Let’s not get excited…
Alright, I’ve known about this a long, long time, but haven’t blogged about it for the very good reason that, in all honesty, it will probably never happen.
What will probably never happen? (I hear the strangled cry.)
To quote a sage… make ’em laugh, make ’em cry, make ’em wait…
After all, the reasons why it’ll probably never happen are numerous and complex! The sheer amount of money involved, the constraint of time, recession, the credit crunch, the demands of the market and the audience, studio’s whims, development hell, the struggle of getting together a team, the decided lack of teenage vampires snogging, I mean, the odds against it ever happening are immense. Douglas Adams, when it happened to him, took twenty five years to get anything done and even then the budget was cut and he was, sadly, dead, by the time anything came of it. People have spent years and years of their lives hoping that there’ll be movement and then when, if it does happen, as usually it doesn’t, it goes straight to DVD with an embarrassed cough and occasionally gets borrowed from the local video shop by men in dirty anoraks who pretend its for a friend. There are many, many forces against this, which brings me back to my original thesis…
… don’t get excited.
But on the other hand, if something does come of it (and let’s face it, it’d be absolutely fantastic if something did, and I have officially promised to buy the most ridiculous pair of socks ever made by man in the eventuality) (and a new plug for my sink – thinking big here) … if something does come of it then people might raise their eyebrows and say ‘why Kate, you must have known about this for eons, why didn’t you say something’ and then how daft would I look?
So yes. A producer in Los Angeles has bought the film option for A Madness of Angels, and now that ink is actually on the contract, I will freely admit that I am absolutely thrilled and delighted by this development. With, of course, the caveat as stipulated above! In pratical terms, from where I’m sat, this means very little. I will sit and carry on writing as usual with my fingers crossed and if something does come of it, there shall be much rejoicing, and if, despite all the best work of the producer (who seems, in case you’re wondering, extremely lovely and passionate about the project, hurrah!) the studios just go ‘you want to do what to the streets of London?’ then…
… I am still young, and this bodes well.
There is just one last thought I have to share on this subject, which comes from the gentleman in his life, who, on hearing about the contract, cackled shamelessly and in between his gasps of breath intoned in his most booming Hollywood movie-trailer voice…
‘Vin Diesel IS Matthew Swift!’
He then, needless to say, went on laughing.
Butin a good way.