Omnivoracious

Graphic Novel Friday: Celebrating Iron Man

Summer is almost here, and that means one thing: roll out the superhero blockbusters. Last year, the buzz surrounded the mega-successful Avengers film and the finale to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, and this weekend kicks off with its own Avengers tie-in, Iron Man 3. Once again, Robert Downey Jr. dons the suit of space-age armor as Tony Stark, the billionaire alter ego of Iron Man, and this time he battles the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) with the aid of War Machine (Don Cheadle) and the World’s Most Beautiful Woman (Gwyneth Paltrow, as recently crowned by People magazine). Outside cinemas, Iron Man has a vast career in comics, and the below five stories mark significant moments in his life as a crime-fighter:

• Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis and Adi Garnov: This redefinition of Iron Man influenced the films, from the look of the suit to Stark’s origin. Ellis is a writer skilled with bringing even the most outlandish superheroes to Earth, and Extremis sheds a more human light on the character of Tony Stark as he battles a nanotech virus. This is a great start for new readers.

• Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, John Romita, Jr., and Carmine Infantino: As if that creator lineup isn’t enough, this is probably Iron Man’s most famous storyline. In it, Tony Stark not only battles evil and Nick Fury’s ever-increasing involvement with SHIELD, but it’s where the very human Stark faces his troubles with alcoholism. Iron Man 2 touched on this storyline, and no matter its compressed storytelling and sign-of-the-times narration and dialogue, it’s still the most influential arc in Tony’s career.
• Iron Man vs. Doctor Doom: Doomquest by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, John Romita, Jr.: Here, the aforementioned creative team pits Marvel’s two most famous armor-clad characters against one another. It’s surprising that this idea took even so long to reach publication, and this collection is strangely out of print (although copies are available in the third-party marketplace). Never fear, true believers, for the Doomquest and Demon in a Bottle arcs are both collected in this 900+ page omnibus.

Why Zombies? A Defense of the Z Word

When it comes to zombies, I will not apologize.

In darker, future times, that statement might take on a different, more ominous meaning. For now I simply mean that I won't apologize for my cultural obsession with zombies, the stacks of books and movies about them that clutter my home, that this is my third time in three months writing on the subject here, or that this probably won't be the last time I do so. Allow me to explain why.

Vampires vs. Zombies - or How the Zombie (Fan) is Misunderstood

Beyond the built-in genre-based bias from which all horror typically suffers, zombies have developed a reductive reputation –- one from which their horror cousins, vampires, seem immune.

To state the obvious, vampires historically have been portrayed as cunning, mysterious, sexy creatures. They're cold-blooded killers, yet from the works of Polidori and Bram Stoker to Ann Rice and Stephanie Meyer, bloodsuckers have made the ladies' swoon.

Zombies, by comparison, are typically portrayed as grunting, ravenous, simple creatures. That's fair. But those who don't watch these kinds of films or read these kinds of books seem to apply the creatures' traits to their fans. And that's not fair. "You've made a plan for the zombie apocalypse? How [eyeroll] cute." (We'll get back to that.) Non-fans merely see a barrage of violence resulting in lots and lots of splatter repeated from one story to the next. But to see no more than the gore is to miss what's really going on, on many levels.

First and foremost, unlike vampires, zombies typically are not characters. They're part of the setting; they're often creatively concocted and masterfully manufactured (particularly in the visual sense), but they're nonetheless mere catalysts whose sole narrative purpose is to propel the real characters and the real plot. Once one accepts that basic but crucial premise, the value of the rest of the story can click.

What Zombie Stories are Really About

Credit where it's due, the modern zombie is actually a direct descendant of the vampire. Just as Bram Stoker is considered the godfather of the modern vampire, so film director George Romero established our basic understanding of and generally accepted "rules" for zombies. Romero, by his own admission, ripped off Richard Matheson's vampire novel I Am Legend. It always comes back to books!

So what are these "rules"? There's the general stuff: how zombies are made, how they move, how to stop them. But again, it's not really about the zombies. Romero released the movie Night of the Living Dead in 1968, during the Vietnam War. In a way, every zombie story since has been, to some extent, a guiltless war story. Amid the zombie hordes, we follow the everyman hero as he faces an enemy that is beyond human and therefore beyond reason or redemption. Likewise these stories have been, like some of the greatest literature, social commentary -- a vehicle by which to confront our own ethics and morals. Just beyond the immediacy of a zombie attack lies the real threat: mankind. Even the more lighthearted and increasingly popular field of zombie romance forces us to consider: "When civilization as we know it ends, how do we hold onto our very humanity?"

