Film Courage: So your debut novel The Thirteenth Continuum sold and then at some point now
you have a three-book deal (which that was the first book of the three) and it’s being
turned into a film?
Jennifer Brody, Author: Yeah, we’re working on that.
So my background is that I used to work in Film and TV development.
And actually before I even sold it to a publisher, I had producers that were working on it.
It has always had a lot of interest from a lot of producers.
The first set of producers wanted to do it for TV and we were sort of working for them.
But at a certain point they weren’t being super effective and we kind of felt like going
more in the film direction, so I switched to a different producer and she’s been great.
We’re working on packing it into a film.
So they have a deal at Warner Brothers.
And then now we’re looking at writers and directors because in the environment of right
now it really helps to have a package and to go in with a package and there are a couple
of reasons why I think that’s good.
But one of them is that I don’t want to rush and do a bad version of the film.
I’ve worked enough in Hollywood and worked on enough big book adaptations like LORD OF
THE RINGS and the GOLDEN COMPASS that I know it really matters how you put it together.
And also, it’s one thing just to option a book.
You can do that but then there is something we call development hell where it just kind
of gets stuck and it never gets made.
So the more you have attached and the more you go in with, the more likely it is that
you’re going to be actually able to make the film because I don’t just want to option
it and have it sit there are so many fabulous books and famously popular books that have
never been made that sold for a lot a money that studios have.
Things like Justin Cronin’s The Passage is a good example and it just hasn’t been
made.
It’s been years and years.
So I kind of want to do it in a way that really does it justice so I’m not really in a rush,
I want to do it right.
Film Courage: Well so the second book is coming out November 1st?
[Editor’s note: it’s currently available].
Jennifer Brody: Yes.
Film Courage: And tell me the title again?
Jennifer Brody: It’s called Return of the Continuums.
Film Courage: And then you have a third book which you’re finishing up now as we speak.
Jennifer Brody: Yes.
I am finishing it up now and that will come out in probably the end of May next year and
it’s called The United Continuums.
So that’s the other things that’s nice about the series is that with each book is
an opportunity and it really kind of drives attention and drives readership and there’s
a whole marketing effort, so it’s kind of nice because you don’t have one book and
that kind of gets forgotten and you’re left behind each time you’re going out with a
new book it’s bringing them all kind of together and you see a lot of times these
things build over time.
Readership builds, popularity builds and we can all cite really famous series where they
weren’t big until later.
There’s a great piece by the author, he wrote Percy Jackson series [Rick Riordan]
which were made into films.
And I think he said it was two full years after the first book came out that they first
had an inkling that it was going to be a huge hit.
But for two years it wasn’t selling much and they weren’t sure.
He was doing signings and nobody was showing up but it was a building process, like they
really believed in it and they really worked hard.
So it can take time.
And the other thing to remember with the book and I’m sort of experiencing this now is
that it’s not like a film where everyone will go opening day and see it and the be
talking about it to their friends.
Even if people buy it close to when it comes out, it might not get read instantly.
A lot of us (and this includes me) have a ton of books in our queue and a lot of things.
And it doesn’t mean that we’re not going to read it.
But it might be a month or two later that I finally do and so you start to see that
even a couple months after it’s been out people are finally like “Oh my gosh, I finally
read this.”
And you start to hear and all of the sudden more people start to hear.
So it’s not like an opening day phenomenon and the other cool thing about books is they
exists and once they’re in the world, they’re in the world a long time.
So you start to see them popping up in libraries and popping up.
That’s the nice thing about Young Adult is that libraries are huge for us.
Schools are huge for us.
School libraries are huge for us.
And there also a lot of kids that can’t really afford or don’t have the budgets
to buy books so they’re waiting to get them from their library, which I think is fantastic.
I was that kid, so I totally understand that.