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| Buried in sand you have to claw your way out, and it gets in your eyes, and mouth. Buried in books you can just read your way out. |
I recently finished reading the latest book from Australian author, Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China. He released it back in November last year (although if you're in the US of A, you only got it in January), so I was dying to read it and glad I finally had the chance.
So I read the book, and like all his books before it, it was full of action and exciting locations, and had me thinking, "I would totally watch this if it was a movie", which then got me thinking, "How come none of his books have been made into movies yet?". I've reviewed Contest and Scarecrow & The Army of Thieves before (check out the Graveyard for them), and mentioned how awesome they'd be on the big screen, not to mention his other books as well. And yet here I am, writing again about the lack of Hollywood treatment to Matthew's work. So let's start with this last book - Spielberg, Whedon, Lucas, Nolan, Cameron, Jackson; please take note, and tell your friends.
Put simply, The Great Zoo of China is like Jurassic Park, but with Dragons, but it certainly doesn't lack originality. There's an underlying political discourse, surrounding the uprising of China as a global superpower. The dragons are quite dissimilar to your typical mythological dragons too. Matthew also puts an incredible amount of research into his books, and whilst dragons aren't real (that we know of), he certainly makes them seem very real drawing comparisons to reptiles, dinosaurs, and even mammals. With the new Jurassic World movie coming out, I see no reason why this book should be neglected. It's a very new and interesting approach to classic monster thrillers. MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Not convinced? How about the Shane Schofield books - massive military style action/thrillers. Or the Jack West Jr. series - modern day, super-sized Indiana Jones adventures. There's Reilly's stand-alone book Temple - a perfect blend of Shane and Jack in an action adventure, with an ancient history story running in parallel. I'll bring up Contest again - Matthew's very first book, a sci-fi thriller, that I'm sure all his fans are absolutely dying to see on film. Even his young adult book, Hover Car Racer - a fun and high octane underdog story, this was in development, then canned... You want something different? The Tournament - a murder mystery set in 1546. Jump ahead to it's DVD release, and you can include Roger Ascham & The King's Lost Girl as a bonus feature. I'M EVEN DOING YOUR MARKETING FOR YOU.
All the source material you need is there. I want it, Matthew wants it, even people who don't know his books want it. Make a goddamn Matthew Reilly movie.
Chris
