Buzz Worthy News: May 2, 2016

Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome. Need your YA industry news? Never fear, Kate Copeseeley is here to give it to you straight.

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: The Handmaid’s Tale Adaption, Hugo Award Shenanigans, Count Olaf Pics, and a Cuddlebuggery Secret Revealed. All this and more!

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two.

Trailer for Cell

As per usual, Stephen King’s newest movie adaption looks creepy as hell.

It Remake In The Works

And speaking of Stephen King, there is gonna be a new version of It (based on the book by Stephen King) according to New Line and Warner Bros.

The movie, which was originally supposed to be directed by Cary Fukunaga, hits theaters Sept. 18, 2017.

“It” has been on a roller coaster after losing Fukunaga last year over creative differences. The studio quickly replaced him with Andres Muschietti as director and sources now tell Variety production is set to get under way this summer.

The original King novel followed seven children known as The Losers Club who come face to face with life problems, bullies and a monster that takes the shape of a clown called Pennywise. The idea is to have two films, one focused on the children and the other focusing on them as adults when they come back to their hometown to face the monster again.

Sources have also indicated that Will Poulter, who was originally tapped to portray Pennywise in Fukunaga’s version, has dropped out of the film due to a scheduling conflict and that execs are currently meeting with actors to portray the classic King villain.

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The Handmaid’s Tale Adaption

If you are a fan of the thoughtful, literary dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood, there is good news for you. Hulu has ordered a series adaption for its streaming service.

Ilene Chaiken wrote the original script that was bought by Hulu, but she could no longer render services when she became showrunner on Fox’s Empire. The 100‘s Bruce Miller is listed by Hulu as creator, writer and executive producer, with Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears (Sophisticated Gents) and Warren Littlefield (Fargo) also executive producing. Atwood will serve as consulting producer for the series, which will debut its first season on Hulu in 2017. The project marks the first collaboration for an original series between Hulu and MGM.

As soon as anyone says The 100, my ears perk up. 🙂

Golden Globe winner [Elizabeth] Moss will play Offred, a Handmaid trying to survive in the male-dominated totalitarian regime of Gilead. Enslaved by a society that values only her fertility, Offred must find a way to survive in a world of oppression and swift, cruel punishments.

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Watership Down Adaption Comes To Netflix

I’ve never read the Watership Down, but I sure am excited about this project! Netflix and BBC are teaming up to make a four hour miniseries adaption of the beloved novel by Richard Adams.

“We jumped at the chance to get in early and work alongside the BBC and 42 to bring this classic English tale to our members around the world,” said Netflix’s VP of global television Larry Tanz in a statement. “This novel presentation of Adam’s work pairs great talent with beautiful animation and will delight existing fans and capture a whole new audience for this timeless story.”

The classic children’s tale follows a band of rabbits on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, toward a promised land and a more perfect society.

James McAvoy will voice Hazel, Nicholas Hoult will voice Fiver, Ben Kingsley will voice General Woundwort, John Boyega will voice Bigwig and Gemma Arterton will voice Clover, and the rest of the cast includes Miles Jupp as Blackberry, Freddie Fox as Captain Holly, Olivia Colman as Strawberry and Anne-Marie Duff as Hyzenthlay.

John Boyega and James McAvoy? It’s like they know me!

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John Krasinski As Jack Ryan

It’s a role that’s been filled by Ben Affleck, Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, and Chris Pine before him. Now John Krasinski will play a character as synonymous with the word “All American” as apple pie. I’m talking about Jack Ryan of Patriot Games by Tom Clancy. (one of my fave books as a teen, and yeah, I was a weird teen who like Patriot Games and The Blue Sword equally)

The Office grad has landed the title role in Amazon’s forthcoming Jack Ryan series, based on the novels by Tom Clancy, TVLine has confirmed.

As previously reported, the TV version — co-created by Lost vets Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland — will not be a direct adaptation of Clancy’s books, but will use them as source material for a contemporary take on the character as he navigates his job as a CIA operative. (In the novels, Ryan trades in his career as an investment broker for a CIA analyst gig, before rising through the ranks to become President of the United States.)

I had no idea this was in the works, but I’m kind of excited about it, not gonna lie.

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Wheel of Time Will Indeed Be A TV Series

This TV Series has gone through quite a big of drama to make its way to the small screen. In the Last year, Harriet McDougal (Robert Jordan’s widow) has been in a fight with Red Eagle Entertainment over the rights to adapt the famous Wheel Of Time series.

