

Significance: One of the most important parts of the series when it comes to their relationship. It sets the foundation of disbelief and distrust that rears its head several times through the series among the two.

I might have left a few out, but these are ones that I caught. Some are big, some aren’t so big. While I did enjoy the film overall, I do feel like some of these things could have been left alone and not been changed.

WAR IS COMING – The Ladies of Ice and Fire Anticipate The Upcoming Season of Game of Thrones

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Game of Thrones will begin its second season on April 1^st. Rachel and Elena are super-excited to be back in their respective courts of fire and ice. Below they discuss their anticipations about the upcoming season. This particular post is relatively spoiler-free (character names are used, but nothing else). Be warned – episode-by-episode discussions will not be spoiler free through the currently aired episode, and Rachel’s reactions will not be spoiler-free through A Dance with Dragons.

Elena will be watching with the fresh eyes of a summer child, while you may regard Rachel’s viewpoint as that of the grizzled veteran with missing limbs.

Elena-

So I guess Game of Thrones is about to start back up on HBO, huh? I…think I’m ready for that. I gotta be honest, last year I suffered from ATF (Acute Throne Fatigue) what with having spent over a year reading the damn first book, writing up a chapter by chapter reaction, and having my opinions of it vivisected…and then podcasting about every episode…and then jumping into the fandom mash-ups. Fun as all of that was, it was exhausting, and I really just hit a wall—The Wall, if you will—with the series.

About the time comments on the first trailer for the new season hit my Facebook wall, though, and I was reminded that April wasn’t all that far off, I thought…hey, maybe I should go finish the first book. (For the record: I have not acted on this thought. I am not sure where my copy is. Buried under mastiff direwolf hair on the back floorboard of my car, perhaps? But I thought it, and as we all know it is the thought that counts, right? RIGHT?!?)

And I also thought…I’m kind of excited about new episodes of this series. I’ve actually re-watched a few episodes of Season 1 since then, if I happened to turn on the TV and one of my favorite episodes—or just scenes, in some cases—was on.

I have not watched any trailers for the new season. I don’t know if I want to. I have managed pretty well to avoid spoilers so far, and while I’m sure HBO is careful not to spoil any real plot points, I’m afraid of seeing something that I might be able to pair with some other not-on-its-own-a-spoiler information I have and put two and two together. And the thing is, I don’t need to see the trailers to know I’m going to keep watching the show. I’m excited about it based on the fact that I loved the first season. The production was quality, and the story and characters hooked me, so really I’m just ready to keep rolling down the midnight highway that is ASOIF without any LED-billboards up ahead breaking up the darkness.

Also, I heart Bronn and Lancel. The scenes I re-watched made me realize they are my favorite minor (?) characters from Season 1. TEAM BADASS FTW! And also yay whatever team Lancel plays on. Team More Wine, Sir?, perhaps? YES. As a resident of New Orleans, I can get behind that team!

Rachel:

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I am READY for Season 2. I’M SO READY, YOU GUYS! Every time a cab passes me with a “War is Coming” ad on it I think to myself, “Self, you should get in that cab because that cab is as excited about Game of Thrones as you are.” I know this isn’t true, but I’m particularly vulnerable to fandom-based marketing.

Despite the fact that there hasn’t been a lot of physical marketing for Season 2 (no food trucks! A constant source of depression for my friends and I), I think HBO has firmly cast its lot with the Game of Thrones fans (seriously, I am not calling myself a “Thronie,” wtf is that?) The “fan” t-shirts and posters are great (the new design for the Stark t-shirt, THANK YOU!) and the “The King can do as he likes” poster and booth that they debuted at Wondercon…that right there is proof that if you market to fans in a non douchebag corporate way – you win!

The character featurettes that have been posting all on HBO.com are wonderful! They introduce lots of new characters without spoiling any of the incredible storyline that is coming at us come April 1^st.Plus I get to enjoy all the manips and gifs hitting Tumblr, and that just makes me even MORE excited (warning, the Game of Thrones tag on Tumblr is probably not safe for those wishing to remain unspoiled). I’m not sure if the digital media only advertising track is going to bring in new viewers, but at this point word of mouth might just be HBO’s greatest hope on that front. Even if the “War is Coming” fist poster looks more like “Angry Jesus is Coming” than “Baratheon Boys gonna FIGHT”. It does. Don’t even bother getting grumpy about it. It could easily be mistaken for an evangelical billboard of doom.