But those are just the narrative novels. Among the most popular (not to mention clever) zombie books on the market today are field guides and how-to manuals. Often these books are tagged as parody and are purchased as gag gifts. There's nothing wrong with having a laugh, but there's more to these books than you'd expect, as well.

The Government is Ready: Are You?

YA Wednesday: You Asked, They Answered--"Beautiful Creatures" Amazon Q&A

Tomorrow Beautiful Creatures opens in theaters with an all-star cast, so this Valentine's Day you'll find me stuffing my face with chocolates in a dark movie theater (and how many of you will be joining me?).   The Castor Chronicles (there are four books in the series) is one of my top recommendations for people asking about the next big YA series--it hooks you from the very beginning and has all the ingredients of a blockbuster. Beautiful Creatures is a little bit Anne Rice's The Witching Hour, a dash of  Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, and a whole lot of delicious Southern gothic.  A small town with a dark history, a family curse, magic, and star-crossed romance--not to mention all the twists I can't even hint at without a spoiler alert.  If you're new to the series I'll offer you this word of warning: Beautiful Creatures may cause you to stay up all night reading, followed by an obsessive need to start the next book, Beautiful Darkness.

It's hard to believe but the first book was written on a dare from seven teenagers close to the authors who wanted something different, a strong and magical female protagonist--who doesn't narrate the story--a specific setting (and in my opinion there is nothing like the South for visceral atmosphere), and no vampires or werewolves.  This is just one of the anecdotes Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl shared when they answered questions from our Facebook fans in the exclusive Q&A below.  You can read the rest after the jump.  And let me know what you think about the movie!

Q: What inspired you to write Beautiful Creatures?
[Kami Garcia]: We wrote Beautiful Creatures on a dare from my students and Margi’s daughters and my sister. Seven teenagers who wanted to find a book that was a little bit different than what they were reading. They wanted a female protagonist who was very strong and magical. And they wanted to hear a story that was from a boy’s point of view instead of a girl’s. And they said, no vampires, no werewolves, and we had to find a really specific setting for the book so that it didn’t feel generic. We did not write it to be published, we wrote it for them. We wrote it a few chapters at a time until at the end of the 12 weeks, we had the entire book.

Q: How did you come up with the names in your books?
[Margaret Stohl]: Kami’s family is from a small town in North Carolina. My family is from a small town in the West. They both happen to have genealogists for their families. We are from a very small town community background where there is a lot of storytelling and a lot of familiarity about your own family so the stories get handed down generationally. Thus, as Kami always says, we plundered our family trees and we stole many names from Kami’s family, from my family, also French Creole names which are a part of the region, and we stuck to sort of specific names for each that would appear within each family. But the most famous name comes from Kami’s relative Anna Gatlin Harmon. And we stole her name for Gatlin, our town.

Q: Are any of the characters based off of real people?
[KG]: The only other characters that are based off of real people are all of the real people; the Castors are all completely made-up by Margi and me. The real characters in the book, the funny characters, the postman is based off of Margi’s grandfather, the great aunts are based off of my great aunts. We kind of used real characters to populate the town from our own families which is funny because some of those characters and their antics seem even more outrageous, like opening up everyone’s mail and reading it before you deliver it, but that is actually what Margi’s grandfather actually did. But don’t tell the postal service.

Q: How did you come up with all of the twists in the story?
[MS]: We plotted out everything in a conversation before we started and then we kind of went with it. I think one of the things that happened is that we had an overall outline for the story but we would surprise each other when we handed chapters back and forth to each other, because that is how we worked since we are two people. So, it is kind of like that game where you all take turns adding on to a story and it changes with every person. So sometimes, we would just pull stuff out of the blue that wasn’t in our outline and we would be like dun-dun-dun! And then the other person would have to deal with it. But I think we kept surprising each other and I think that kept surprising the reader quite often in the process.
[KG]: We like books with twists. So I think it’s natural for us to write things with twists.

Sam Sheridan Gives Survival Tips for Characters in Disaster Movies

How do you prepare for the end of the world? In his terrific new book The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse, Sam Sheridan seeks to answer that question by acquiring survival skills from experts all over the world, from Olympic weight lifters to car thieves.

