Novelization assignment for Star Trek [XI] film?

[sturmde]

Curious if the straws have been drawn yet for the task of adapting the Orci-Kurtzman Star Trek script, and if the writer is assigned... is it a "closely held" secret until announced later?

Very curious who'd like the task... I'd love to see it as a collaboration among a number of the authors....

And of course, I'm curious what people's opinions would be of whom you'd like to see do the novelization....

 

[Trent Roman]

Given the narrow timeframe in which novelizations have to be written, I don't think a collaboration would be feasable (unless its one of the usual writing teams, like the Reeves-Stevenses or the Wardilmore entity). Having to pass the manuscript off from person to person would add unneeded complications to the process.

On a related note, I wonder if the writers' strike will make this the novelization which most closely follows the film out of all the others? If it goes on throughout filming, the script Pocket receives is pretty much what will go on the celluloid.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There's a thread going on in the ST XI forum about the novelization. Has anything more been announced? There are a lot of writers who hang out here, have any of them been asked?

Me, I don't particularly care who does it, since I enjoy all of the various authors' work.

 

[Christopher]

On a related note, I wonder if the writers' strike will make this the novelization which most closely follows the film out of all the others? If it goes on throughout filming, the script Pocket receives is pretty much what will go on the celluloid.

Hard to say. Some movie studios these days won't even let their novelizers have copies of the script, for fear of leaks. On the other hand, some studios are tolerant of letting novelizers expand and elaborate on the scripts while others insist on absolute adherence with no embellishments. And some authors have been more willing to diverge from the source than others. There are aspects of Vonda McIntyre's movie novelizations that diverge from the film for reasons that have nothing to do with early script drafts; for instance, her use of "Alpha Ceti" instead of "Ceti Alpha" in the TWOK novelization was a correction of the script's error, as was her revision of the phrase "colorful metaphors" in TVH to, I think, "colorful imagery." A more extreme example is Isaac Asimov heavily rewriting Fantastic Voyage to compensate for its scientific and logical problems.

Also, it's not quite true that the strike guarantees that what ends up onscreen will be what was scripted. Frank Marshall has said that there are three films: the one that's scripted, the one that's shot, and the one that's edited. In this case, the film that was shot will have been very close to the one that was scripted, but a lot can change in editing, especially now that it's possible to write new lines to do in pickup shots or to loop over the original soundtrack.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I have no idea who might be tapped to pen the novelization, except that I know for certain it won't be me (or me and Kevin).

Very curious who'd like the task... I'd love to see it as a collaboration among a number of the authors....

I doubt I'll be in a position to ever write a novelization any time soon. There's just no way I could turn something like that around within the insane timeframe under which many such projects operate.

Besides, if even half of the horror stories I've heard are true with regards to dealing with studios while trying to crank out one of those things, I know I'd probably have to fly to Hollywood with baseball bat in hand. I simply don't have the patience to deal with any of the stupid shit (or the people who utter it) that I've heard about.

 

[KRAD]

The novelization has been assigned, but it's up to the editors to announce it when they see fit.

Like Dayton, I can say with impunity that it ain't me.

 

[OmahaStar]

The novelization has been assigned, but it's up to the editors to announce it when they see fit.

Without asking for the name of the person, I wonder if you can answer this: Is the writer assigned to the novelization someone who has done novelizations (of episodes or movies) for Trek previously?

 

[KRAD]

^ I can't answer that one way or the other, no.

 

[William Leisner]

Is the person assigned bigger than a breadbox?

 

[Aaron McGuire]

Animal, mineral or vegtable?

Aaron McGuire

 

[David Mack]

^ Well, several of the current stable of Trek authors are, legally and medically speaking, vegetables, so that wouldn't narrow the field much.

 

[captcalhoun]

is it a man?

is it an american?

is it someone we've heard of?

 

[JoeZhang]

How is a novelization written? Just off a copy of the script? (do you have to go and view the script somewhere rather than take it away?)

How is it decided what goes in and what is cut?

 

[FalTorPan]

How is a novelization written? Just off a copy of the script? (do you have to go and view the script somewhere rather than take it away?)

How is it decided what goes in and what is cut?

From script...

KIRK
Open hailing frequencies, Lieutenant Uhura.

UHURA
Hailing frequencies open, sir.

To prose...

Kirk grinned to himself. The Klingons were probably up to their old tricks... but the Enterprise was fully stocked with corbomite, and Kirk wasn't afraid to use it. "Open hailing frequencies, Lieutenant Uhura."

