"Beyond" Novelization

[Therin of Andor]

But it's not the same Susan Sullivan from The Incredible Hulk and Castle, despite what some online sources claim.

Correct. Susan J Sullivan (in TMP) is now known as Susan O'Sullivan.
www.imdb.com/name/nm0642817/

The actress (actor?) in "Castle" is Susan Sullivan:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0838360

and there are others:
Susan A. Sullivan (Blended (2014))
Susan Sullivan (II) (Self, 42 Up (1998))
Susan Sullivan (XI)

 

[Greg Cox]

From my understanding, that was related to original screenwriter Mario Puzo's contract. It prevented his story from being adapted into other media, which is why the tie-in novels for both Superman the Movie and Superman II were original stories instead of adaptations of the films (Puzo wrote one long story that was later split into two screenplays and rewritten by others). You'll also notice that DC Comics didn't do any comic book adaptations of the Superman films until Superman III, when Puzo was no longer involved..

As I understand it, screenwriters have to sign off on the studio authorizing a novelization. In practice, this is usually just a formality, but I recall one instance where there was a last-minute scramble because the studio discovered that they did not have a signed release form from one of the twelve (!) screenwriters who had contributed to the script!

And there was another instance where Tor wanted to novelize a certain movie, but the screenwriter refused to permit a novelization to be commissioned. He would have allowed us to print his script in book form, but that's not what we wanted to do, so we passed on the project.

(Hmm. I recall that the "novelization" of WESTWORLD was just a paperback edition of the script. Wonder if Crichton vetoed an actual novelization?)

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

I can't speak to STAR TREK, but, yeah, you still see maps and such in science fiction and fantasy novels. There's a bit of an extra expense, in that you usually have to hire a professional to redraw the author's own drawings, but it's a not a deal-breaker.

Shameless plug: check out the gorgeous two-page map in a book I recently edited, THE SHOTGUN ARCANA by R. S. Belcher.

Mind you, I justified the expense on the grounds that we have more books coming in the series, so, in theory, we can keep reusing the map.

@Greg Cox : Is the map included in Shotgun Arcana of Golgotha? I'm reading Six-Gun Tarot right now and I would love to see a map of that town.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

therewere elements of Superman The Movie used in the Superman Returns prequel comics..i guess Singer mustve secured some rights to do that

Yeah. I think that might've been tied up with them reusing plot elements and the unsued Brando footage from Superman the Movie in Superman Returns. Even then, there were restrictions. Adam Hughes had to revise this cover slightly as he was not allowed to render a likeness of Marlon Brando. You'll notice that Jor-El's face is obscured by the crystal he's holding. I know that John Byrne also commented on his forum that he turned down working on at least one of the prequel specials when he realized that they couldn't do a full-blown adaptation of STM.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

As I understand it, screenwriters have to sign off on the studio authorizing a novelization.

That makes a lot of sense.

 

[Greg Cox]

@Greg Cox : Is the map included in Shotgun Arcana of Golgotha? I'm reading Six-Gun Tarot right now and I would love to see a map of that town.

Yep, we sprung for a map of Golgotha for the sequel.

Incidentally, Rod is hard at work on Golgotha #3, which should be landing on my desk any day now.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Yep, we sprung for a map of Golgotha for the sequel.

Incidentally, Rod is hard at work on Golgotha #3, which should be landing on my desk any day now.

I can't wait to read both sequels and lay my eyes on that map. It's always cool to imagine a setting in your mind and then see how an artist interprets that same place in an illustration or on film.

Thanks for the info, Greg!

 

[Greg Cox]

Speaking of novelizations, it seems that there's a novelization of THE NICE GUYS, the new action-comedy with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.

So, yep, they're still a thing.

 

[Leto_II]

Also, that Nice Guys novelization is being released as a tongue-in-cheek retro-type of thing (written by Charles Ardai, no less), as a throwback to the heavily-novelized '70s era of moviegoing:

 

[Greg Cox]

^ Thanks for posting that. I love Hard Case's whole retro approach to covers and book packaging.

 

[Defcon]

As a non cinema goer I've read the novelizations of the movies before seeing the movies for the last couple of movies, so on the one hand they were a good way to be able to participate in discussions about the plot without having seen the film, so I guess with this one I'll be out of the loop for longer. On the other hand I really prefer novelizations that add to the narrative rather than being 1-to-1 retelling, so with the studio being so strict in the recent past I guess not having a novelization won't be that much of a loss.

@Greg Cox : Somewhat OT, but i just saw on Amazon that a second Librarians novel by you is listed for 2017 (The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase), congratulations on that.

 

[JD]

The discussions about books Greg edited, has gotten me wondering, is there a way to find out who edited specific books? A lot of writers thank their editors in the acknowledgements, but I was think more along the lines of searching for books by editor, like you can for authors.

 

[Greg Cox]

The discussions about books Greg edited, has gotten me wondering, is there a way to find out who edited specific books? A lot of writers thank their editors in the acknowledgements, but I was think more along the lines of searching for books by editor, like you can for authors.

Acknowledgments are probably your best bet. Actual listings can get tricky since it's entirely possible that a book can be acquired by one editor and edited by another, or maybe go through more than one editor on its path to publication, depending on what's going on behind the scenes.

Example: John Ordover hired me to write my third Khan book, and worked closely with me on the original outline, but had moved on by the time I actually delivered the book, so Ed Schlesinger did all the actual editing on the manuscript.

This is not a terribly uncommon scenario, given that editors shift jobs, books get reassigned to other editors, etc.

 

[Stevil2001]

One of my projects for S&S had four different editors during its production.

 

[Greg Cox]

@Greg Cox : Somewhat OT, but i just saw on Amazon that a second Librarians novel by you is listed for 2017 (The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase), congratulations on that.

Thanks! I'm having fun writing it.

 

[tomswift2002]

I admit I have fond memories of the photo inserts in my paperback copies of LOGAN'S RUN and THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD.

But now that you can call up images from most any new movie with a few strokes on a keyboard, such inserts are probably even less of a selling point than they were back in the nineties, when I decided not to bother anymore.

Of course, I love how the adult and young adult novelizations of "Star Trek Generations" both contained photos of deleted scenes, that to this day are much higher quality than the DVD versions of at least the orbital flight scene. It's been a while, but I don't think Paramount included the scene of Dr. Crusher examining Data (which would've gone where the "Encounter At Farpoint" overhead flyby of the E-D occurs just before the Stellar Cartography scene).

But I do recall that S&S did make an odd decision with the TNG episode "Descent" novelization to print the pictures on the cover, rather than have special pages.

 

[Greg Cox]

I dimly recall trying to print the photos on regular paper once and being unhappy with the results. Can't remember which book.

 

[JD]

Earlier in the thread we were discussing current books getting novelizations, and while looking around the Titan Books website, I found novelizations of Suicide Squad and Independence Day Resurgence. They also did one for Crimson Peak which I forgot about.

 

[ClayinCA]

while looking around the Titan Books website, I found novelizations of Suicide Squad

That's weird that WB did one for Suicide Squad but not for Batman v Superman, which you'd think would've been a heavy hitter (I know I would have liked to see Greg tackle it).

 

[Christopher]

That's weird that WB did one for Suicide Squad but not for Batman v Superman, which you'd think would've been a heavy hitter (I know I would have liked to see Greg tackle it).

Probably would've been a pretty short book. Didn't Superman/Clark only have 43 lines in the entire movie?