Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted January 7, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 7, 2015 Anyone read any novelizations of movies? Just finished the Terminator one by Randall Frakes. Loved it. Cant believe I never read it before. After years of beating myself up, now I know where Arnie got his leather jacket from when he popped back to the flat after a night out in Tech Noir wearing his punk outfit. I cant now rest. Â Any good ones out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members John Matrix Posted January 8, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2015 I've got the Terminator at home, and Rocky. Bought them from a secondhand book store in Nottingham 10 years ago, but as is widely known on here, I dont have the attention span to proof read my own posts, let alone read books.  That said, I got a copy of The Running Man free when i bought the game for my Atari ST many moons ago, written by Stephen King under the psuedonym Richard Bachman. That's a great, albeit very different and very dark read. In fact, having just looked at it again on Wiki, i need to read it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted January 8, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2015 I bought the Home Alone one through book club at school in 1991! My "mate" nicked it. Serves me right for not having my room booby trapped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Scott Malbranque Posted January 8, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2015 I’ll always dip into a movie novelization now and again. Ones of note I have adorning my bookshelf are Gremlins, Mortal Kombat, Commando (for the Colonel there), Total Recall (Piers Anthony’s one, not the Philip K Dick book), Alien, Aliens, Alien Resurrection, Mission Impossible, Constantine, Event Horizon, Rambo 3 and Beverly Hills Cop 2. I want the Home Alone one now, and I’m gonna get it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Surf Digby Posted January 8, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 8, 2015 I've read Alien and Aliens (and possibly Alien 3, although I'm trying to remember anything that was specific to the book), and Tron. Possibly a few more. Â I loved how Alien was paced more like a horror, and wished they'd included the scene where Dallas goes into the storage tanks after the alien in the films, instead of him just crawling through ducting. Â The bit where he realises it's on the underside of the catwalk, and the crew watching the blips on the motion tracker don't know which blip is which, and he has to gamble on whether it's in front of him or behind him was fantastic. Â Â Aliens was great because it had all the extra bits that ended up in the Director's Cut. Â One of my best friends at school read The Running Man, as he had The Bachman Books omnibus, and reading it myself has been in the back of my mind for the last 20 odd years. Â Actually, yes I did read Alien 3, as it had the bit where the inmates are looking back down the tunnels, and they see the candles being blown out one by one from the far end, so they know something's coming after them. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Your Fight Site Posted January 9, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2015 The only one that I can recall reading is the one for the first Spider-Man movie with Tobey Macguire. Can't recall who penned it as the book's since been long lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I got the Highlander one in about 1998, by Garry Kilworth.   At the time I was mad on any Highlander merch I could get, or any magazines mentioning it, etc. I read somewhere that there'd been another novelization at the time by Garry Douglas that was rare and out of print. I was chuffed when I found that Birmingham Central Library had a copy, but it was in the special section where you have to ask someone to get it and you're not allowed to take it home, you have to read it there.   I sat down to read it and... It's the same fucking book! He'd changed his name in between the original printing and the nineties printing, and whatever thing I'd read about it had been before the book was ever re-printed, which probably happened after the series had been going a few years and they thought there must be a thriving fanbase. I don't know if I've misremembered this, and really I knew it was the same book but just wanted to make sure (and see the cover). I'd be surprised, looking back, if at fourteen I didn't think it was a bit odd that two blokes both called Garry had done novels based on Highlander 1.  Anyway, I don't remember whether it was any good. I loved it at the time, because there was no Internet (in my house) and it was Highlander. There are a few bits in there that aren't in the film, mostly Kurgan backstory. There's more MacLeod and Kastagir stuff too, including the first time they met. Both the 80s and 90s printings of it are cheap on eBay/Amazon now, I might get the older one and re-read it. There's a hardback version of the 80s one that they want £85-100 for, mind. I'm not that stupid. I don't even own all the twelve-inch Highlander dolls.  In a similar vein, anyone ever read spin-off novels? I expect Star Trek and Star Wars have got shitloads. Highlander had a few, mostly dross. When I was about twelve, I loved Quantum Leap and was unbelievably excited to see a Quantum Leap novel in a bookshop. I don't think I ever got past the first few pages, it was duller than this post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Bellenda Carlisle Posted January 9, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2015 I just got the Terminator book off amazon for a penny, I can't wait, thanks for the heads up Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Surf Digby Posted January 9, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2015 In a similar vein, anyone ever read spin-off novels?I've read the Timothy Zahn spin offs for Star Wars, which weren't too bad. All in all I find third party spin offs a bit arse, as they tend to have people doing something out of character, or introducing some sort of trait or backstory to conveniently fill a plot hole. I usually end up thinking, "Why not write something original if you want things to be this different?". It's a bit like Wicked. I think there's a real arrogance in whoever wrote it to decide that Frank Baum was wrong, and that they'd decide how the story should really be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Scott Malbranque Posted January 9, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2015 I have a few John Shirley spin offs like Hellblazer : War Lord, Batman : Dead White (which is a spin off from Batman Begins) and Predator : Forever Midnight (which is quite strange and from the Predator point of view). Not sure if Borderlands : The Fallen counts, but it was surprisingly really, really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Kind of related, but did anyone ever read any of William Shatner's TekWar novels? Â I imagine them to be terrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Tommy! Posted January 9, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2015 Can you get them as a book on tape. I'd buy that. Â I honestly didn't know that writing the book of a film was a thing. As a concept it sounds dire, but yet I still really want to buy the Terminator and highlander ones already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Surf Digby Posted January 9, 2015 Paid Members Share Posted January 9, 2015 Anything where I was conscious that Shatner had written, I'd read with Shatner's voice, and it ... would ... start to flow like ... this and it'd end up ... doing ... my head ... in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey_Piste Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Well Shatner came up with the plot scenarios, but they were ghost written. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I honestly didn't know that writing the book of a film was a thing. As a concept it sounds dire, but yet I still really want to buy the Terminator and highlander ones already. Â I think they're worth reading for anything you're a massive fan of, as they're pretty much always embellished or changed so you get a good mix of fan service and new stuff. To tie-in with a film's release as well, the books are usually written before the films are finished so they're based on scripts, still photos and earlier workprints. Pre-DVD, it was a rare glimpse at scenes that were deleted from the final film. Â Found this great little Vanity Fair article on novelizations:Â http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/08/movie-novelizations-still-existThe guy who wrote the Alien one did it without knowing what the xenomorph looked like because the studio wouldn't show him any pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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