Category: Books

Everything You Need to Know About “Rambo V: Last Blood”

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Padraig Cotter at ScreenRant has posted what he believes to be Everything You Need to Know About Rambo V: Last Blood.

The article does a good job of covering the film and is worth a read.  Here are a couple of tidbits that stuck out to me…

  • The star planned to adapt the novel Hunter for Rambo V, which finds a legendary tracker being tasked by the government to track down a feral, man-made monster. Hunter leads a team of mercenaries after the creature, which seemingly cannot be killed.  Since Hunter and Rambo are essentially the same character, Stallone felt the book would make a strong basis for a sequel.

    When Stallone later pitched this version on Ain’t It Cool News, it was met with swift derision from fans, so he soon scrapped the concept; that said, it was recently confirmed he plans to adapt Hunter as a solo movie.

Although at first look, Rambo and Hunter are similar (and the adaptation would have been fairly easy), I was glad that the decision was made to scrap this idea.  I’m even happier that Sly plans to adapt Hunter as a solo movie.

  • First Blood author David Morrell revealed in an interview that, around the time Stallone was working on Creed, he got in touch about working on a script that would mark a “soulful” final journey for John Rambo. The pair collaborated on this concept, which Morrell says would have contained action, but it was more about a man who had spent his life at war contemplating his past.

    The author feels this undiscovered Rambo V concept could’ve garnered awards recognition, but when Stallone took it to producers, they rejected it and wanted to focus on the human trafficking story instead. It appears the star wasn’t happy with this, as Stallone later announced his retirement from both the Rambo and Expendables franchises.

Morrell is not only the creator of Rambo, but an outstanding, award-winning author.  It would have been very interesting to see the direction he took Rambo.  Morrell still owns the rights to publish any Rambo stories but has elected to tell other stories.

With all that said, click over and check out Everything You Need to Know About Rambo V: Last Blood.

Fuel to the Fire: The Art of Tomer Hanuka

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Art fans will be glad to hear about the publication of Fuel to the Fire: The Art of Tomer Hanuka.

Discover the magical realism that makes Tomer Hanuka so popular in this exceptional art book celebrating the award-winning illustrator’s comic-inspired art.  Fuel to the Fire is a massive 300-page monograph filled with illustrations and comic book art that has graced the pages of The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Criterion, and more.  This long-awaited monograph showcases Hanuka’s most iconic and exclusive masterpieces, including all of his famous covers for The New Yorker and his award-winning recreations of movie posters (The Graduate, Star Wars, Akira, and every Kubrick film).

I can’t wait to get a look at this  baby!

The “Donnybrook” Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Donnybrook wasn’t even on my radar until a couple of days ago.  You can believe it is now.  I read the novel Donnybrook by Bill Frank when it was first released and really enjoyed it.

The Donnybrook is a three-day bare-knuckle tournament held on a thousand-acre plot out in the sticks of southern Indiana. Twenty fighters. One wire-fence ring. Fight until only one man is left standing while a rowdy festival of onlookers―drunk and high on whatever’s on offer―bet on the fighters.
Jarhead is a desperate man who’d do just about anything to feed his children. He’s also the toughest fighter in southeastern Kentucky, and he’s convinced that his ticket to a better life is one last fight with a cash prize so big it’ll solve all his problems.
Meanwhile, there’s Chainsaw Angus―an undefeated master fighter who isn’t too keen on getting his face punched anymore, so he and his sister, Liz, have started cooking meth. And they get in deep. So deep that Liz wants it all for herself, and she might just be ready to kill her brother for it. One more showdown to take place at the Donnybrook.
As we travel through the backwoods to get to the Donnybrook, we meet a cast of nasty, ruined characters driven to all sorts of evil, all in the name of getting their fix―drugs, violence, sex, money, honor. Donnybrook is exactly the fearless, explosive, amphetamine-fueled journey you’d expect from Frank Bill’s first novel . . . and then some.

Here’s the trailer!

The 7 Deadly Sins / Z-View

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The 7 Deadly Sins is available as a graphic novel, a six part mini-series and a digital download published by TKO Studios.

