OT: THe Dark Knight Rises by Greg Cox

[Rush Limborg]

I gotta say, I'm a little concerned about the idea of the novelization coming out before the movie's done in theaters.

Can you say SPOILERS?

That being said--GREG COX writing it? Awesome.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Novelizations usually come out on the day of the film's release. I saw on Amazon Canada that this is coming out July 28 which is the following Saturday.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Really? I haven't bought any in years but I used to buy them when I was a kid. I remember that I read the novelisations of Return of the Jedi, The Search for Spock and Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom before they came out over here. Spoilers didn't bother me back then!

 

[Christopher]

I don't think it really counts as a spoiler if you learn it by reading an entire novel. That way, you're still getting everything in the context of a complete story, serving the dramatic purpose that it was intended to serve. So the experience isn't spoiled, in the literal sense of being ruined and made unfulfilling. You still get a complete storytelling experience, just in prose form. Seeing the movie later just fills in some details (and often the novelization will add details not in the movie).

In my youth, I didn't get taken to the movies very often, but I read prolifically. So I read plenty of novelizations before seeing the respective movies, and it was a fairly normal experience for me. To me, reading the novel didn't spoil the experience of the movie, it just whetted my appetite for it. I read the ST:TMP and TWOK novels before seeing the movies (I remember finding it startling and ridiculous how tiny the Genesis torpedo turned out to be, since I figured something that powerful had to be more missile-sized), as well as others such as The Black Hole and Fantastic Voyage. I read the novelization of E.T. many, many years before I finally saw the movie on TV (and loathed it with a fierce passion). And I never would've had a clue what was going on in 2001: A Space Odyssey if I hadn't read the book first.

I can't recall whether I read or watched Star Wars (1977) first, but I'm pretty certain that The Empire Strikes Back was one I saw in the theater first, because I remember coming out of the theater insisting that Vader had to be lying about the whole "I am your father" thing.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Yeah, that was how I looked at it, the fact that it was a novel and I was getting the whole story. However, I would now prefer to experience a story written for a movie via the movie experience than in the novelisation. That's no disrespect to the format or the writer; I'd prefer to read an original novel before seeing its movie adaptation.

Like yourself, I also read TWOK before seeing the movie; I also read one of those photobooks that they used to make. I also read ESB before seeing it and read the comic adaptation of it.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Novelizations are usually written using the shooting draft of the screenplay (with some exceptions) so being a spoiler junkie myself, I've always clamoured to get the novel as soon as possible. Some novelizations have come out early...but "The Dark Knight" came out a day after the film did, at least in my local Chapters. Not sure about anywhere else. The secrecy over these particular films has been super tight...and Nolan's screenplays usually surface a couple of months after his films are released.

 

[Christopher]

^ Yeah, that was how I looked at it, the fact that it was a novel and I was getting the whole story. However, I would now prefer to experience a story written for a movie via the movie experience than in the novelisation. That's no disrespect to the format or the writer; I'd prefer to read an original novel before seeing its movie adaptation.

Sure, yeah, that's always the optimal way to go about it. I just meant that I don't think the term "spoil" really applies there. To me, a spoiler is a fragment of story information that's presented outside of the context in which it belongs and is most meaningful. So I don't think it's possible for the entire story to be called a spoiler.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Tell that to the movie studio lol.

 

[Rush Limborg]

Well, to be frank--I wouldn't want the novelization for my film to come out until at least after the opening week--and here's why: You can't trust the person at the bookstore to buy the book, and read it front-to-back.

You pick up a book, you can skim ahead to the end. You can skim through the book, and pick up vital information. In a theater, you see it front-to-back, and can't skim ahead.

Thus, unless the novelization is packaged, the suspense of a film could be injured by would-be-viewers in the bookstore.

But that's just me....

 

[RandyS]

I gotta say, I'm a little concerned about the idea of the novelization coming out before the movie's done in theaters.

Can you say SPOILERS?

That being said--GREG COX writing it? Awesome.

The book being released first is not unusual. 23 years ago for example, I had bought, and was roughly 110 pages into, the Star Trek V novelization when the movie came out, and my friend Greg (no, not Cox) and I went to see that on opening night.

And regarding your comments on Greg (yes, Cox this time), agreed.

 

[Dantheman]

I remember reading the novelization for Batman Forever a month before the film came out, and after reading the book, being excited to see the movie because of how good it was. I was disappointed some things from the book weren't in the movie (it was made clearer in the book that Bruce Wayne blamed himself for the death of his parents because he asked if they could go to the movies that night).

