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Having just finished another proofing of my novelization of the upcoming Mutant Chronicles film, I poked around the web and found a few new posters for the film. The first shows the film’s cast arranged against some dramatic backlighting.

This is my favorite of those I’ve seen so far. Most of the others show a mutant’s boneblade stabbing through a helmet, which is cool but concentrates more on the story’s horror than its heroism. In contrast, this image is stark, it shows something of the feel of the movie, and the tagline—“Have faith”—works perfectly for the story.

I also love this other one I found. It’s a shot of Devon Aoki toting an assault rifle as she moves through a wasted landscape, but the kicker is that it’s all done in Russian. As far as I know, this is a poster for the Russian release of the film, as there’s nothing else Russian about the movie. Still, the Cyrillic script gives lends the image an even more iconic feel.

written by Matt Forbeck

I spent the last week revising things, it seems. This includes the latest draft of the Mutant Chronicles novelization and the final draft of Blood Bowl: Killer Contract #2, both of which I can’t wait to see in print.

While revisions are a necessary evil for writers of all stripes, they’re never as much fun as working on the first draft. That’s mostly because it’s hard to budget time for revisions. They often reach my desk at unexpected times and need to be taken care of as soon as possible. Fortunately, they’re rarely as rough going as I fear, and I can usually wrap them up fairly fast.

Many of my editors don’t bother asking for revisions and just accept the first draft. Other than the occasional typo, my work is fairly clean. I attribute that to the years I spent editing other people’s work. I’ve been trained to spot mistakes, even in my own work.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they don’t still slip by. I just do my best to keep them to a bare minimum and hope my editor catches the rest.

written by Matt Forbeck

A bit of digging through Amazon.com shows that I have three new books and one repackaged book due to hit shelves this year.

First up, we have the novelization of the Mutant Chronicles film. This is listed as shipping August 26, but I wouldn’t put too much faith in that until the film’s release date is set. Still, they have the cover there, which looks great.

Next comes The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Drawing Superheroes and Villains Illustrated. No cover up there yet, but it should look great. Yair Herrera of Chile drew all the gorgeous pictures, while I arranged the words around them. This is set for September 2.

After that, for September 9, we have a repackaged book in the Knights of the Silver Dragon Gift Set. This features the first three books in the Knights of the Silver Dragon series—including the first, my Secret of the Spiritkeeper—in a slipcased set. It also comes with Ree Soesbee’s Riddle in Stone and Dale Donovan and Linda Johns’s Sign of the Shapeshifter.

Finally, there’s the book I mentioned a while ago but couldn’t say much about. I still can’t say anything more than what’s up on this sparse listing, but since it’s a hardcover book titled Orcs, you might guess what it’s about. On November 4, you should be able to read the whole thing.

Whew!

written by Matt Forbeck

A note on ICv2.com today tipped me off to a connection in the Mutant Chronicles cast I hadn’t picked up on before, that of Captain Michaels. It turns out he was played by Pras Michel of the Fugees, and that Pras also helped produce the film. He gave an excellent performance in the film, in a small but important role, and I’m enjoying it even more now knowing what else he’s done.

written by Matt Forbeck

My latest essay is up at Storytellers Unplugged. This one’s about my recent trip to Hollywood for a preview of the Mutant Chronicles film, why I was asked out to fly out for it, and why I went.

written by Matt Forbeck

I got back from Hollywood last night after one of the smoothest trips I’ve ever had. The good people at Paradox Entertainment (particularly Fred Malmberg and Jay Zetterberg) flew me out for a preview screening of the upcoming Mutant Chronicles movie and supplemented that with a couple of excellent nights out.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m writing the novelization for the film, and I turned in the manuscript nearly a year ago. That was, of course, long before the film had been completed, and I worked entirely from the script, using my imagination and my long experience with the Mutant Chronicles games to bring it to life.

It’s no surprise that director Simon Hunter’s film differed from the images in my head. As with most films, the story changed a bit during shooting and editing too, so there are some inevitable discrepancies between the movie and the script-based book.

To fix that, I watched the film twice. Paradox set up showings (for other business reasons than just helping out me) in a private screening room on the Sunset Strip, and I sat and took notes, tapping them out on my laptop as the film rolled on. Now I get to go back and polish the book until it more closely resembles the film. There aren’t all that many large differences to resolve, but being able to see the film means I can pay a lot more attention to descriptions of the people and places than I could before, and make them more accurate.