Writer: Tze Chun
Artist: Artyom Trakhanov
Color Artist: Giulia Brusco
Letterer: Jared K Fletcher
Cover Artist: Artyom Trakhanov

*** Beware – spoilers may be found below ***

THE 7 DEADLY SINS
SEVEN DEADLY SINS.
ONE DEADLY MISSION.

1857. Texas. A group of death row criminals is recruited by a Mexican priest for a suicide mission into Comancheria.

Seven death row prisoners are recruited to accompany a Priest on a suicide mission into Indian territory to recover a child stolen from settlers.  Each of those on the mission have reasons to go above and beyond avoiding the gallows.

Tze Chun has created a story much more aligned to The Wild Bunch and The Searchers than most western comic book stories.  His characters all have individual personalities, depth and backstory.  Chun developed excellent twists that, although you won’t see coming, feel true.  Chun is a writer to watch!

Artyom Trakhanov’s art is beautiful.  I’ve followed his work in other stories but The 7 Deadly Sins is his masterpiece (at least so far).  Trakhanhov has the rare ability (think Eduardo Risso and Palle Schimdt) to make all of his characters, including those in the backgrounds, have their own unique feel and personality.  Trakhanov’s style is his own, but reminds me of a young Michael Golden. (High praise, indeed!)

Giulia Brusco’s colors compliment Trakhanov’s art and enhance the story. Brusco’s color’s are beautiful without being overbearing or drawing attention away from the story.

 TKO Studios releases all of their comics in three different formats: digital download, as individual comics in a collector’s box and as a graphic novel.  The comics and graphic novels are slightly larger than traditional comics/graphic novels.  With TKO Studios there is no waiting for individual issues month to month — all issues are available from day one of publication!  Also, each first issue is available to read online for free!  Hats off to TKO Studios for these welcome innovations.

If I was going to nit pick, I’d ask TKO Studios to include the individual comic series covers with the graphic novels.

The 7 Deadly Sins is the complete package – great story and art – and gets my highest recommendation.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars.

“No Country for Old Men” Gets the Cinephilia & Beyond Treatment!

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No Country for Old Men is a modern classic.  If you agree, then you’re going to want to check out No Country for Old Men: The Coen Brothers and Cormac McCarthy’s Ruthless Examination of Life.

Click on the link and you’ll find…

  • Joel Coen & Ethan Coen’s screenplay for No Country for Old Men
  • Lessons from the Screenplay: No Country for Old Men—Don’t Underestimate the Audience.
  • Joel and Ethan Coen, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem discuss the making of No Country for Old Men.
  • “Just a cameraman”: an interview with Roger Deakins by Lynnea Chapman King
  • Storyboards
  • The making of No Country for Old Men
  • No Country for Old Men: Josh Brolin’s Unauthorized Behind the Scenes
  • The Coen Brothers interview on No Country for Old Men (2007)
  • Rare behind-the-scenes photos
  • and much more!

Eric Beetner Talks All the Way Down and More!

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Eric Beetner’s new novel, All the Way Down, comes out tomorrow.  I pre-ordered it and can’t wait.  Beetner has never disappointed me and All the Way Down sounds like a cross between Game of Death, Die Hard and The Raid: Redemption.  Here’s the Amazon description:

Dale is a crooked cop. It started slow, but grew like a cancer and now he can’t get out from under the thumb of Tat, a would-be kingpin in every vice he can turn a profit with.

And now Dale’s number is up – the top brass knows. But instead of getting busted, Dale gets an offer. The mayor’s daughter is being held by Tat in his fortress built from an abandoned office tower. They want her back but if they storm the gates, Lauren is as good as dead. So they’re sending Dale on what could very likely be a suicide mission: infiltrate Tat’s fortress and bring her out alive.

If the Mayor even really wants her alive…

Floor by floor Dale and Lauren have to fight off an increasingly difficult and dangerous set of obstacles.

Meanwhile, Dale’s wife has her own troubles and some of the drug kingpin’s goons are only adding to an already rough day.

The clock is ticking down along with the floors of the building and escape is looking less and less likely. But to save her, and to save himself, he must make it all the way down.

Beetner recently was interviewed by P. J. Bodnar at the Big Thrill.  Beetner spoke about All the Way Down, writing advice, his next novel and more.

Oh, and if All the Way Down sounds like something you’d like then you can be dealt in by clicking on this link and ordering from Amazon.

