Let’s not get excited…
Posted on Saturday, December 26th, 2009 in: Writing
Alright, I’ve known about this a long, long time, but haven’t blogged about it for the very good reason that, in all honesty, it will probably never happen.
What will probably never happen? (I hear the strangled cry.)
To quote a sage… make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em wait…
After all, the reasons why it’ll probably never happen are numerous and complex! The sheer amount of money involved, the constraint of time, recession, the credit crunch, the demands of the market and the audience, studio’s whims, development hell, the struggle of getting together a team, the decided lack of teenage vampires snogging, I mean, the odds against it ever happening are immense. Douglas Adams, when it happened to him, took twenty five years to get anything done and even then the budget was cut and he was, sadly, dead, by the time anything came of it. People have spent years and years of their lives hoping that there’ll be movement and then when, if it does happen, as usually it doesn’t, it goes straight to DVD with an embarrassed cough and occasionally gets borrowed from the local video shop by men in dirty anoraks who pretend its for a friend. There are many, many forces against this, which brings me back to my original thesis…
… don’t get excited.
But on the other hand, if something does come of it (and let’s face it, it’d be absolutely fantastic if something did, and I have officially promised to buy the most ridiculous pair of socks ever made by man in the eventuality) (and a new plug for my sink – thinking big here) … if something does come of it then people might raise their eyebrows and say ‘why Kate, you must have known about this for eons, why didn’t you say something’ and then how daft would I look?
So yes. A producer in Los Angeles has bought the film option for A Madness of Angels, and now that ink is actually on the contract, I will freely admit that I am absolutely thrilled and delighted by this development. With, of course, the caveat as stipulated above! In pratical terms, from where I’m sat, this means very little. I will sit and carry on writing as usual with my fingers crossed and if something does come of it, there shall be much rejoicing, and if, despite all the best work of the producer (who seems, in case you’re wondering, extremely lovely and passionate about the project, hurrah!) the studios just go ‘you want to do what to the streets of London?’ then…
… I am still young, and this bodes well.
There is just one last thought I have to share on this subject, which comes from the gentleman in his life, who, on hearing about the contract, cackled shamelessly and in between his gasps of breath intoned in his most booming Hollywood movie-trailer voice…
‘Vin Diesel IS Matthew Swift!’
He then, needless to say, went on laughing.
Butin a good way.
5 Comments so far - click here to join in
Kate, dear heart, that’s wonderful news, I’m thrilled to bits for you. While I was reading Madness… I kept visualising it as a film, because you have such good descriptive qualities in your writing. Now, your caveats definitely apply here, because there are so many examples of excellent books languishing because various directors can’t realise the money/script/whatever. Now, while that is true, there are good examples of it working out when the book is a compelling story. The Lovely Bones is the most recent; the rights were bought up, Peter Jackson’s attention was brought to it, but someone else was developing it. Eventually they passed and it is appearing at a cinema near you early next year, boxes of tissues will be required. I wish you the very, very best of luck with it, and I’m now going to put some thought into who would be the best actor for the lead role.
jessJanuary 4, 2010
Oh! How exciting! I hope it does happen, and that it is done well, and you can bet your ridiculous socks that I will absolutely be in the theater when the time comes. Multiple times. With friends.
That is good news. I read A Madness of Angels just before Christmas and – to the detriment of my studies – could harldy bring myself to put it down.
I agree with AdrianH, it read like a film in my head and I really hope that it gets made and they do it justice.
One of my favourite pub conversations is the “If this book became a film who’d be in it?” one. I could go on for ages about it. But I won’t.
I’ll just say that then I was reading I pictured Marc Warren (Hustle/Hogfather) as Matthew and Hermione Norris (Ros from Spooks) as Oda.
Colin MeierJune 8, 2010
Kate, I’m only halfway through Madness Of Angels, and I think it was by page 18 that I was thinking “Why is there no movie of this book yet?”
I really, really hope it happens.
You are responsible for (so far) two nights of lost sleep.
(And I have The Midnight Mayor waiting in the wings…)
MattJuly 16, 2010
Reading back through the archives and agreeing largely with your thoughts on Istanbul and the latest wave of vampire angst, you don’t mention The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.
You’ve read that book though, right?
December 27, 2009