Andy Serkis discusses adaptating Samantha Shannon's 'The Bone Season'

By the time Samantha Shannon's debut novel The Bone Season was published by Bloomsbury in August earlier this year, Andy Serkis's Imaginarium Studios had already acquired the film rights. The first impressive novel in what is sure to be a phenomenal seven part fantasy series, The Bone Season looks at a world where clairvoyants are outlawed and forced into a life of crime. 

In this Q&A, Andy Serkis discusses what drew him to the project and how it really is a world he cannot wait to create. Check out the Q&A below.

THE BONE SEASON Synopsis:

Even a dreamer can start a revolution.
The year is 2059 and nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, employed to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. For Paige has an unusual gift, she is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and in her world she commits treason simply by breathing. But outside the repressive boundaries of Scion, a powerful, otherworldly race waits in the shadows. The Season has come and Paige’s life is about to change for ever.

1. What is it about The Bone Season that compelled you to include it in The Imaginarium Studio's very first slate of films?
We first came across the manuscript at the London Book Fair and immediately fell in love with the scope, the scale and the exceptional detail of the world Samantha had created. It’s a really compelling story with such a great central character – we all immediately saw its potential as a fantastic feature film.

2. Have you met Samantha Shannon and how involved will she be in the film's production? 
Yes of course – she’s a delightful, incredibly intelligent person. She’s very warm and a passionate storyteller- dedicated beyond belief. We’re working very closely with her on all aspects of bringing the world of the book to the screen. We’ve been involving her with all the early concept artwork that we’re beginning to put together. Obviously it’s her world so we want to make sure we bring it to life in the way that she wants.

3. Can you tell us about how the creative process for adapting a story like The Bone Season begins?
It begins with knowing the story you want to tell. There are thousands of stories contained within the world that Samantha has created- we have to be very disciplined about opening up the world in a way that will lead us on to further investigation in the rest of the series. We need to find the emotional heart of the story; the relationships; the tension; the suspense and the drive, and of course working closely with Samantha is going to make it much easier.
At this very early stage it’s about finding the right writer and the right approach to telling the story. Hand in hand with developing the screenplay it’s also about developing the visual world and bringing that to life, finding the right visual effects team who understand Samantha’s concepts.

4. You have been part of bringing some of the world's most famous and well-loved fantasy worlds to contemporary audiences. Which of your experiences across film, tv, stage and video games would you say has been most helpful in preparing you to produce The Bone Season?
It would be impossible to single out any one single experience, it’s an accumulation of all my experiences to date, but obviously having worked on The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s extraordinary world with Peter Jackson is incredibly useful. Peter basically gave me the opportunity to work on a lot of extraordinary characters in a lot of extraordinary worlds and has opened up my eyes to a genre that I knew very little about before.

5. Will performance capture will come mostly into play when portraying Shannon's Rephaim race on screen in The Bone Season? Can you give us any insight into how you'd like these characters to appear?
We’re in very early stages of designing how we want to portray these characters, and are exploring a variety of avenues to bring these characters to life. We’re certainly not tied to any one production technique at this early stage.

For my 10/10 review of The Bone Season, head to Novelicious.

Happy reading!

Austenland: Book vs Film Club

Shannon Hale’s 'Austenland' is about one woman’s obsession with Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice and – to be precise – Colin Firth’s portrayal of Mr Darcy.

This short and easy-to-read novel is an absolute delight to read (and easy to carry on the commute!). The characters are hilarious, especially Jane herself, and the comedy in throwing a modern day American woman into an Austenesque retreat in the English countryside is non-stop. Jane is endearing, despite her ridiculously outdated ideas of love and romance, and it’s easy to warm to her.

It really is the perfect, enjoyable read for any Austen fan – especially anyone who fell in love with Firth's Mr Darcy. Your face will ache from smiling.

The film adaptation takes a much more slapstick approach to the story and takes the whole setting to more theatrical depths, with the emphasis more on gags than witty banter. 

It does provide plenty of laughs but the Austenland story is very specific in its appeal. If you love Austen and are in the mood for something silly it might just work for you. It is, though, incredibly indulgent and the humour (especially in the film) is very tongue in cheek – so much so that many may find it more patronising and insulting than clever and witty. It is a story designed to be taken as it was intended: silly escapist fun. 

Ultimately, as the subject of the book vs film club, there were mixed – and extreme – reactions to Austenland in both formats but the difference in opinion certainly made for a more fun discussion than Gatsby, which everyone seemed in agreement over.

Film - 3/5
Book - 4/5

JK Rowling to revisit the magical world she created

 ‘I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about and this is it.’

Harry Potter fans rejoice! JK Rowling is returning to the world of witchcraft and wizardry but not as we know it. The author is giving scriptwriting a go now with a film based on her book ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ and its supposed author, Newt Scamander.

Rowling says:

‘Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.  The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.’

Wands at the ready if you’re excited!

