In the Wake Island of The Hunger Games dominating the box part , studio are rushing quicker than ever to regain more unseasoned - adult books to turn into movies . harmonize to the Los Angeles Times , it ’s become a feeding hysteria , to the point that Universal pay up $ 1 million for the rights to a book that ’s only sold about 23,000 copies since September .
And the leaning of YA novels that have been optioned in the past twelvemonth is too long to reproduce . But our bet for the book serial publication that has the best shot at captivate the consultation that pullulate to see Katniss kick ass ? The Vampire Academy books by Richelle Mead .
I ’ve study a lot of YA skill fable and fantasy leger in the past few years , and it ’s secure to say that they ’ve been hit and miss . For every Hunger Games , there have been some duds , including some books that got major attention and huge movie great deal . As Universal ’s Peter Cramertells the L.A. Times , “ We ’re seeing a million of them , but most feel like imitations or ‘ Johnny - semen - latelies . ' ”
In particular , I see a lot of cooky - pinnace dystopian preferences , which often lack any veridical threat , or an interesting mean of social control . Or worse yet , contrived Seth - ups , which do n’t seem like they would ever hap in real life . I ’m also seeing a lot of bland main characters , who are too peaceful in the typeface of the challenges they look — which is the kiss of decease for this type of novel , and particularly for any moving-picture show . Oh , and then there ’s the I Am Number Four job , where the main character is just unlikable and kind of a brat .
The thing that was so peachy about Hunger Games , and vibrate with so many the great unwashed , was the fact that Katniss is rarely inactive , and she has actual selection skills . She does n’t get pull into the Games because she ’s picked randomly — she volunteers , to save her baby . And once she ’s pull in , she keeps making choices , and trying to apply her skill to hold out . She ’s proactive and skilled , and also kind of make water off at the world .
And that ’s why I wish Rose Hathaway as a potential heroine of a film serial — she ’s also a proactive fiber who makes rash , driving alternative . The first VA novel begins with Rose and her in effect booster Lissa already having run away from the Academy , after Rose was on the verge of being rout for ruin schooling property . Rose tell things like “ I do n’t start engagement where people can see them , ” but she ’s refreshingly violent nonetheless . She ’s also check to become a vampire bodyguard , so there are lots of training scenes and fight scenes , and yet she ’s not invincible or anything — she gets her tush kicked a draw .
And the world - construction , featuring two races of vampires , the Moroi and the evil Strigoi , plus the half - breed dhampirs , is also piquant . As the ledger go on , we get sucked further into the intricacies of lamia politics and the Moroi get more and more desperate to survive in the boldness of the consuming Strigoi threat .
I wrote a lot about the awesomeness of the first Vampire Academy bookhere . Suffice to say , it ’s very different than The Hunger Games , but it ’s also not really much like Twilight or Harry Potter either , despite the “ vampires ” and “ boarding school ” thing . Image byGiorRoig on Deviant Art
https://gizmodo.com/sometimes-high-school-cliques-and-supervamps-both-need-5552671
But what the series does offer is a inviolable female character — not inthe good sense of “ bland action at law fighter who go on to be female,”but in the horse sense of “ female character who takes action and has tangible emotion and relationship . ” The huge winner of these books read that they ’ve already resonated with fortune of people , and I really think that Rose could inspire the same kind of devotion on the big screen that Katniss now has .
https://gizmodo.com/the-truth-about-strong-female-characters-5890557
But there ’s also the fact that at least the first Vampire Academy book has a vast composition of slut - shaming , which is weave into the more dystopian aspects of the world - building . Rose lets her friend Lissa feed on her stemma , which is something that only “ blood whores ” — the lowest of the low , dhampirs who live in disgusting house of prostitution — ever do . And meanwhile , two of the guy in the school spread rumors that Rose had sex with both of them , which fuel the attempts by the school ’s mean girls to ostracize her . The whole “ Rose is a slut ” theme at long last culminates when — despoiler alarm — someone open Rose a doomed necklace that make her unable to control her intimate itch .
When these volume first set forth coming out a few old age ago , adulteress - shaming was already a vast issuing for teenagers — but now ? Now , it ’s a cultural emergency , for grownup as well as teen , and it would be fantastical to see a movie that used supernatural tropes to talk about it , in much the same way the Hunger Games uses dystopian figure of speech to verbalise about class in America .
The other thing that ’s groovy about the Vampire Academy books , that would be really nice to see on the braggart cover , is their geographic expedition of female friendship — the relationship between Rose and Lissa is like a actual teen friendship exaggerated through the lens of fancy — they have a psychic adherence and Rose can feel what Lissa is feeling sometimes . And Lissa can mend Rose with her magic powers . Not that the books do n’t also have excellent male characters — include Rose ’s mentor / hottypants , Dmitri and Christian , the friendless goth kid . trope byEmmav on Deviant Art .
These books offer a hard innovation for a film series , and might aid us avoid more I Am figure Four - style debacle . So what ’s been pass off with the book since they wereoptioned in July 2010 ?
https://gizmodo.com/vampire-academy-movies-could-kick-bellas-and-sookies-as-5581108
We inquire manufacturer Don Murphy ( who also produced the Transformers film and Splice ) , and here ’s what he told us :
We ’ve been work very hard over the last year on Vampire Academy with producer Mike Preger in social club to get the consummate combining of screenplay and director . Some studios have reflexively turned us down because of Vampires being involved , which is strange- after the last Twilight do they think that interview disappear ?
But realistically , we are staying concentre on getting the right photographic film made and on the characters . Every studio turned down Transformers . The great thing about the VA books is if you actually say them , they will ghost and absorb you . Richelle Mead create a world that we remember is more seductive than either Twilight or Hunger . We aim to get that word to the screen intact .
Reading between the lines , it voice as though the studio apartment are afraid of vampire burnout after Twilight — plus other vamp motion picture , like Cirque du Freak , have n’t done that well . And it fathom as though Murphy and Preger are seek to keep a spate of creative control over the project alternatively of pass it over to the studio to finagle . It sounds like they also want some warrant that the film will in reality get made soon , rather than catch stuck in development .
So now that Hunger Games is a bona fide arrive at and everything has changed , will Vampire Academy get out of oblivion ? And can the movie really keep Rose , with all her huskiness and her anxieties over people mean she ’s a blood cocotte , intact ? Let ’s hope so .
Bookshunger gamesMoviesSuzanne Collins
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