At this time, would you say there's a chance The Burning World, The Living, and/or The New Hunger might get adapted to film someday? Obviously the ending of Warm Bodies' movie being so different from the book's significantly tweaks things but I'm curious if you think it's something that's possible with that being said. Definitely not looking for any confirmation from you, just your thoughts on the subject.

Isaac Marion Speaking from pure, innocent speculation, I'd say it's certainly possible. On a practical level: the first movie made a profit, was a minor hit even, so Lionsgate has every reason to pursue a sequel. But there are so many pieces that have to come together--writers, directors, actors, etc--that it's far from a certainty, even if it makes sense on paper.

On a story level it's challenging, but not because of the changed ending, which would be fairly simple to integrate into the beginning of The Burning World. It's more a question of what kind of movie they need to make. If they need to keep it in the exact same mold as Warm Bodies-- a sort of bittersweet comedic fairy tale--they may struggle with the adaptation, because The Burning World significantly expands the scope and scale. It's kind of an epic now, exploring a bigger, more complex world and dealing with characters and relationships in a more complex way. So if they do decide to adapt it, I think they'd have two options:

1. Embrace the escalation and make two movies, a little darker and more mature, willing to commit to a big post-apocalyptic fantasy with serious themes--without dropping the sweetness or the wry touch.

2. Chop up both The Burning World and The Living and mix them together to make one film in the same template as Warm Bodies, which will only loosely resemble the books but hopefully retain some of their spirit and be a good film in its own right.

Obviously I'd prefer option 1, but I think 2 could still be good. Or--in the wrong hands--both options could be disasters! That's the gamble of these things and the reason no choice is obvious. More than anything I just want people to read these books. I'm so excited for 2016.

flag