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News & ArtsThursday, December 1, 2011
Books / Film / Nerd Old Seattle on Screen, with Zombies
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 8:10 AM
On her blog yesterday, Cherie Priest revealed that her set-in-Seattle steampunk zombie historical fiction novel Boneshaker is being turned into a movie. If you're a latecomer to this whole Cherie Priest thing and you'd like to learn what all the hubbub is about, I suggest you start by reading my profile of Priest.
(Thanks to Slog tipper Steve.)
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It's funny, I was reading that book a while ago thinking "This is going to make a TERRIBLE movie eventually".
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@2 - Hell, I'd rather they just greenscreen the whole thing (a la Sky Captain) than try to pass off Vancouver as Seattle, especially given the prominent appearance of unmistakable Seattle landmarks.
8
@2 - Canada has such liberal tax incentives for film production companies that a movie made in Seattle for, say, 10 million could be done in Vancouver for something like 6-7 million (American dollars, both).
It's just not financially feasible for most productions NOT to skip merrily over the border and hand out those American dollars to happy Canadian filmworkers.
'Northern Exposure' was just about the last major production to be exclusively US-made... (of those tv or movies that need a Norhtwestern setting, that is). It's been a problem here for years, and much lobbying has been done in Olympia, to no avail.
It's just not financially feasible for most productions NOT to skip merrily over the border and hand out those American dollars to happy Canadian filmworkers.
'Northern Exposure' was just about the last major production to be exclusively US-made... (of those tv or movies that need a Norhtwestern setting, that is). It's been a problem here for years, and much lobbying has been done in Olympia, to no avail.
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@6: There's a lot of Seattle's modern geography in it -- I think Priest had no idea of the amount of reshaping of the landscape that Seattle has experienced. Seattle at the time the book was set was much, much more rugged. None of the multiple regrade projects had been undertaken (CF "Emerald City" by Matthew Klingle)
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OK, how about a compromise. Outsource some of the film crew to the unemployed film people in #OccupySFU, #OccupyUBC and #OccupyCapilano then.
Get those uni grads working! (caveat - I am a double Capilano University grad, before I became a Husky)
Get those uni grads working! (caveat - I am a double Capilano University grad, before I became a Husky)
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@9- In any case, the only collection of buildings close to the era of the book is in Pioneer Square. Any late nineteenth century port town (Portland, ME for example) would work better than modern Seattle.
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Why a terrible movie? Well, the first obvious issue is that the quality bar is very low for these kinds of movies. "Throw some steam punk stuff and nerd-bait in it BAM, done". Anyone remember SuckerPunch? But beyond that Boneshaker in particular has a pretty large issue - nearly the entire movie is set in the dark with characters wearing head-to-toe protective clothing and gas masks. Fine for a book, but unwatchable as a movie.
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@8: I bet they wished people would make Vancouver movies.
Seems to me that's the right way to go though. Better than what we have. Instead of tax breaks getting wasted on layoff- and offshore-happy megacorps that produce no increase in jobs or tax revenue, we should tax them richly and then make it cheap as water to film here. Then not only will we get films actually made here, but we'll also have people and companies dying to have a presence here. Kind of like musicians in 1993.
Seems to me that's the right way to go though. Better than what we have. Instead of tax breaks getting wasted on layoff- and offshore-happy megacorps that produce no increase in jobs or tax revenue, we should tax them richly and then make it cheap as water to film here. Then not only will we get films actually made here, but we'll also have people and companies dying to have a presence here. Kind of like musicians in 1993.
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