A couple of weeks ago, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an article about a book called "Something"land that is going to be made into a movie and may be in pre-production now. IIRC, it is about a parallel universe, was published sometime in the last five years, and is a cult hit.
I want to buy this book but I can’t get Amazon.com to find the book with a *land search and I can’t get Google to find it either…
Help?
Is it Otherland by Tad Williams?
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, but I don’t believe it’s being made into a movie so I think I’m wrong.
I’ve read Otherland so I’m 99% sure that’s not it…
Anyone else?
do you have any more information on the plot? am struggling to come up with anything.
The brief description makes me think of Phillip Pullman’s series, but it doesn’t fit the “land” criteria. Give us something to go on—is it witches & wizards? dragons? aliens?
I checked the IMDB – no movies on their lists for 2005 or 2006 with “land” in the title. Finding Neverland is coming up for Christmas, but I doubt that’s what you mean – it’s a biopic about J.M. Barrie.
Then I went to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and found 1566 titles with the world “land” in them. You might try searching for “land” under title (as I did) and then scanning the list.
As for movies that are actually being made: there’s Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which is set in a parallel world, and is in pre-production – but the first book is called The Amber Spyglass. And Coraline by Neil Gaiman is also in pre-production, and also is about a young girl who enters a parallel world. The Talisman is coming next year, and is yet another movie about a person from our world entering another one.
Those are the things I dug up, with no “lands” to be seen.
I am a little bemused – you want to read this book because it’s going to be a movie, but you don’t know the title, author, or much of anything about it!
The only recent book with an alternate reality I can think of is Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So, by Ian Stewart?
Linkie: Flatterland
Hey, I promise I’m not intentionally trying to annoy my fellow Dopers.
You’re absolutely right, it’s a small amount of information… I skimmed past the article and thought I’d remember later.
I figured that if it’s supposed to be a movie soon, someone* must have heard of it.
And yes, the terms “cult favorite” and “alternate universe” are enough to make me want to read a book.
Battlefield Earth?
<g>
Oh! Is it that one with the preview that starts with “In a world…”
Too bad it’s not Johnathan Carroll’s Land of Laughs, one of the best fantasy books of all time.
Neverland? It was a TV show/novel by Neil Gaiman about the secret magical world under London. (It was originally a TV show which Gaiman novelized in the UK and then wrote a revised novel of for the U.S.) I think I heard that there’s supposed to be a movie in development. There is definitely a comics adaptation in the works by Mike Carey (for whom Gaiman spin-offs are something of a cottage industry).
–Cliffy
That’s Neverwhere , not Neverland
Summerland
Chabon, Michael.
Summary
From the 2001 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction comes the story of a whole new universe–an American version of Middle-earth–with legendary beings, monsters, and mythical creatures, and where the powers of good and evil are engaged in an elaborate battle. Illustrations. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Review
In his debut novel for young readers, Pulitzer Prize winner Chabon (The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) hits a high-flying home run, creating a vivid fantasy where baseball is king. Following the death of his mother, 11-year-old Ethan Feld and his father, a designer of lighter-than-air-dirigibles move to Clam Island, Wash. The island is known for its almost constant rain, save for an area on its westernmost tip called Summerland by the locals which “knew a June, July and August that were perfectly dry and sunshiny.” In Summerland, Ethan struggles to play baseball for the Ruth’s Fluff and Fold Roosters, with dismal results. But here, too, a mystical baseball scout recruits Ethan and escorts him through a gateway to a series of interconnected worlds that are home to magical creatures called ferishers and an evil, shape-changing overlord called Coyote. Ethan and two of his fellow teammates soon accept a mission to save these other worlds (plus the one they live in) from ultimate destruction at Coyote’s hand. When his father’s well-being is also threatened, Ethan’s quest becomes all the more urgent. To succeed, Ethan and his friends must find a way to beat giants, ferishers and others in a series of games where striking out truly has apocalyptic implications. Chabon unspools an elaborate yarn in a style that frequently crackles with color and surprise. He occasionally addresses readers directly, imbuing his tale with the aura of something that has been passed down through the ages. Impressively, the author takes a contemporary smalltown setting and weaves in baseball history, folklore and environmental themes, to both challenge and entertain readers. Images of the icy Winterlands and beasts like the werefox and Taffy the motherly Sasquatch recall C.S. Lewis’s Narnia and some of Philip Pullman’s creations in His Dark Materials. Devotees of the genre and of America’s pastime will find much to cheer here. All ages. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. Appeared in: Publishers Weekly, Jun 24, 2002 © Copyright 2004, Cahners Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Cut and pasted from my library’s catalog.
They’re making a movie of Summerland? Hmm…Michael Chabon is great, but I kinda thought this book sucked.
Daniel
No, the first book is “Northern Lights”. The Amber Spyglass is actually the last book.
Northern Lights?
The first book, as far as I know, is The Golden Compass. Unless the movies will have different titles or something?
I think the US and UK had different titles.
They must have, because I’m reading the sodding thing right now. It’s not exactly The Dark Is Rising or The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, but much better than Crappy Tosser and the Half-Arsed Enid Blyton Ripoff.
Could it be Stranger in a strange land??
The Heinlein book?
That would be a good movie…