Wednesday, March 20, 2013

If Silhouette was a Movie (Weapons and Vehicles)

Macmillan Films is working on a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want.

Let's take a break this time from the characters and take a look at some of the cool future technology in the novel. If there was a movie, these would all be designed by the filmmakers, but here are some pictures that are similar to how I imagine them...

Michael and the other peacers are armed with futuristic handguns called boas, which have caseless ammunition and can fire either "killer" or "stopper" rounds. (A version of the latter can be found in Masamune Shirow's short story in the Appleseed Databook.)



An interesting note about this picture is that the first proposed cover for Kaleidocide (the sequel to Silhouette) had a gun that was not futuristic enough, so I sent this to the designer to suggest what Michael's guns might look like. The designer somehow photoshopped the gun on the cover so it looks like one of these now.

And now for the Firehawk helicopters, co-opted from a U.S. military force on Treasure Island and used to enforce order by the Bay Area Security Service in the early days before the aeros (flying cars) were developed. In my mind they look something like the picture below, and they are featured in a cool action scene in the early parts of the second novel.



The aeros that BASS has developed using their patented Sabon antigravity technology are a significant part of the world I've created in the series, but I didn't want to put these pictures at the top of this post because they are not very impressive. But they're something, so here is what a parked one might look like, and its interior...



And here is (kinda) what they might look like patrolling the streets of San Francisco...



I know that's pretty weak (they're from a Men in Black video game), but this last one is even weaker (that's why it's last:). BASS forces also use small flying robots called Falcons to search for and apprehend perps. I couldn't find anything that was really like what I imagined when I wrote the book, but here are a couple pics from the web that could be mixed together to make a decent design for them...



Finally, here is what one of the "bugs" might look like. Another new application of the Sabon antigravity technology owned exclusively by BASS, a swarm of them are sent into the Red Tunnel to map the squatters' defenses before Michael leads a raid to forcibly evict them.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

If Silhouette was a Movie (BASS Leaders -- Saul, Paul, and D)

Macmillan Films is working on a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want.

Saul Rabin is the enigmatic dictator of the post-quake San Francisco Bay Area, who some admire as the savior of the city while others loathe and fear as a fascist tyrant. When I first wrote the book, I didn't imagine Saul as any known person, but after it was published the following occurred to me. What if a horrible earthquake left Dirty Harry as the only one capable of restoring order in the city, and he ended up ruling it, and getting some religion in his old age because of his wife (which may be a good or bad thing)? That is basically the idea behind Saul Rabin, as we can't tell whether he is a good guy or bad guy or both. How appropriate it would be for Clint Eastwood to play Saul, especially after his interesting and polarizing forays into politics! (Mayor of Carmel CA, speech at Republican Convention, etc.)



Saul's son Paul could be played by Clint Eastwood's son Kyle, who is primarily a musician but has also acted in films. Not only do Clint and Kyle look like father and son, obviously, but Kyle looks the part otherwise. Paul is tall and friendly looking, handsome but not as much as Michael or Darien. In these pictures you will also see a dark-skinned lady representing his wife Liria, who is mentioned in the book (and plays a role in its sequel).



Darien Anthony, known to his friends as "D", was the third in command at the Bay Area Security Service prior to his untimely death. He was a former pro athlete with a significant amount of charisma (described as "BASS's smiling face for the media). So NFL player Hank Baskett fits the part...



If Silhouette was a Movie (Michael and Lynn)

Now that I finally finished the full initial draft of Kaleidocide, the sequel to Silhouette, and sent it off to the publisher, I have some time that I can do something fun that I've wanted to do for awhile. Macmillan Films is trying to get a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want.

No better place to start than with Michael Ares, the main character. He is from England, so how about Luke Evans, who looks something the Michael of my imagination...



And then for Michael's wife Lynn, how about Naomi Watts...



Michael and Lynn are both in their thirties, Michael is ex-military (special forces) and Lynn was raised in an orphanage at the Presidio founded by Saul Rabin's late wife Kathryn. The glasses Luke Evans is wearing in the pictures could easily be the net glasses that Michael uses throughout the book, and Naomi Watts is not only beautiful, as Lynn is, but could also embody the domestic and innocent parts of the character's nature.

Interestingly, the two actors also have the same color eyes as the characters in the book.