How Sly Stallone Made the Cover of a French Graphic Novel

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Today we have the Colin WIlson cover to the French graphic novel Du Plomb Dans La Tête written by Matz and illustrated by Colin Wilson.  If you think the the tough-guy on the cover looks like Sylvester Stallone, you’d be right.

See, Du Plomb Dans La Tête was the basis for Stallone’s film Bullet to the Head.

What’s interesting to note is the character (that Sly ended up playing) from the original graphic novel was drawn to look a bit like Sly as Jack Carter.  When Sly took on the role for Bullet to the Head, Walter Hill (the director) opted for a different look and Sly agreed.  So in the movie Sly doesn’t look like Jack Carter but on the Du Plomb Dans La Tête cover he does.

And now you have the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey would say).

J. Byron Huggins Talks, Sly, Hunter and a Whole Lot More! (Updated Link)

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James Byron Huggins is back!

Long-time readers know Huggins best as the author of Hunter.  Huggins wrote Hunter specifically for Sly Stallone (who bought the movie rights) in mind as the book’s hero.  Stallone fans continue to hope that Sly will helm a movie version of Hunter under his Balboa Productions banner.

Huggins wasn’t a one-hit wonder.  He also wrote The Reckoning, Cain, Leviathon, Rora, and other novels.  (And I recommend each of them!)  Huggins’ novels are a combination of thriller, action-adventure and horror.  His skill at seamlessly combining the genres made Huggins an international best-selling novelist.

Huggins recently sat for a long interview where he discussed meeting Sly, writing Hunter and a whole lot more.

RIP – William Goldman

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William Goldman, the two-time Oscar winning screenwriter, has died at age 87.  Goldman won his Oscars for Best Original Screenplay (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and Best Adapted Screenplay (All the President’s Men).  Goldman was also the screenwriter for the beloved The Princess Bride (based on his novel), The Marathon Man, Misery and dozens of other movies.

Goldman began his career as a novelist and then moved to writing movies, plays and non-fiction.  Goldman won two Edgar Awards, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Best Motion Picture Screenplay (for Harper starring Paul Newman and for Magic which he adapted from his novel). Mr. Goldman also received the Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement from the Writers Guild of America.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Goldman’s family, friends and fans.

Frank Miller’s “300” Sequel!

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If you enjoyed Frank Miller’s graphic novel or the movie adaptation that followed, you may want to check out Xerxes: The Fall of Darius and the Rise of Alexander.  That mouth full of title is Miller’s 300 sequel.    Here’s the synopsis:

This historical epic, set in the world of 300, tells of the upsurge and decline of the Persian King’s empire, and the ascent of the Grecian realm through Alexander.

Written and illustrated by comics luminary and legend, Frank Miller (Sin City, The Dark Knight, 300), and colored by Alex Sinclair (Batman: The Dark Knight III: The Master Race), this companion to Miller’s epic masterpiece, 300, brings the historical story of Xerxes to the graphic novel audience with grit and visual style!

The ongoing Greek rebellion against Persian tyranny reaches a turning point after the destruction of the city of Sardis and the later battle of Marathon: on a military campaign to vanquish the city of Athens and silence the Greeks once and for all, Xerxes, Persian Prince, watches as his father, King Darius, falls in battle . . . The mantle of king is passed and while his newly-inherited fleet retreats toward home, Xerxes’ hatred is cemented toward Athens–and his incentive to build the Persian empire is fueled. Xerxes becomes the king of all countries–the king of Persia, ruler of Zion, and Pharoah of Egypt–and his empire is unlike any the world has ever seen, until . . . The mantle is again passed, the god king dies and Darius III continues as the king of all. But then, from the west, a tiger force strikes in Asia Minor and is on a course for collision with Persian forces. This will be the beginning of the end for Persia and the launch of Alexander the Great’s rise to power!

Xerxes: The Fall of Darius and the Rise of Alexander drops on March 5, 2019.  But you can click on the link and get your order in now if you so desire.