Also, judging from those character featurettes, not only will we be enjoying some awesome new characters (Lobsterking! Delicious Knight! Weirdly evangelical sexy lady! Lady Knight! The Brother Taunter! The Girl Who Knows Everything!) We’ll be getting expanded content of some already established characters. (I’m looking at you, people of Highgarden!)

Whose storyline are you most excited to pick up again?

Elena-

Hm. Tough one here. Probably Arya’s, just because hers has the most likely chance of immediate resolution. I mean, she is currently on her way to The Wall to be reunited with her bestest brother evah, Jon Snow, Who Knows Where To Put It (that is officially his name now. Does it make an easy acronym the way ASOIF does? JSWKWTPI. No. FAIL. Oh well, I’ll just type it out every time then). So, either she gets there and goes on ice as a character the way Jon has (heh, on ice…at The Wall made of…ice. Yeesssssssssss), or she doesn’t get there. Either way I think it will wrap up quickly? Or she’ll spend the entirety of Season 2 traveling, in which case her story will be almost as boring as Dany’s was last season!

This is not to say I am a Dany-hater—the horse-heart-chomping convinced me on her—but her story? Way too drawn-out, at least in the books…it might have played better on screen, but after 8 months I am conflating my multi-media experience of Season 1. Also I am getting off topic. So, yeah, Arya’s whom I want to pick up with the most.

I am also excited to see more of Rob King In The North Stark but that’s really more because he makes my eyeballs steam. More of that please!

Rachel-

In an attempt to keep at this anticipatory post as spoiler-free as possible I will say that I am excited to see Jon Snow’s story-line for obvious reasons if you have read A Clash of Kings and if you haven’t well…stuff. Reasons.

I’m also excited for the Blackwater and for Baratheon against Baratheon shenanigans. Also Robb Stark and King in the North stuff!

Character you are most excited about in Season 2?

Elena-

For me I’m actually going to go Dany. She ended last season in a literal conflagration of all that her life had been. And she walked out of the ashes with dragons. DRAGONS, you guys! That’s a pretty blank canvas for her to repaint herself and her life with. Rachel has laughed wickedly at me for intimating I thought her book/season 1 arc was slow-paced, so I am not sure I have huge expectations for her…but I am really excited to see where she, in particular goes, because I think right now she is the most dynamic character—the one who is in a state of change.

If I knew nothing of the books I would say Sansa as well, but the Sansa I know from the first book is functionally retarded, and so I have no hope of her ever doing anything except sucking more than she did before. So instead I’m going to say TYWIN LANNISTER as my #2. This guy has three extremely interesting (and possibly FUBAR) kids; he is obviously a politicker par excellence, and kind of a badass. I want to see more of him.

Rachel-

Probably Jon. But I’m also excited to rejoin the Lannisters and Renly and all that. It’s hard to say, “I am most excited about this character” without telling you why and spoiling everything. I’ll spoil everything in the episode recaps under giant SPOILER WARNINGS. Promise.

Character you most want to see die in Season 2?

Elena-

JOFFREY. Oh my god, Joffrey’s sanctimonious little tyrant ass would be such a sweet assassination. I do not expect this to happen—mostly because Martin killed of Viserys in the first book, and you can only kill off the single most obnoxious character in the book once before it becomes a pattern—but I would LOVE to see it!

And I would be hella impressed, if he does die, if it’s in such a way that I feel sympathy for the little shit.

Rachel-

Everybody wants Joffrey to die, Elena! Jack Gleeson has done such an amazing job of providing us with a truly evil character to hate in a cast of characters neither good nor evil. It’s Joffrey who is our shining white knight of douchebaggery! HUZZAH! Long live the king, and stuff!

And boy is going to be even more douchey! Get ready!

This question relates to my ongoing attempts to create a Game of Thrones drinking game with my friends. We’ve pretty much settled on shots every time someone dies, but perhaps certain characters should get different drinks. Suggestions?

Elena-

If a major character dies drain your whole glass/bottle/can? If Joffrey dies drain two?

Is there a new character you are particularly excited about?