The long and short of film-making: films worth getting (un)comfortable for

A bad film - no matter how short - can feel too long. After all, if it’s no good then all you’re thinking about is how much longer you have to sit through it. How much longer must you wait before you can leave? If a film is good though, really good, time flies. You can sit in a cinema for hours and be so taken in by the story that, before you know it, three hours have gone by! Some stories, often those which are more complex, more elaborate and more detailed, simply cannot be told in 90 minutes. Or at least, they cannot be told well.

Before seeing Cloud Atlas on the big screen, I had heard plenty about how very long it was but, having already struggled with the immensely complex novel on which it was based, I was prepared. I nipped to the loo, ran for the premiere seats, and marvelled at one of the most ambitious, most impressive films I have ever experienced. Cloud Atlas lasted 172 minutes (just under three hours) and there is not one scene I would have lost. Enough had been trimmed already in order to make the story more palatable.

Similarly, Zero Dark Thirty was a film of great depth which dealt with political controversy and the very real and current events we all witnessed post 9/11. It had an incredibly impressive story arc and followed one woman’s determined mission to track down the world’s most wanted man. The final twenty minutes were so unbearably tense, I almost forgot to breathe. Zero Dark Thirty ran for 157 minutes.

We may not have the grand sweeping epics of earlier Hollywood these days but, for those who are still able, some filmmakers are, fortunately for film-fans, brave enough to make films that make you think, make you sit back in awe and ultimately just make you sit still for more than ten minutes. Which, in the current climate of speed and technology, may just be a marvel in itself.

Do you have a cut off time when it comes to cinema outings? What longer films do you think are worth sitting that long for...?

Book Review: Joyland by Stephen King

Is there anything Stephen King can't do? Apparently not. 

For his latest novel, Joyland, King has turned his incomporable writing style to a piece of pulp fiction which follows a young man as he recovers from his break-up, by working at an amusement park. 

As is always the case with King's stories, each and every character - no matter how small - is so intricately woven that you care about each relationship, each event.

Joyland is more of a coming-of-age tale than anything else for the most part but throw in a haunted ride legend and a mystery woman with a sick kid and you have every ingredient for a great King tale.

Joyland is endearing, adorable, frightening and it really is a joyous read.

4 FOBLES

The Female Doctor Arrives: a fan's love letter to the sexists

I never imagined that writing an article where I simply raised the question of whether or not it was time for a female Doctor Who would get such an insane reaction. Apart from the many who simply said they would rather the Doctor remained a man (fair enough!), there was also numerous so-terrifying-it-was-positively-hilarious comments on the article, ranging from the notion that I was simply being PC for PC's sake to the belief that a woman as the Doctor would never work because she would be on her period and doing her make-up all the time.

So, in answer to all those narrow-minded sexists, I have written my own little intro for a new Doctor who likes to go on adventures, take a companion along for the ride and visit new worlds. She also happens to be a woman. 

Matt Smith's Doctor is no more and his overly long locks have grown even further into those of a female. 

Doctor: I'm a woman! Oh this is going to be fun! Wait, where did Clara go?

Assistant: She had to leave. Figured it was time for her to go, seeing as she'd already saved you over and over. Some women just can't help saving you, huh?

Doctor: Yeah I do kind of bring that out of people don't I. Well, women. Ooh like me now!

Assistant: But I thought Timelords were all men?

Doctor: Why?

Assistant: Well it is Timelord isn't it?

Doctor: So? Who do you think gives birth to them all?

Assistant: I guess. 

Doctor: Besides. You're all human aren't you. I mean there isn't a huwoman race out there I've been missing is there?

Assistant: Nope. Just us.

Doctor: Wait up. You're a guy!

Assistant: Yup. Sometimes guys want to be whisked away by a woman for an adventure you know. Times change.

Doctor: Excellent! Where shall we go first then? I'm driving.


So where should they go next?

Book Review: World War Z by Max Brooks

World War Z by Max Brooks is more of a sociological report than a novel, beginning with the origins of the undead outbreak and taking the reader on a journey across countries as each society deals with the threat in their own way. As people join forces or cut their losses, Brooks uses the very unhuman undead to explore the human psyche, the need for survival and the lengths people will go to out of fear and desperation. After all, you may be able to avoid being bitten by a zombie, but will you manage to stay warm, find food and continue living?

Every few pages, the interviewer (who is never revealed - though I suspect may have led to the Brad Pitt character in the film adaptation) moves on to a new subject in an apparently never-ending attempt to understand what happened and how it all began. Some stories are very personal about average people surviving against all odds while others look at military personnel and officials. But each story is unique and compelling in their own right. My personal favourite involves a blind man who survived in the forest by himself!

The detail of the zombies is beautifully captured, too, as it is done through the eyes of so many different interviewees.

The interview style and the fact that the stories are broken up so regularly makes the novel something of a difficult read but it is easy to keep picking it back up and delving further into the story of a planet in crisis.
Book - 4.5 FOBLES - fascinating and beautifully crafted

Having not seen the film I am in no position to compare the two but from what I've been told, the film is massively different. Have you seen it? What did you think?