Triggers movie and my next novel
by Rob - November 19th, 2013.Filed under: Triggers. Tagged as: Philosopher's Zombie, Triggers Movie.
First, the bad news: there won’t be a new Robert J. Sawyer novel in 2014.
My younger brother Alan was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer in September 2012, and he passed away in June 2013. His illness and his death have taken a significant toll on me, and, even before Alan’s passing, I’d asked my Canadian and American publishers for a deadline extension on my 23rd novel, The Philosopher’s Zombie.
April has been my traditional publication month for many years, and we ultimately decided rather than have my new book appear in some other month to simply delay it a year. Instead of coming out in April 2014 (which would have required me to deliver the manuscript in May of this year), The Philosopher’s Zombie will be published in April 2015. I will deliver the manuscript to my publishers in the spring of next year.
This was the right decision for me; I’m still struggling daily with Alan’s passing. My thanks to my editors Adrienne Kerr at Penguin in Toronto and Ginjer Buchanan at Ace in New York for their support and understanding — and I hope my readers will consider The Philosopher’s Zombie, which is a very ambitious book, to ultimately be worth the wait.
And now the good news: I’m thrilled to announce that film rights to my 2012 novel Triggers have been optioned and that I’ve been commissioned to write the screenplay based on the book.
The book has been optioned by Copperheart Entertainment of Toronto, a company best known for the Ginger Snaps series of horror films and the science-fiction thriller Splice.
Copperheart is the same company that currently has Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern in development. Copperheart is also currently in post-production on Debug, an spaceship-based science-fiction movie directed by David Hewlett, and on Darknet, a horror TV series premiering in January 2014 on Canada’s Super Channel.
I’m working directly with Steven Hoban, the head of the company (who approached me about adapting my own novel), and Brian Morey, Copperheart’s head of development — and I’m having a blast.
Of course, we’re a long way away from having a movie made, and any number of things can derail a project like this. But I have my fingers crossed: last week, we agreed on the beat-sheet treatment for the screenplay (an outline of the scenes that will appear in the script). Projected budget for Triggers is sixty million dollars — which, if it actually gets done, will make it the most expensive Canadian independent feature film ever produced.
Matt Kennedy of Vince Gerardis’s Created By in Los Angeles negotiated the very handsome deal for me, and I’ve been enjoying every minute of this project.
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November 22nd, 2013 at 1:03 am
Very sorry to hear about the loss of your brother. Any time you may need for yourself is more than understood. Your fans, myself among them, will be more than happy to wait just a little while longer for your next novel (which has a fascinatingly tantalizing title). Also, congratulations on the new script and potential film. I look forward to seeing it come to life on the big screen sometime soon.
November 26th, 2013 at 7:15 pm
My most sincere condolences on the passing of your brother.
I came to your blog tonite to find out the name of the book you will be releasing this coming April, so of course I am disappointed. But who with a heart could blame you for the delay. I will most happily wait while you deal with your grief. I’m so sorry any of this had to happen to you and your family.
Great news on the movie. I hope it comes through. And I wish you much success and happiness this year and next.