I also remember reading the novelization for X-Men 2 before seeing the movie, and being VERY surprised by Jean Grey's death when I saw the movie. That must've been something they kept so much of a secret, they even kept the movie novelization's writer out of the loop.

 

[Rush Limborg]

^I will say, the novelization for Dead Man's Chest that came out before the film ended with Jack being taken down by the Kracken.

The entire epilogue with Norrington and Becket--and at Tia Dalma's hut, where they reflect on Jack wasn't in that book. As a result, when you-know-who stepped down in the very last shot--I, and the rest of the theater, were stunned.

 

[Therin of Andor]

You can't trust the person at the bookstore to buy the book, and read it front-to-back.

As a non-fan, I bought ST:TMP's novelization on impulse, following an enthusiastic review of the movie itself by a friend, who was at the gala Sydney premiere. I started to browse (and there is a beautiful, glossy photo section in the Aussie version!), intending to not finish the book before going to see the actual film. I couldn't put the book down!

Then, when meeting new ST friends at ST gatherings over the next six months, I discovered that I seemed to be unique in liking/understanding the movie. Esp. re Deltan pheromones, Decker's parents, the New Human Movement, Kirk's ex-wife, and what happens at the end to Vejur.

I couldn't locate a ST II novelization early enough, but ST III had a delayed release Down Under (about four-five months, IIRC), so the ST III novelization was like manna from heaven! So much new material!

And yeah, I read the "ET" novelization long before catching that movie. I also much preferred the connection between M&Ms and the Speak 'n' Spell to the movie alien's fascination with Reece's Pieces.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Vonda McIntyre's novelisations of II and III were very good, with lots of extra character development and scenes. Once she left the series, I don't think subsequent novelisations were as developed.

 

[JacksonArcher]

If Greg likes fellatio like I think he does, then I'm sure he'll be telling me the secrets of The Dark Knight Rises in no time.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Deep throat, indeed... I suppose we should be grateful that James Swallow isn't writing it, the puns I'd be making would be unbearable...

 

[Therin of Andor]

^ Vonda McIntyre's novelisations of II and III were very good, with lots of extra character development and scenes.

Totally agreed. Amazingly good!

Once she left the series, I don't think subsequent novelisations were as developed.

Friends and I noted, at the time, that Vonda's novelization of ST IV begins to add new material as she had on the previous two, but abruptly becomes a strict conversion-of-script-into-prose from just after the 20th century trash collectors were revealed to be brainstorming clichéd lines for a movie script they're writing together.

From comments in "Voyages of Imagination", it seems like ST IV might have been the first tie-in manuscript scrutinized by Richard Arnold, rather than Susan Sackett, with objections to authors adding new material. Certainly, Vonda's experiences getting "Enterprise: The First Adventure" and ST IV through the approval process seem to have turned her off ST tie-ins.

 

[Rush Limborg]

Shame, that.

Frankly, Richard Arnold's reign seems to have been the TrekLit equivillant of the Hays Code.

But to be fair to Arnold...a lot of the blame seems to be Gene's, with his obsession that no writer DARE show Kirk & Co., Starfleet, or the UFP in any kind of internal conflict.

One need only read his biography...and the chapter on the novels. Particularly telling is Gene's letter regarding a novel which he claims paints Starfleet in a far too negative light--apparently Prime Directive. He claims that no matter how bad the situation was, Starfleet would NEVER hold Kirk in disgrace, like that!

 

[Therin of Andor]

a lot of the blame seems to be Gene's, with his obsession that no writer DARE show Kirk & Co., Starfleet, or the UFP in any kind of internal conflict.

Strangely enough, nearly all of Kirk's canonical teachers, Starfleet heroes and Academy colleagues went cuckoo, which kind of set a template which many authors emulated.

Prime Directive. He claims that no matter how bad the situation was, Starfleet would NEVER hold Kirk in disgrace, like that!

Actually, Kirk in disgrace was the one thing in "Prime Directive" that I had trouble believing. Despite the gripping story, I was still unconvinced that Starfleet would be so distrusting of him.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Kirk (seemingly) incompetantly kills an entire planet and billions of people, and Starfleet's supposed to let him off the hook and send him back to duty like nothing happened? I haven't read Gene's biog, so I don't know the specifics, but I suspect this is like Majel's uninformed reaction to Lwaxana's death in "Imzadi"