excitedHere now is the final part of my interview with the one and only Tom Sniegoski.
THE FALLEN
LW: In THE FALLEN, you brought the myth of the nephilim (the offspring of immortal angels and mortal women) into modern day. This quartet of novels has been turned into a series of movies, the first of which will air on ABC Family tonight, Sunday, July 23rd. Congratulations! How did that deal come to pass?
TOM: I owe that entire deal to my Hollywood manger types Pete Donaldson and Jay Sanders. They loved the books and shopped them around to anybody who cared to look at them. Finally they were snatched up by the good folks over at ABC Family.
LW: How involved were you in the casting and filming process?
TOM: Kinda sorta. They would give me a call here and there, and show me pictures and stuff. The one thing that I was part of was during the scripting process. I saw every version of the script, even during revision stages. They were very eager to hear what I had to say about the scripts and would listen to any suggestions that I had. It was pretty cool. I also got to visit the set during the last week of shooting. That was an amazing experience.
LW: Did you want to be involved, or did you choose to step back and let things evolve as they may without your intervention?
TOM: I really do think that the movie folks would rather that you weren't involved. They hate the idea of some writer guy coming in and telling them how to make movies. Would I like to be involved when more of my stuff as it gets made? Sure! Will I be? I doubt it.
LW: Who wrote the screenplay?
TOM: A woman by the name of Sara Cooper. She's worked on television quite a bit, most recently on House. The script is really good, I liked it quite a bit.
LW: Did you meet any cast or crew members? Any old friends, new pals, standouts, breakthrough artists?
TOM: The cast members that I got to meet were fantastic. Really amazing. Paul Wesley as Aaron, and Rick Worthy as Camael are pretty fantastic. Not to set anybody apart though, the cast is really, really strong. They even got the dog, Gabriel down perfectly.
LW: On a scale of one to ten, ten being your dog Mulder and one being, well, not your dog, exactly how cute is the dog who was chosen to play Gabe?
TOM: He's played by one dog named Doolittle who was just the sweetest freakin thing. I wanted to take him home, but my pup, Mulder, would've been extremely jealous.
LW: How did they handle the communication between Aaron and Gabe? Does the movie employ voiceovers so the audience can 'hear' what Aaron's mind is automatically translating and understanding?
TOM: Yeah, they do this really cool voiceover thing. When Aaron is hearing the other language in front of him, you can hear the translation as if it's going on inside his head. They did a nice job with that.
LW: How does the film differ from the novels?
TOM: There are some major differences. For one thing, the film isn't as violent as the books. It's ABC Family, for Pete's sake! So the violence is turned down some. The lead bad guy is played by a woman instead of a man. Hmmm, there are other things, but I really don't see them as being all that important. The movie exists, and so do the books. There's room enough for both.
You heard it here first! There will be a special reprint of Book One: Fallen. The tentative release date is late September. Book Two: Leviathan, Book Three: Aerie and Book Four: Reckoning should be available again in September. Shocklines will have a four book autographed bundle available that will ship in October. For the latest news, please visit the website for the books.
Get the official press kit from ABC Family.
If you have a broadband connection, you may watch Fallen online. You may also download Fallen from iTunes.
Read the earlier parts of the interview: Part One | Part Two | Part Three
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