vampires

[Greg Cox]

Chemahkuu wrote:

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Finished the book a while ago, definitely prefer Rise of the Lycans though. I know it's a product of when it was written, but it reads like an AU romance fanfic nowadays.

Little did I know, writing that book, that someday they were going to make an entire movie about Lucian and Sonja!

[Chemahkuu]

I thought the producers had gone on record as saying they had always planned a trilogy with the prequel as part of it, but had to boot it from first to last in filming order?

Well anyhoo I noticed a lot of smaller details from the book that have been incorperated into the most recent three, that's something.

[Greg Cox]

Chemahkuu wrote:

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I thought the producers had gone on record as saying they had always planned a trilogy with the prequel as part of it, but had to boot it from first to last in filming order?

Well anyhoo I noticed a lot of smaller details from the book that have been incorperated into the most recent three, that's something.

Back when I was writing Blood Enemy, the Underworld universe was still being worked out. As I recall, Danny McBride was writing the script for Underworld: Evolution at the same time that I was writing Blood Enemy, and I was occasionally picking his brain via email. (I remember that Marcus had not yet been cast yet, which is why the "Marcus" in Blood Enemy doesn't look anything like the one who eventually showed up in the movies.)

It was actually the movie people who suggested that Blood Enemy should be a prequel about Lucian and Sonja. At the time, I assumed that meant that they weren't planning to deal with them in any future movies. Imagine my surprise when, a few years later, the script for Rise of the Lycans landed in my lap!

Not that I objected to writing a whole different prequel. It was an interesting experience writing an "alternate" version of the same events. At this point, counting flashbacks, I think I've written the death of Sonja three different times!

[Chemahkuu]

Ahh, thanks for clarifying, there have been a few different stories in the fandom about how much was worked out at the time.

I was vaguely aware of the Marcus thing, I think one of the random shempees in the background of the Sonya flashbacks is listed in the credits of the first film as being him lol.

I didn't mind the book version of him, it was pretty close to the Marcus we ended up getting, and getting at least an idea of the awakening was a nice touch.

I liked the addition of Nicholae (spelling?), just the sort of hedonistic aristocrat I picture the coven having, moping around in excess most of the time and a complete contrast to Selene and the DD's.

Overall it's an interesting look at what the story would have been based only on the original film and had some good secondary characters, as much as I love RotL it suffers from a total lack of Sonya's mother.

But there's something about the blonde helpess "damsel" Sonya that made zero sense to how it stayed Viktors hand from killing Selene. That's the main problem I have with the older interpretation of her.

[Greg Cox]

Chemahkuu wrote:

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I liked the addition of Nicholae (spelling?), just the sort of hedonistic aristocrat I picture the coven having, moping around in excess most of the time and a complete contrast to Selene and the DD's.

Overall it's an interesting look at what the story would have been based only on the original film and had some good secondary characters, as much as I love RotL it suffers from a total lack of Sonya's mother.

But there's something about the blonde helpess "damsel" Sonya that made zero sense to how it stayed Viktors hand from killing Selene. That's the main problem I have with the older interpretation of her.

I guess I was doing lots of historical research about the Dark Ages and got too caught up in the idea of what a medieval lord's sheltered daughter would be like in real life, forgetting that that Underworld played by its own rules where vampires and lycans were concerned.

I should mention, though, that the UW folks were unusually helpful and accessible throughout the whole process. Danny McBride and Kevin Grevioux, in particular, were always happy to answer my questions about UW lore, if they were able, which is not always the case with movie tie-ins. Heck, they even invited me to the gala red-carpet premiere of the first movie--which, again, doesn't always happen!

[Chemahkuu]

Greg Cox wrote:

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I guess I was doing lots of historical research about the Dark Ages and got too caught up in the idea of what a medieval lord's sheltered daughter would be like in real life, forgetting that that Underworld played by its own rules where vampires and lycans were concerned.

It does suit the period and it makes sense that she would turn Lucian's head enough for him to fall in love and go against the coven rules. And in the film it's exactly how Viktor expects her to behave and continually tries to make her into.

It is more the appearance that's the problem, Viktor stopped on sight which means, I assume, it was all about how she looked. Which such different hair and facial features it's hard to see any resemblance with the blonde Sonya.

Oh but since you mentioned the research it reminds me, I've tried to do some looking up of details on Hungary becaue of the book and a lot of the material online is poor or old, how did you find such detailed material?

Greg Cox wrote:

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I should mention, though, that the UW folks were unusually helpful and accessible throughout the whole process. Danny McBride and Kevin Grevioux, in particular, were always happy to answer my questions about UW lore, if they were able, which is not always the case with movie tie-ins. Heck, they even invited me to the gala red-carpet premiere of the first movie--which, again, doesn't always happen!

Cool I read the brief author notes at the back and you mentioned being in correspondance with some of them, just wasn't sure how much sharing of info that would entail. Nice to know they helped out.

So, any hints on a possible Awakening novel?

[Greg Cox]

No plans for an Awakening novel, alas. In general, the studios seem to be doing fewer novelizations these days.

FYI, all the backstory on Raze in Rise of the Lycans came straight from Kevin Grevioux himself. We had a nice phone call in which he filled me in on the bio he had worked out for Raze . . . .

Regarding research, I relied heavily on travel guides to Budapest, especially for the first book where they were more city scenes. For the medieval flashbacks, I mostly used lots of general books on the Dark Ages and medieval life, plus some historical novels--including a couple of historical romance novels.

[Chemahkuu]

Oh, that's a pity, thought about getting it for the Kindle if it came out.

I remember there being more backstory to Raze but between books, comics and the film it muddles a little. It would be interesting to see a miniseries of comics with more canon storylines covering characters like him, Erika etc

I was thinking more of the modern day scenes too, hadn't thought of the travel guides, I was looking more at maps and so on online. I'll have a look for some cheap info books in town.

I only found out about the Anime shorts last night, some of it is based in the 18th/19th century so it might have some more backstory, have to wait for a region 2 copy of them.

[timothy]

Deadlocked (sookie Stackhouse / southern vampire series #12) preorder May 1, 2012.

[timothy]

timothy wrote:

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Deadlocked (sookie Stackhouse / southern vampire series #12) preorder May 1, 2012.

Well deadlocked is now aviable for purchase.

[Kosh Naranek]

Just finished Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter in prep for the movie coming out. It was a good little read.

[Chemahkuu]

^I just got a copy of the paperback myself.

[timothy]

I have that on my nook color but I have a few books a head of it.

[JD]

I was just looking around at Sherlock Holmes stuff on the net, and I stumbled across The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which is apparently a series of originally unrelated stories now being rereleased under a new unified title. One of the stories they rereleased is Seance For A Vampire, which sees Watson teaming up with"Holmes' Vampire cousin, Dracula" to find a missing Sherlock.

[timothy]

You may want to read fred sabberhagen who has vampire series and it involves sherlock holmes and dracula.