11 Chilling Facts About Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House”

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Anna Green and Mental Floss present 11 Chilling Facts About Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.  Using just Green’s list, here are three of my favorites …

2. JACKSON HAD A TERRIFYING SLEEPWALKING EXPERIENCE WHILE WRITING THE NOVEL …
Early on in the writing process, Jackson awoke one morning to find something terrifying atop her writing desk: A note, with the words “DEAD DEAD” scrawled upon it, written in her own handwriting. Jackson, who loved ghost stories but did not believe in ghosts, brushed the strange discovery off as sleepwalking. In “Experience and Fiction,” she wrote that she used the strange note to motivate her, explaining, “I decided that I had better write the book awake, which I got to work and did.”

3. … AND MADE AN UNSETTLING DISCOVERY WHILE RESEARCHING HAUNTED HOUSES.
Before she began writing The Haunting of Hill House, Jackson scoured magazines and newspapers for photos of houses that seemed haunted. During her research, she stumbled upon a photo of a house in California that had a particular air of “disease and decay.” She was so struck by it, she asked her mother, who lived in California, if she could find any additional information about the house. Her mother’s response shocked Jackson: Not only was she familiar with the house, but Jackson’s own great-grandfather had built it. After standing empty for many years, the house had been set on fire—possibly by a group of townspeople.

11. THE NOVEL HAS A LOT OF FAMOUS FANS.
Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Guillermo del Toro, and Carmen Maria Machado are all huge fans. Del Toro included Hill House in a series of six classic horror novels he curated for Penguin, Maria Machado called it “the scariest novel I’ve ever read,” and Neil Gaiman has written that, while plenty of novels have scared him, Hill House “beats them all.” Stephen King, meanwhile, has written that Hill House has one of the best openings he’s ever read, calling it “the sort of quiet epiphany every writer hopes for.”

Deep Silence by Jonathan Maberry – Joe Ledger is Back!

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The new Joe Ledger novel Deep Silence by Jonathan Maberry is set to drop on October 30th.  Everything that Maberry writes is golden but his Ledger stories are the best of the best.  I make it a point to be ready to read each one once it becomes available.  I’m psyched for Deep Silence and here’s why…

Terrorists-for-hire have created a weapon that can induce earthquakes and cause dormant volcanoes to erupt. One terrifying side-effect of the weapon is that prior to the devastation, the vibrations drive ordinary people to suicide and violence. A wave of madness begins sweeping the country beginning with a mass shooting in Congress. Joe Ledger and his team go on a wild hunt to stop the terrorists and uncover the global super-power secretly funding them. At every step the stakes increase as it becomes clear that the end-game of this campaign of terror is igniting the Yellowstone caldera, the super-volcano that could destroy America.

Deep Silence pits Joe Ledger against terrorists with bleeding-edge science weapons, an international conspiracy, ancient technologies from Atlantis and Lemuria, and an escalating threat that could crack open the entire Earth.

“Die Hard” – The Ultimate Visual History!

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On November 13, 2018, Die Hard: The Ultimate Visual History will be released!  Featuring a forward by Die Hard director John McTiernan and written by James Mottram and David S. Cohen, this book will live up to its title…

Yippee-ki-yay . . . Discover the explosive story behind the creation of the Die Hard saga in this visually stunning, behind-the-scenes look at the adventures of detective John McClane.

Thirty years after the release of the groundbreaking action film, Die Hard: The Ultimate Visual History takes an in-depth look at the entire Die Hard saga, from the original movie through to the hit sequels, comics, video games, and other extensions of hero John McClane’s story.

Loosely based on Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, Die Hard, released in 1988, saw Moonlighting star Bruce Willis seamlessly make the transition from TV success to movie stardom in a film so taut, explosive, and full of suspense that it would come to define the action movie genre for decades to come. Directed by John McTiernan (Predator), Die Hard also starred revered British stage actor Alan Rickman who turned lead villain Hans Gruber into a presence so deliciously malevolent, audiences didn’t know whether to love him or hate him.

For the first time, Die Hard: The Ultimate Visual History tells the complete story of the making of Die Hard and its sequels, through exclusive interviews with the cast and crew of each film and a wealth of rare and unseen imagery, including set photography and concept art. Also exploring Die Hard comics, video games, and other merchandise, this book will tell the full story of the saga and its remarkable thirty-year legacy.

Follow this link to Amazon to see pages from the book and perhaps even place an order! Yippee-ki-yay, indeed!