EDIT: OUR NEW BTFAS HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AND I AM SO NOT TELLING YOU WHAT THEY ARE. (Don't you want this site overhaul to have at least a smidgen of mystery? ;P )
- The Infernal Devices
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone
- Elusion
- Panic
- These Broken Stars
- The Fifth Wave
- Cinder
- Angelfall
- The Young World
I had to pass on the following adaptations because they were either optioned too long ago, are not a good match for UBC, or have already been cast. Adaptations with an asterisk may be re-considered at a later date should they escape development hell.
- Matched *
- The Selection
- Before I Fall *
- Thirteen Reasons Why *
- Shadow and Bone *
- Gallager Girls / Heist Society
- Blood Red Road
- Scorpion Shards
- Shatter Me *
- Down A Dark Hall
- Wings
- Fallen
- Firelight
- Delirium
- The DUFF *
I'll try to read all the considered books soon so I can have some good input, which have you read?
ReplyDeleteBtw, who are the authors of AngelFall and The Young World? I'm assuming Panic is refering to Lauren Oliver's upcoming novel?
DeleteTo be honest, I haven't read a single one of them!
DeleteAngelfall is by Susan Ee and The Young World is by Chris Weitz.
I think they should be chosen based on which ones are most likely to cast unknowns.
ReplyDeleteThe only two that seem to have recent solid evidence that they will actually be made is Panic and These Broken Stars. I could also see the Infernal Devices being a good one because it is probably the most popular, and The Mortal Instruments was a movie.
All three of these, however, point to casting already known actresses. Panic is written by the same author who wrote Delirium, and Emma Roberts is playing the lead. Not exactly an unknown. The names the crew threw out for being an ideal Lilac in These Broken Stars were Molly Quinn, Amy Adams and Karen Gillan (All older, known actresses) The Mortal Instruments cast Lily Collins who was known.
I think our best bet is to find the ones that have the best chance to be made and then blow them away with our talent, while waiting for another huge book to come out (Twilight, Hunger Games, Harry Potter) Because all those huge books end up casting unknowns because they can afford to.
Also: the people of Maximum Ride and Uglies have clearly stated that they want unknowns. M14 and Gone has showed interest in the site.
Personally, I would put Uglies in the voting cycle that's all TBA's right now. It's fairly popular, there was a lot of talk about the movie over the summer which is pretty recent, they want unknowns and yet are a while away from casting which gives us time.
The other books in the considering list have some talk about movies but no real push to have them be made.
Another kind of super out there suggestion (this is only if you think that we don't have enough books we know will be made) is to put a musical on the list. We have a ton of amazing singers and with Les Miserables, Into The Woods, The Last Five Years, Annie etc, all being made recently (Not to mention The Sound of Music on NBC and they are now casting Peter Pan) a lot more musicals are going to turn into movies. I know that's not what this site is for, but I do think it would bring in another crowd of people who want to be in say The Little Mermaid, Wicked, Spring Awakening, and more musicals that are on imdb that haven't been cast yet. So if you want to branch out, that's just an idea. I totally understand if you want to keep it to books which is what UBC is for.
I had no idea that Panic's lead role was already cast—thanks for mentioning that.
DeleteAlthough Uglies is popular as a book, it's routinely been one of the least popular adaptations on UBC. I was planning to have The Infernal Devices as the lead adaptation of Set #3 because of its absolutely massive fan base. There are still four slots to be filled by less popular adaptations that would be more likely to cast unknowns. I think we need both types of books on the site in order to attract new members.
And yeah, I'd prefer to keep UBC centered around adaptations of YA novels.
Oops. I misread what you said—Emma Roberts played the lead in a 2013 Delirium pilot that was rejected by Fox. My bad. http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/05/08/delirium-pilot/
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DeleteSorry if I wrote unclearly about the Emma thing. That's why they like to cast stars--even with one as the lead it still wouldn't have been popular enough to make it.
DeleteActually the less popular the book is the more likely it is to cast famous people because that's the only way it will get made. An unpopular book has to cast popular people in order for anyone to know about it. The reason why Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc could cast some of their roles with complete unknowns was the fact that those books were hugely popular. They didn't need to get their fame factor from the cast. Also, the less popular the book is the more likely it is that it will cast only through agents. The huge books generate so much talk about casting that it can sway how the movie is cast. I think UBC is totally capable of that though. If we can get enough publicity and action somebody's bound to get wind of it from Hollywood and be forced to consider the people on this site as a possibility.
I'm going to start writing and submitting press releases to various blogs and entertainment sites once the site's back online, so that should definitely help us get some media attention. ;)
DeleteThat's awesome!!! Kat, you're amazing.
DeleteRaina, I completely understand what you're saying, but it's not always true that less popular books cast known actors. This is because an unpopular book may be developed by a little indie studio, and little indie studios don't have much money (or else they would move up a division and be big indie studios). A known actor has plenty of power to negotiate for a high salary, so for them, it may be more economical to cast relative unknowns. A very popular book can go to a little indie studio, too, but right now, that's not likely. Lionsgate was practically a big indie studio before it made THG, but it was catapulted to status as a mini-major, so now, the major studios and mini-majors want to take all the books that are likely to be super-popular.
DeleteSorry, that was a long and sort of weird explanation, but the bottom line is that nothing is set in stone. I completely agree about getting media attention. :)
Sorry for not being involved in the decisions and suggestions on the feedback posts before, I just found out how to work this. I know this comment is a little late and you've already decided on the 9 BTFA's that would be on the site but maybe consider putting "Heroes of Olympus" on the site? When we had the discussion before I disagreed but I looked into the series some more and found out there are more characters to choose from. There are more girls to choose from and since there's mostly girls active on the site, with the few boys that do log on, we would have a better variety also the author is very active with his fans so that would be a great plus. Sorry if this whole message doesn't make sense, I'm very tired and sadly have school tomorrow. So I understand if you won't add it but I just wanted to throw that out there and participate a little.
ReplyDelete