Today, Sheridan looks at several famous scenes from disaster films and tells us what the characters could have done to up their chances of survival in the face of catastrophe.

---

War of the Worlds

In Zombieland, the protagonist talks about “cardio” being a rule, but he’s not really talking about a long slow jog, he’s talking about sprinting. War of the Worlds has a great example of the need to be in shape to sprint. Here, Tom Cruise is sprinting for his life. So definitely, you need to be in shape to run sprints.

As the tripod rises up, the crowd is “milling,” standing around watching. Amanda Ripley writes wonderfully about this phenomenon in her book The Unthinkable. Who you “mill” with can have a huge effect on your survival.

As the tripod appears, it’s a good time to start thinking about cover. You could watch the tripod rise up from the corner of a building. Take a look around, and think If this goes bad, where do I go? Where am I sprinting to? But hey, I get it, you’re shocked. It’s an alien, this is a shocking event. I learned to do this when I was a firefighter working around helicopters. Helicopters are very dangerous and things can go wrong, so you would always want a plan—if the wind pushes the chopper this way, I’m diving behind those boulders.

Now the tripod starts shooting: OKAY time to go! Instead of just running straight down the street, Tom Cruise should definitely be looking to get off, get to the side, use cover. Cover doesn’t have to mean that it can block the lasers—it can just block the ability of the thing to see you. Eventually, Tom Cruise does just that. He finds cover, darting through a store. He hides behind a building and watches the tripod stroll past.

Get Smitten With Zombie Romance

It took a while, but ultimately Beauty saw something special in the Beast. Then there's Bella, who just couldn't help but chase after that centuries-old vampiric hearthtrob Edward.

Let's face it: ladies like a little ... okay, a lot of challenge in their loving. And with the adaptation of Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies hitting theaters, we might just be witnessing the beginning of a whole new Hollywood epidemic of cinematic monster crushes.

Of course, the film world will find no shortage of material from which to choose; the popularity of zombie romance has been spreading like a virus among young adult readers for quite some time as quirky one-offs and entire series base themselves on these brain-eaters.

For genre purists, the story involves at least one undead protaganist. Marion, for example tells his story in first person from the zombie's point of view, allowing us to experience his emotional reanimation as he falls in love. For the more lenient, a zombie romance can be any love story told in post-apocalyptic setting.

Intrigued? Sink your teeth into some of these:

Happy Birthday Mr. Darcy: "Pride and Prejudice" turns 200

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Here are some other fun facts about Pride and Prejudice: It was originally called First Impressions and, under that name, it was rejected for publication. Sixteen years later -- having undergone significant revisions including a title change -- Pride and Prejudice became Austen's second published novel.

In the two centuries since, Pride and Prejudice has done more than raise young women's expectations for what a man should be. (After all, even children of the '80s have to admit that Mr. Darcy is the original Lloyd Dobbler.) It has consistently been considered one of Jane Austen's most popular books. It has been a consistent part of English class reading curriculums. It has spawned multiple film and television series adaptations and interpolations. It's been given an artistic update as a comic book by Marvel. It has even been translated into a board game, a trivia game and a casual computer game.

But perhaps the true wonder, and a phenomenon unmatched by other classics, is the ongoing reimagining of the story by modern authors. This classic story has not only withstood the test of time, but it has, in a way, grown as new authors hone in on specific characters or offer creative new approaches to the tale itself.

Whether you've always longed to read the chapter after the last, or you've wanted to know more about Mr. Darcy's younger sister, or you've dreamed of Mr. Darcy as a vampire, or if you've imagined fiesty Elizabeth's reaction to zombies invading the English countryside, plenty of authors have answered your call.

There are many, many Pride and Prejudice-related books to choose from, but here are a few standouts.

2013 Academy Award Nominees Light on Reading

The 2013 Oscar nominations are here. Although the number of films based on books is lower than it has been in years past, several adaptations did make the cut. Per the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Best (Book-Based) Picture nominees are:

Lincoln
Based in part on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin'sTeam of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, this star-studded drama about the final months of the 16th American president's life leads the race with 12 impressive nominations.

