Guest Post: Michael Grant on the GONE TV show

Really pleased to welcome the author of one of my favourite series to the blog today to talk about the screen version of GONE!

I want to begin by thanking Jim for kindly offering up the blog for this post, allowing me to speak to his readers. 

Probably my most frequently-asked question is:  will there be a GONE movie or TV show?  I sometimes find this irritating.  Because the job of dealing with Hollywood on the topic of a GONE movie or TV series has been irritating.  So it’s irritating to be asked about something irritating. 

Let me say this up-front:  whatever you may have taken from the Frankie Muniz movie, Big Fat Liar, the Hollywood producers I’ve dealt with have been universally pleasant and respectful and rather boringly normal.  I recall being at one such meeting where we spent a good deal of time discussing where one could get the best deals on baby diapers.  And absolutely no one has invited me to a drunken Hollywood orgy.

Sigh.

People sometimes call it “the couch tour.”  You go from meeting to meeting and you sit on a couch and discuss things and really all you want to say is, “Can I have a movie? Please?  I don’t really care, but my readers are driving me nuts about it.”  (Okay, I do really care.  That was just me trying to sound cool.)  Usually the producers have a suggestion, such as, “Why not make all the characters older so we can cast Will Smith?”  Or, “We are troubled by certain things.  No, not the violence.  We’re troubled by Orc smoking.”

Because stone-fleshed murderous monsters set a really bad example when they smoke. You don’t ever see Godzilla smoking, do you? 

But in general the Hollywood folk are very smart and very well-informed.  One such, who shall remain nameless (He’s largely responsible for some movies every single one of you saw,) looked at me across the table and said, “You know?  I don’t see this as a movie.  But it would make a hell of a TV show.”

Which is exactly what I’d been saying for months by that point.  In fact, from Day One, Page One, I had built GONE to go to TV (if it went anywhere) rather than movie.  Ensemble cast, long story-lines, nuanced characters, GONE was never about striking visuals or big set pieces, it’s always been about this group of kids who. . . Well, you know. 

Now comes the real torture.  Because now I have an actual TV deal for GONE.  It’s with someone big: Sony Pictures TV.  They’re the outfit that does everything from Wheel of Fortune to Community to The Blacklist.  I met with the woman who would be the executive producer (EP in the jargon) and, Oh. My. God:  she gets it.  I mean, she really understands GONE.  And then she set her sights on a TV writer and Oh. My. God: he’s really good.  Now, after so much disappointment, and so very many meetings, we have the beginnings of something.

Something which might actually happen.  Or.  Or might go poof! 

We are now at a point where I have a deal, and just the right people.  And I have absolutely no control over what happens next.  As soon as I know anything definite, I’ll put it out via my Twitter account: @TheFayz. 

And of course it all starts all over again when MESSENGER OF FEAR comes out.  Great.  More couches. 

Until then, fingers crossed. 

Find out more about Michael's books at the Twitter account mentioned above or his official website.