Is The Dies The Fire Book Series Getting A Movie Adaptation?

There are many broken books of interest to filmmakers. ‘Pale Fire’ by Vladimir Nabokov is a poetic psychological thriller waiting to be made as a feature film. The rare book is comprised of a long poem followed by a lengthy commentary by an unreliable narrator, similar to that found in the novels by the author of this column. ‘The Silent History’ is another highly interesting work. Written by Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby and Kevin Moffett, it first appeared as an app-based work presented as a serial of stories mostly set in the same location, each tagged with the Geo-location where they were written. Interesting in itself, it could also be extended as an interactive film, perhaps as a series of short films linked together by a conceptual framework and exploring the intersection of memory and technology – highly relevant to today’s world. These books have already been turned into film in a pretty groundbreaking way, for Choose Your Own Adventure books the films were interactive and the audience even got to vote on what direction the plot would take in real time, it was really creative and could change the way we experience film and story even more if it were to be done again. Adapting broken books is pretty niche right now but who knows, it could blow up.

I would like to see ‘Dragonfall Book 3’ made into a movie, however I fear that there would be trouble in getting all of the story and plot together within a 2 hour film. The second book is pretty intense and I fear that all of it could not be captured in a film without rushing through some of the parts. It would work as a two-part movie or even as a series, like Harry Potter was split into movies. The dragons would have to be brilliant though. Since House of the Dragon set the bar so high, I hope they’d want to do it justice too. Bring it on either way!

Chemistry of Love could be made into a film and that would be amazing. The book is really unique in that it combines science with romance and the dialogue is already written in a really screen friendly way. I would love for them to cast well and for them to bring the lab scenes to life as well as the rest of the story and its emotional payoff. Here’s hoping they do the book justice.

There are zero adaptations of movies happening right now. The Outsiders finished up over a decade ago. The time to do an adaptation would have been when The Outsiders was flying off the shelves and hitting the top of the charts as a new release, and it was a recent release in the YA horror genre. But since so much time has passed, the horror that was being read by teenagers and pre-teens and published in the YA category has long since moved on to other subgenres of horror. Some crazy fan who loves The Outsiders and is now a producer or a director would have to make this as some sort of passion project. Until then, it will remain a beloved classic of the horror genre that people remember because they read it.

This rumor was always floating around right before the pandemic, and several 'insider' accounts on Twitter would announce the 'end' of RFH, only to never hear from it again for years. It's all part of a cycle to garner attention and discussion, with someone occasionaly bringing up the rumor and starting a 'what if?' thread on Twitter, only for it to die off again with zero new information. I won't believe it until Variety or The Hollywood Reporter writes up a trade announcement.

I had forgotten that this project was stuck in development hell. I believe Warner Bros. optioned the rights in 2015, and that there was a screenwriter at one point or another. However, there has been no real development on the project in years. By Hollywood standards, this means that either the option has expired or the studio has lost interest. In recent years, the market for YA sci-fi film adaptations has cooled somewhat following the underperformance of ‘The Divergent Series’. It’s a real shame, though. The visuals for this were going to look amazing. But translating a “dossier” type of story into film would be extremely challenging. You’d have to choose to do it in a found-footage style, or have characters address the reader and include written text on screen, which would be really tricky to pull off for a studio. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet is probably because there’s no clear and marketable take on how to do it, which is why it’s stalled after all this time. I’d check the authors’ social media from time to time for updates, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

This could be one of those few films that work well as a silent. All visual storytelling, lots of expressive acting, and then title cards for the few key lines of dialogue. It would be an interesting artistic choice, but I’m sure zero producers would ever actually make that choice.

I wonder if the anthro dragon design is a problem for the film. They’re not standard Western dragons or Eastern dragons. They’re bipedal with quite expressive faces and their wings function as additional arms at times. I think this look would be difficult to animate in a believable animal-like manner and achieve sufficient ferocity whilst still being expressive. It may be that test footage did not look quite right and therefore needed reworking and thus extra time. There are countless other behind-the-scenes decisions that go into deciding whether or not to make a movie, and it’s all mostly a series of intricately interconnected choices regarding a movie’s design, tone, and technology. Perhaps one of the largest decisions made was that the core visual style for the film just wasn’t working, and therefore the entire production of the film stalled. This concept art could give a lot of insight into why the film has yet to be released.

Yes, I get more excited for book releases than for a hypothetical movie (although I really do hope they do make one, it would be really cool to see how they interpret some of the scenes). At least new book releases are real and tangible and they are by the amazing author Tui T. Sutherland who hasn’t failed us yet! A movie would be a collaboration with hundreds of people so there’s bound to be someone who messes it up. But a book is a direct line of author to reader. So, for now, my focus will be on the books that are already on my shelf. The main event for me is there.

My money would be on ‘Edge of Collapse’ being a limited series as opposed to a full length film. The key to the story is the slow development of the characters and their emotional journeys and these need space to breath and to fully develop and to have quiet moments between key sections. A mini series of any length would be ideal as it would allow for subtilty in plot and character development and room to explore the back stories of many of the supporting characters. But it will depend on who gets the rights and whether or not the original author is involved. As long as the new interpretation stays true to the core of the themes and doesn’t oversimplify things, I would actually prefer a small screen version of this. As it is, it would likely get watered down for the sake of a big screen blockbuster and all the conspiracy and frenetic energy would get lost in the process of trying to fit it into two hours.