Hammer Films to Adapt Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker for the Big Screen
Steve Barton
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Hammer Films
http://www.hammerfilms.com/
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Brian Oliver, President of Cross Creek Pictures; Simon Oakes, Vice-Chairman of Exclusive Media Group and President & CEO of Hammer Films; and Guy East and Nigel Sinclair, Co-Chairmen of Exclusive Media Group, announced that Hammer has acquired the rights to Cherie Priest’s novel Boneshaker, which will be co-produced by Hammer and Cross Creek and co-financed by Exclusive and Cross Creek.
From the Press Release:
John Hilary Shepherd, a 2010 WGA Award nominee for his work on the first season of the Showtime series “Nurse Jackie,” is writing the screenplay. Tobin Armbrust, Head of Production, is overseeing the project’s development for Hammer Films.
An example of “steampunk” science-fiction, which incorporates futuristic innovations into a Victorian setting, Priest’s novel is set in an alternate version of 1880s Seattle, where the city has been walled in and a toxic gas has turned many of its remaining residents into “Rotters,” more commonly known as zombies. A young widow hunts for her teen son in the Seattle underworld while dealing with airship pirates, a criminal overlord, and heavily armed refugees. Boneshaker was nominated for a 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel and won the 2010 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
The novel, published in 2009 by Tor Books, is the first in a series set in the same Civil War-period, alternate-world Priest has dubbed “The Clockwork Century.” The series’ second novel, Dreadnought, was published in 2010, and the third, titled Ganymede, was recently released online and in bookstores on September 27th.
Tor Books is releasing the fourth novel in the series, Inexplicables, in 2012 and last week announced a deal with Priest for her to write a fifth novel in “The Clockwork Century” series. The fifth book will be called Fiddlehead.
“First and foremost, this is a great story. Bringing a steampunk style novel to life on the big screen is going to be very cool, very unique,” said Tobin Armbrust.
“Boneshaker is a classic zombie movie with a modern twist, which is quintessentially Hammer, so it’s a perfect fit for us,” said Simon Oakes. “Cherie Priest’s steampunk series are fantastic with a distinct, unique style, and we’re really looking forward to bringing her ‘Rotters’ to the big screen.”
“It’s like Jules Verne meets ‘Resident Evil,’ and we’re thrilled to have such a fun, commercial potential franchise in Boneshaker,” says Oliver. He continues: “John’s an exciting screenwriter, and we see this being a real crowd pleaser.”
Look for more soon as a director and cast are lined up for what sounds like a very cool project indeed!
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