As for the movie, I loved it. I’m bound to be biased, of course, having worked on both this novel and for years on the games on which the film is based. But it looks great, the actors do a wonderful job, and there are some truly fantastic moments in it. I can’t wait until you all get to see it too.

written by Matt Forbeck

Earlier this month, I mentioned that the Italian Mutant Chronicles fanzine Doomzine had interviewed me for issue #23. I had some requests for an English version of the interview, and Fabio Dall’Ara kindly provided me his original notes. I’ve finally had a chance to format them and present the results to you here.

Continue reading »

written by Matt Forbeck

According to Amazon.com, my novelization of the upcoming Mutant Chronicles film is now slated for release on August 26, 2008. It’s slated to weigh in at 320 pages and come to you courtesy of publisher Del Rey. I got the chance to meet my editor, Keith Clayton, again at Comic-Con, at the Del Rey booth. He told me I’d just missed seeing the film’s star, Tom Jane, by a matter of seconds.

written by Matt Forbeck

Fabio Dall’Ara writes to let me know that the interview he conducted with me a while back is now available in issue #23 of Doomzine, an Italian fanzine devoted to all things Mutant Chronicles. It also has a translation of the “Mutant Memories” essay I posted here a while back. Sadly, my command of the Italian language doesn’t extend very far, but for those who parla Italiano, you’re in for a treat (I think).

written by Matt Forbeck

Ain’t It Cool News sent a correspondent to the set of the Mutant Chronicles movie last summer, and I just discovered the report. I got there by way of the revelation of the new teaser poster for the film. It’s evocative.

written by Matt Forbeck

Tonight on Court TV, Murder by the Book premieres. This new show covers the true crimes that inspired some of the greatest living writers of crime fiction to start telling tales. The first episode features James Ellroy talking about his mother’s death, which inspired him to write The Black Dahlia.

Back when I was working on the original Mutant Chronicles RPG, Target Games’ managing editor Henrik Strandberg told me that to get the tone right I should read James Ellroy. I started with The Black Dahlia. No piece of fiction ever creeped me out that much or has done so since. The prose is boiled diamond-hard and leaves cuts more jagged than a rusty knife. If you like that sort of thing, read it. Devour it.

I’ve already set my ReplayTV.

written by Matt Forbeck

I just got a bit of PR from Paradox Entertainment on this, so I believe it’s official:

MUTANT CHRONICLES NOVELIZATION BY RANDOM HOUSE
Random House has signed on to publish a movie novelization of the upcoming Mutant Chronicles film slated to release in the spring of 2008. Matt Forbeck (Knights of the Silver Dragon series) will write the adaptation based on the film’s spooky sci-fi/war script.

As you might imagine, I’m more than a little excited about this. I’ve already read the script, and I’m itching to get to work.

written by Matt Forbeck

Back in 2004, Thom Talamini of Excelsior Entertainment asked me to write a forward to an upcoming book in his company’s new (the third) edition of Warzone, the Mutant Chronicles miniatures battle game. I’d edited the first edition and had been in on the Mutant Chronicles since just after its first roleplaying game book was published, and he thought the fans of the game might like to read my perspective on it.

Flattered by the request, I wrote a short essay about how I got involved in the game and what a dream of a gig it was. Excelsior has since suspended operations, and I understand that Prince August Miniatures now has the remaining Warzone backstock. I don’t know if the essay ever got published. Either way, I thought some of you might like to read it (as a PDF). Enjoy!

written by Matt Forbeck

Robert Farmer wrote to ask:

I’m a longtime fan of yours, in fact dating back to your work on Mutant Chronicles when I was just getting into the hobby. I was wondering what your thoughts were on the upcoming movie and the new RPG being developed by Center of Gravity.

Ah, thanks for the name. I’d been told the RPG was in the works, but I didn’t know the name of the new publisher or if it was public information yet or not. Glad to see things are moving along on that front.

Given the wildly different take on MC that the movie seems to be working from (judging from the 7 web documentaries currently posted), are you still looking forward to seeing it in the theaters?

Very much so. I know it won’t match up with the original property from the early ’90s, but it’s many years since the game went out of print, so I expected as much. Also, any translation of a setting into another medium requires changes to make it fit the new medium better. I’m not put off by that.

And how do you feel about the re-imagining COG is taking? Are there any phantom pains from the game you put so much time into, or is it a case of “your job is done”?

My job was done a looooong time ago, and I never was the game’s publisher. As much as I loved it, it was never truly mine. Also, no matter what happens with the movie or the new game or anything else, I still have the original books on my shelves. I can always take them down and read or play with them as much as I like.

written by Matt Forbeck