Here is an excerpt from the bananas story about it last year (via i09):

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is one of the most popular book series of all time. So you’d think the first episode of a TV version would air with massive fanfare… so why did the pilot air in the middle of the night instead?

In a nutshell, Winter Dragon, which aired early this morning on FXX, was not actually FXX programming. It was “client-supplied programming,” according to an FXX spokesperson — which I believe means that someone rented time on FXX to show it. Similar to a late-night infomercial.

So what gives? We spoke to Rick Selvage, CEO of Red Eagle Entertainment and the executive producer of Winter Dragon, who told us “it was more of an [issue of] getting it on the air.”

Selvage had to be very careful about what he told us, but reading between the lines, it sounded as though his company has the rights to make a Wheel of Time TV series — but those rights were about to expire, unless they got something on television by a certain date.

Update: There’s a statement from Jordan’s widow, calling the pilot an unauthorized production:

“This morning brought startling news. A “pilot” for a Wheel of Time series, the “pilot” being called Winter Dragon, had appeared at 1:30 in the morning, East Coast time, on FXX TV, a channel somewhere in the 700s (founded to concentrate on comedy, according to the Washington Post).

It was made without my knowledge or cooperation. I never saw the script. No one associated with Bandersnatch Group, the successor-in-interest to James O. Rigney, was aware of this.

Bandersnatch has an existing contract with Universal Pictures that grants television rights to them until this Wednesday, February 11 – at which point these rights revert to Bandersnatch.

I see no mention of Universal in the “pilot”. Nor, I repeat, was Bandersnatch, or Robert Jordan’s estate, informed of this in any way.

I am dumbfounded by this occurrence, and am taking steps to prevent its reoccurrence.”

And after that? Red Eagle filed a lawsuit against her! Like, this story was so outlandish and very odd. But apparently this is all water under the bridge now? Or maybe they did go with another studio? Because it’s going to happen, as announced by MacDougal in a press statement:

Update: Wanted to share with you exciting news about The Wheel of Time. Legal issues have been resolved. The Wheel of Time will become a cutting edge TV series! I couldn’t be more pleased. Look for the official announcement coming soon from a major studio —Harriet

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Photos Released for Series of Unfortunate Events

Guys, I have been so excited about this since Netflix announced it was coming, back in 2014. I was so happy about Neil Patrick Harris being cast as Count Olaf, but it was hard to picture. Thank goodness I don’t have to try anymore, as there are pics of NPH out this week and let me tell you, he looks brilliant! Like Wow!!!

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Book Bloggers and YA Authors Team Up

It appears that our Cuddlebuggery founding bloggers have been keeping secrets! This week Ameriie (booktuber, singer, and writer) announced that she and some other booktubers would be releasing an upcoming anthology. And if you guess that two of Cuddlebuggery’s bloggers are on the booktubers list, you would be right!

What do you get when you blend the equally passionate communities of booktubers (a still-growing and ever-more influential community within YouTube where users enthusiastically vlog about all-things-book) and YA authors for a project? In Bloomsbury’s case, the answer is a new short-story anthology called Because You Love to Hate Me, which contains collaborations from 13 bestselling authors and 13 influential booktubers.

In the volume, each booktuber will provide a writing prompt for a YA author to create a story from the point of view of a famous villain. “Each booktuber has a short essay, too, about how they feel about good and evil,” Ameriie told PW. “We see more morally ambiguous storylines everywhere now,” she added. “In real life no one is entirely good or entirely evil.”

When she set about selecting the booktuber contributors, Ameriie said that “it was not just about numbers of subscribers, or who’s more popular. I wanted a wide spectrum of perspectives and people with a great amount of engagement and different tastes.” As for choosing authors, she admitted, “I asked some of my favorites. I didn’t know some of them and wanted to contact them without being the crazy person on Twitter.” But she said it all turned out and in the end it was great to be “communicating artist to artist.”

According to Ameriie, all the stories have been completed, though she can’t yet share any details. “It’s top secret right now,” she said. “We’re planning some fun reveals later: which booktuber was paired with which author, what inspired the prompts, their perspectives on villains in general.” She’s excited to be working with the team at Bloomsbury as the book takes shape. “We have some great things up our sleeves,” Ameriie added. “Bloomsbury is definitely ahead of the curve and they have come up with some great marketing ideas already. At the end of the day I know it’s a business, but everyone involved loves books and loves stories. You can feel the passion and enthusiasm. And it’s a happy project. It feels like a celebration.”