Elena-

Not exactly…I mean, for one thing I don’t KNOW any characters to come other than those mentioned off-screen last season, like Stannis Baratheon. But I have seen from casting announcements and Rachel’s FB/Twitter that we’re getting some new females who at least some in the fandom love, so I’m excited about that. I don’t know who any of them are except Asha-Not-Yarra Greyjoy. I’ve seen other names but couldn’t place them in a context. Let’s just call it as “New Women of Westeros.”

Rachel-

Hmmm, I don’t know if it is a good idea to skip all of the featurettes. There are a whole lot of new characters coming at us in the new seasons. The story lines will be effectively doubled, and sometimes the connections between characters gets muddled. I think it was smart of HBO to release these little featurettes to help fans who have not read the books keep everyone straight. Not that I don’t have complete faith that all the new people will be effectively introduced to the audience. I just know that I watched the show with people who had not read the books last season and I often had to answer “who is that again?” questions.

Saying that:

Melisandra, Jaqen H’ghar, Asha-not-Yarra, Margaery Tyrell, Ygritte, Brienne, Stannis and Davos, Roose Bolton. So many crafty people coming at us you guys! SO MANY CRAFTY BITCHES! (I’m looking at you, Stannis.)

Any fandom you’re particularly excited for?

Elena-

Well, of the GOT Tumblrs my favorite is probably Arrested Westeros, simply because I love Arrested Development so much. But in this case, the fandom I’m most excited about is my work family! I have changed jobs since Season 1 was on air. At my old job, no one watched the show, and if I brought it up they gave me the skank eye for being so weird and nerdy. At my new job, EVERYBODY watches GOT! Fuck yeah Monday morning dissections! Also this will obviously force me to watch it every Sunday regardless of what else is going on in my life, else risk having the episode completely spoilered for me at work. The good news is, none of the coworkers read the books, so I can have my fellow newbie/TV-only reactions and speculation with them, and then my evil laughter/cryptic remark-dropping dissections here with Rachel. Win-win!

Also, if you did not catch the “here” part of that, Rachel and I will be discussing every episode here at Optionated!

Rachel-

I feel like the fandom is super healthy. It’s always nice when you’ve got new things to anticipate, but Game of Thrones fans have been keeping a hilarity-driven fandom going through the long waits between books for years now. (For example, there is an 8-second video on YouTube that has been around for a long time that shows a wine glass and a golden hand knocking over the wine glass that pretty much puts me into hysterics.) The show has just given us pretty pictures to manipulate. Which I’m going to say, does have its advantages. I have even done my share of stupid mspaintery.

Behold:

I thought that Roose needed a little help. So I helped him.

But I think my favorite little fandom nugget is the following, which I am using because I actually know the person who made this but I only found this out recently. That’s how the Internet works sometimes:

BECAUSE ONIONS! LoL This never fails to make me laugh hysterically.

This person that I know is known as SwordintheDarkness on Tumblr. But be warned – she is super spoilery, and her GoT knowledge is incredible. She can remember the PAGES that shit happens on. So if you have read through A Dance with Dragons I recommend her Tumblr.

I also can’t promise that my own twitter (@DarthRachel) will be spoiler free. Sorry. There’s nothing I can do about that. In fact, as I am the spoilery side of these Episode discussions you should just beware me all together.

I’m the Shaggydog of Optionated.

No, I’m not. I’m not that cool.

Elena-

Well, if you’re Shaggydog then I’m Rickon. Always in the background, never in the know. I am the sweet summer child slowly losing my innocence under the shadow of war.

WAR IS COMING, Y’ALL!

Fuck yeah.

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

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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!

A Hen In The Fox House Written by David Lubar

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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.

Female Leads vs Male Leads Round 2 Winners

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The second round between our Female Lead Bracket vs the Male Lead Bracket 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 Round 3 which is the semi finals for each bracket. We will have one winner from both brackets after this which will battle in the finales next week.

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 winners from each bracket below:

The Four Winners Include:

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Dark Parties by Sara Grant
The Line by Teri Hall
21 Erased by Barbara Rayne

Round 3 match ups will begin March 27, and continue till March 29th. We will announce winners on March 30th.

The Match-ups are as follows:

The Line vs Dark Parties
Uglies vs 21 Erased

So be sure to check back on March 27th, to begin voting on the semi-finals, and check in with us on Twitter for updates on the competition!