Best Picture

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis

Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones

Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field

Best Director: Steven Spielberg

Best Adapted Screenplay: Tony Kushner

Best Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski

Best Costume Design: Joanna Johnston

Film Editing: Michael Kahn

Best Original Score: John Williams

Best Production Design: Rick Carter and Jim Erickson

Best Sound Mixing: Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins

 

Life of Pi
Competing with Lincoln for Best Motion Picture - Drama at the 2013 Golden Globes as well, this spectacularly visual adaptation is the Academy's second most nominated film this year, earning 11 nods-- none in acting categories.

Best Picture

Best Original Song: "Pi’s Lullaby"

Best Director: Ang Lee

Best Adapted Screenplay: David Magee

Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda

Film Editing:Tim Squyres

Best Original Score: Mychael Danna

Best Production Design: David Gropman and Anna Pinnock

Best Sound Editing: Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton

Best Sound Mixing: Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin

Best Visual Effects: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott

 

 

Les Miserables
This filmic adaptation of the Broadway adaptation ties Silver Linings Playbook for third with eight nominations, including an original song sung by Hugh Jackman that was new even to fans of previous soundtracks.

Best Picture

Best Actor: Hugh Jackman

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway

Best Original Song: "Suddenly"

Best Costume Design: Paco Delgado

Makeup and Hairstyling: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Best Production Design: Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson

Best Sound Mixing: Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes

 

Silver Linings Playbook
This rom-com-drama is noteworthy at the very least for its pre-show sweep of the acting categories -- the first time one film has had nominations in all four since Warren Beatty, Maureen Stapleton, Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton vied on behalf of Reds in 1982. (Only Stapleton won.)

Best Picture

Best Actor: Bradley Cooper

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence

Best Supporting Actor: Robert De Niro

Best Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver

Best Director: David O. Russell

Best Adapted Screenplay: David O. Russell

Film Editing: Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers

Beyond the top categories, Tolstoy's epic Victorian masterpiece Anna Karenina received four nominations (Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design), while Peter Jackson's take on Tolkien's The Hobbit was acknowledged in only three categories (Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, and Best Visual Effects).

Bonus Fun fact: All of the Best Production Design nominees were from movies based on books.

"The Hobbit": An Unexpected Controversy

The book vs. movie adaptation debate is common enough: Was the author involved in the film process, does the screenplay honor the spirit of the book, were the actors chosen for accuracy or box office appeal, and most of all, what key plot points or underlying metaphors were missed?

As The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits theaters this week, we stand at the precipice of another epic adaptation battle between "snobby nerd readers" and "lowbrow geek moviegoers." Let me cut quickly to the chase: Tauriel.

If you're in the book camp and plan to see all three movies, consider yourself forewarned. Tauriel, portrayed by actress Evangeline Lilly (Kate from Lost), is an elf character entirely fabricated by director Peter Jackson and his co-writers, (wife) Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

Of course this isn't the first time that the franchise has taken creative liberties with J.R.R. Tolkien's world. They've altered plenty of plot to suit their purposes. (Don't get me started on the filmic neglect of the hobbits' real return to the Shire at the end of the series!) They've even merged characters before. (Arwen, as she's portrayed by Liv Tyler in the movie, is actually a combination of Arwen and Glorfindel from the books.) Inventing a brand new character in the style of Tolkien, however, is an oliphaunt of a different color.

At San Diego's Comic-Con International last July, one of the hottest events I attended was the Warner Bros. panel, featuring Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, and The Hobbit. Jackson rewarded approximately 6,500 ecstatic attendees with more than 12 minutes of never-before-seen footage spanning the new series, including a glimpse of Tauriel. Addressing one of the first fan questions (regarding the lack of female characters throughout the series), co-writer Boyens justified Tauriel's invention. "We believe it's completely in the spirit of Tolkien," she said. To be fair, Tauriel's job, at least, was established by Tolkien as an unnamed (male) role -- a warrior and the chief of the Wood-elf guards.

In addition to this new character, purists should also be prepared to see familiar faces where they shouldn't be. Among the cameo-making Lord of the Rings characters who never appear in the book version of The Hobbit are: Sauruman (Christopher Lee), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), old Bilbo (Ian Holms) and Frodo (Elijah Wood).

Jackson described his film as "by fans, for fans." He genuinely loves these books, just perhaps not the way that the Tolkien estate would prefer.

Also in July this year, in the French newspaper Le Monde, Tolkien's son Christopher -- the executor of his estate (and, as they bill him in the English translation, the "interpreter of his father's unpublished work") -- broke a longstanding silence. "They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25. … And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film."