I can’t wait to hear more and will probably be bugging Kat and Steph to let slip some pertinent details!!

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This Year In Hugo Awards

Well, the Hugo Award Nominations have come and once again, this shiz is like a Game of Thrones novel or something, with twists and turns and machinations all over the place. But I’ll let George RR Martin be our narrator, because he knows all the details and can explain them better than me:

It is important, for those of you who may not have been following the awards controversy closely, to note that three important things happened since last year:

(1) MidAmericon II reported a record number of nominating ballots, more than 4000, almost double the previous record. In addition to MAC members, those who were members of Sasquan and the forthcoming Helsinki worldcon were also eligible to nominate,

(2) Sad Puppies 4, this year headed by Kate Paulk, changed its approach and produced a recommended reading list, with anywhere from one to ten suggestions in each category, rather than slating four or five. The process was open and democratic, which Sad Puppies 3 often claimed to be but never was. Paulk also avoided the ugly excesses of the previous campaign, and never stooped to the sort of invective that her predecessor, Brad Torgersen, had been so fond of, with all his talk of CHORFs and Puppy-kickers. For all this she should be commended,

(3) in contrast, the far right Rabid Puppies did a slate, as before. However, VD played it cute this year, peppering his lists with poison pills by including some major, popular works by well-known authors, works everyone knew to be contenders regardless of any Puppy support, along with the usual spate of mediocrity and a few choice picks that appear to be purely “fuck you” choices.

One of the FU choices is the erotica famous Chuck Tingle of Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt fame. (if you want to read more about Chuck, karen on goodreads has the best review EVER HERE)

Tingle is nominated in the Short Story category for Space Raptor Butt Invasion. He follows exactly one person on Twitter (Taylor Swift), uses a stock photo, describes himself as an “Erotic author and Tae Kwon Do grandmaster,” and his other works include Professor T-Rex Teaches Me Gayness, Gay T-Rex Law Firm: Executive Boner (available on audio book too) and Unicorn Butt Cops Beach Patrol.

I’m with Wonder Woman on this one.  And because of the shenanigans, some authors have pulled out of Hugos this year:

Thomas A. Mays has declined the Hugo Award nomination for his short story The Commuter (Stealth).

The announcement was made at The Improbable Author, where Mays explained that he “accepted the nomination in the forlorn hope I would find my story among a mixed and diverse selection of other stories, stories which came out of fandom as a whole,” but that “as the list is straight slate in the short story category, I cannot take advantage of a flaw in the current nomination process. This is not a repudiation of anyone’s politics, nor is it an endorsement of anyone else’s ideology. This is not a statement on the quality of the nominated works that either appear or don’t appear on anyone’s slate.  This is a rejection of a gamed system, as well as a stand for returning the Hugos to what they’re supposed to be rather than what some have tried to make them.”

But Martin says that withdrawal is a mistake, as he explains here:

The Rabids used a new tactic this year. They nominated legitimate, quality works in addition to the dross. Works by writers like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, Alastair Reynolds (Reynolds went public well before the nominations asking NOT to be slated, but they slated him anyway), Andy Weir, and several others. Some of these writers are apolitical (like Weir), while others are known to oppose everything that VD stands for (Gaiman, Stephenson, King). One has to think they were deliberately targeted.

In some of the online comments I’ve seen, these writers are being called “shields.” I’ve even read some people calling for them to withdraw, simply because they were on VD’s list.

Withdrawing is the LAST thing they should do.

I urge them all to stand their ground. They wrote good books, stories, graphic novels, they did NOT take part in any slate. In some cases they were largely unaware of all this. In other cases they explicitly denounced the slates ahead of time (Reynolds, again). Punishing them… demanding they turn down this honor… simply because VD listed them is insane.

Given the well-known political views of some of these writers, it seems plain to me that VD and the Rabids picked them deliberately, in hopes they would withdraw, or would be voted under No Award.

The Hugos are several weeks away and I can’t wait to see what happens next, because I’m sick like that.

Sources HERE and HERE

Interesting Links

Dr. Strange’s Odd Casting

For an excellent read on white-washing in films by Keith Chow:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/opinion/why-wont-hollywood-cast-asian-actors.html

Interview with Chuck Tingle on His Hugo Award

Underrated Book Series List On Buzzfeed