"Hailing frequencies open, sir."

Kirk lifted his foot in order to retie his shoelace, before remembering that he wore boots that had no laces. He sipped from his cup of coffee before resting it atop the armrest of his throne-like command chair. Being captain kicks ass, he thought.

From the helm console, Sulu turned and gave Kirk that creepy look again. Is he looking at my crotch?

 

[KRAD]

How is a novelization written? Just off a copy of the script? (do you have to go and view the script somewhere rather than take it away?)

How is it decided what goes in and what is cut?

Novelizers generally work from the shooting script, yes: they're sent a photocopy of it. (Or, more accurately, the publisher is sent a photocopy of it, which the editor then gives to the writer.)

Sadly, in this leak-on-the-Internet-conscious age, a lot of studios are refusing to release scripts. I know for a fact that the novelization for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer had to be done by someone living in L.A. who could go into the studio and work off the script while being supervised by the producers. That is a ludicrous and insane way to do it, and will likely result in a weaker novelization (and it's even more ridiculous when you consider that FF:RotSS was based on a 40-year-old comic book story), but some studios are nuts.

Generally nothing gets cut, because you can't afford to. What you have to do is add things: a movie doesn't really have a novel's worth of story in it. Sometimes studios are really cooperative about it; sometimes not so much. Konstantin Films was very encouraging when I did my Resident Evil novelizations, particularly the one for Extinction, where I was encouraged to fill in the gaps between the second and third films, and also to create a subplot for Jill Valentine.

OTOH, other studios won't let the novelizer add anything of consequence, which often results in a thin, boring novelization.

There's also the fact that book production takes much longer than movie production. Sometimes the novelizer only has an early draft of the script to work from. Sometimes the studio will be considerate and send revisions to the script along (Revolution Studios did this when I novelized Darkness Falls); sometimes, you're working off whatever version of the script happened to be current when the contract was signed (which is why the ending of my novelization of Resident Evil: Apocalypse differs so wildly from what was in the final cut of the movie).

 

[Greg Cox]

In an ideal world, the studio also sends you some visual reference--sketches, still photos, production art--so that, in theory, you have some sense of what things look like. In real life, this tends to be spotty and inconsistent. You may get seventeen photos from one scene and nothing at all from another. Ditto for cast shots. Getting photos of the supporting characters tends to be a challenge. You'll get two dozen photos of the star, but no shots at all of, say, the heroine's father.

True confession: I usually try to supplement what I've been "officially" given by prowling the internet for leaked photos and behind-the-scenes info. This has helped me out on a couple of occasions. ("Hi. Entertainment Tonight says you guys have shot a new ending. Mind telling me what it is?")

It can be an interesting challenge sometimes!

(And, no, I'm not writing the TREK novelization either.)

 

[Christopher]

Hm. Keith and Greg are pretty much the most active novelizers in the Trek-author stable these days, so I was kind of expecting it to be one of them.

Of course it isn't me either. I used to think I'd be interested in doing novelizations, but, like Dayton, I was cured of that after hearing some stories from veteran novelizers...

Well, that, and they never asked me anyway.

 

[Defcon]

I guess it will be J.M. Dillard again. She has done the last five, is still involved with the trek line, so why change anything? Not my first choice, but the most likely IMHO.

 

[OmahaStar]

I guess it will be J.M. Dillard again. She has done the last five, is still involved with the trek line, so why change anything? Not my first choice, but the most likely IMHO.

Not my first choice either.

But it might not be a bad idea.

Her TNG movie novelizations have not been very good, in my opinion. Even as I say that, her TOS movie novelizations were pretty darn good. She was able to take TFF and make it a decent tale, not an easy task.

I do like her TOS stuff better than her TNG era work. So it could happen. Though I'd like to see some "new blood" there (meaning someone other than Jeanne).

Fortunately, they don't ask my opinion when they make these decisions.

 

[Greg Cox]

[

OTOH, other studios won't let the novelizer add anything of consequence, which often results in a thin, boring novelization.


Even worse: I've been forced to cut scenes that were in the screenplay because they decided to delete the scenes from the movie! As I've said before, thank God they didn't do that with DAREDEVIL or my novelization would have been only a hundred pages long!

On the other hand, I once managed to get a chapter reinstated on the grounds that the director planned to put it back in the DVD anyway . . . .