Which is why we'll probably never see an adaptation of The Silmarillion -- Tolkien's lifelong project documenting the history of the First Age of Middle Earth, the source of all things Lord of the Rings, and the ultimate prequel. Interestingly, The Silmarillion was unfinished when Tolkien passed away in 1973. Christopher actually added to it (with help from author Guy Gavriel Kay), edited it and published it in 1977.

The Tolkien estate maintains the rights to the book. No film to rule them all, no film to bind them.

What do you think? Have you read the book? Will you see the movies? Do the films overshadow the books or encourage new fans to seek out the original sources? Can the books and movies ever coexist peacefully? Is the Tolkien estate being overly sensitive or is Hollywood being too insensitive? Weigh in and tell us how you feel.

For all things Tolkien, check out Amazon's Hobbit store.

Writer Derek Haas on the Three Things You Can Do in a Novel But Not Onscreen

Derek Haas is a writer of movies (3:10 to Yuma, Wanted), creator of TV series (Chicago Fire), and acclaimed novelist (the just-released The Right Hand). In this exclusive guest post for the Amazon Studios Hollywonk blog, Haas explores the ways in which storytelling varies by form:

I was once asked:  what are three things you can do in a book that you can’t do in a movie or TV series?  An interesting question… a. because why three?  Why not 5 or 7 or 1?  And b. because there actually are three main things you can do in a novel you can’t do in a movie or TV series. How did my interviewer know the exact number to ask?  Anyway, here are my answers.

First, you don’t have to worry about a budget. At all. If you want to write that the main character drives a motorcycle through the biggest earthquake ever to strike Los Angeles, have at it. If you want to have characters jumping from Russia to Prague to London to Washington DC to LA, no one is going to stop you. If you want five-hundred assassins attacking the Olympic Opening Ceremonies … all you have to do is put it down on paper. Of course, you can’t do that in a movie script or you’ll give the President of Production at the studio a heart attack. Unless you have Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp in the movie together, then you can do anything.

Second, you get to move inside the heads of your characters.

See the rest of his answer here.

Amazon Studios Adds a Horror Novel to Its Movie Development Slate

Amazon Studios is pleased to announce that it has optioned Seed, a gothic horror novel by acclaimed author Ania Ahlborn. This is a first for Amazon Studios, which up to this point has optioned only movie scripts and episodic series projects.

Seed is a top-selling title of 47North, the science fiction, fantasy, and horror imprint of Amazon Publishing. It’s the story of a man who miraculously survives a violent car crash only to face a profound evil from his past — a dark force hungry for his angelic youngest daughter.

“Our primary objective at Amazon Studios is to develop great, commercial projects that our customers love,” said Roy Price, Director, Amazon Studios. “Ania Ahlborn’s Seed has been a top seller for Amazon Publishing’s 47North so we already have a sense of the mainstream attraction of the story and are excited to keep the project in-house for movie development.”

The novel was recently the subject of Amazon Studios’ first book trailer contest. Check out the winner  – "Grinning Demons" – selected by Ahlborn herself. (You can see the winner's "Five Tips for Making Book Trailers" posted here.)

“The enthusiasm of the folks at Amazon Studios is infectious, and I can’t wait to see where that inspiration will lead us,” Ahlborn said. “Having Seed made into a movie is nothing short of a dream come true.”

Seed was released in mid-2011 as a self-published title and reached the No. 1 spot on Amazon bestselling horror list. The book was re-released in 2012 after Ahlborn restructured certain plot points and added more than 6,000 words to the manuscript.

More about the project:
Seed
By Ania Ahlborn
Logline: When Jack, his wife Aimee, and their children survive a violent car crash, it seems like a miracle. But Jack knows there’s a profound evil from his past that won’t let them die…at least not quickly. It’s back, and it’s hungry for Jack’s angelic youngest daughter.
Genre: Horror
Why we optioned it: It’s impossible not to be drawn into Ania’s story of a man struggling to save his daughter from the evil that he himself brought into her life. The characters are rich, the visuals arresting and it explores the fear we all have as parents – that we might pass the worst of us on to our children. This is the kind of slow burn, insidious horror story that Stephen King was known for in his heyday.

The Amazon Studios open-development process remains focused on movie and series scripts. However, the Amazon Studios development team will from time to time take a look at Amazon Publishing and Kindle Direct Publishing books.

Learn more about Amazon Studios.