The first one is called Pride and Predator and it’s about Elizabeth Bennett and the rest of the Bennett family that are going about their daily lives worried about finding the right suitor whom they love and who also is rich enough to support them, etc, etc, you know, the English Regency period and stuff. That is, until the extra-terrestrial killer alien from the popular series that bears his name shows up on earth and start wrecking havoc. Oh boy, I can’t wait to see the Bennett family and Mr. Darcy cope with the Predator. Oh, and one is going to produced by Elton John’s new movie production company called Rocket Pictures. While Sir Elton isn’t going to be directing the film, he will be supervising the musical selections. Does that mean we can expect a few piano driven love ballads between Eliza and the Predator? Maybe “Can You Feel My Boiling Hot Saliva Acid Tonight?” One can only hope.

The second of our brilliant bastardizations of the classic Austen novel is titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the idea behind it is very similar to our first adaptation except instead of invaders from outer space, our monster is of the human variety, well, sort of. Not only do the Bennett’s have to worry about finding a husband and the Napoleonic wars, they have to be careful their brains aren’t eaten out of their skulls when they’re not paying attention. And I thought Shaun of the Dead was the height of the Zombie/Comedy/Horror genre.

Now you’ve undoubtedly guessed, they are based on books. Well, Pride and Predator is based on a short story called The Amazing Trousers which doesn’t seem to have much to do with the premise actually, and the second is based on the forth-coming book of the same name that isn’t due to be released until April! The rights war that is being fought by the movie production companies was based on the cover that was leaked earlier this year. I am so very excited.

There are a lot of things to read about these two films, so check it out here:
NPR All Things Considered
10 Literary Classics That Could Use Monsters, Robots & Gore
Get ready for ‘Pride and Predator’
Would Jane Austen Had Preferred Aliens of Zombies
The Amazing Trousers Trailer

With most of the actions movies announced thus far looking like absolute chotchey-crap (ie Street Fight the Legend of Chun Li and Dragonball Evolution which is to say bot X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the new Terminator are going to be decent. Time will tell.) these two films made me very excited. I’ve also been off on a horror movie kick every since Curtis Blackwell and I began Horror Movie Monday a few weeks back. Nonetheless, I think these Jane Austen adaptations have a lot of potential for at least being one of the more interesting ideas in the sci-fi/horror/comedy genre that have surfaced in some time. At the very least they’re bringing in an entirely new element, historical fiction rather than 50s, modern day or the future for these kind of settings. What do you think?

I found an interesting quote in chapter 4 of NBNJG, “I once read a quote that said: ‘If punk is “I won’t” then hardcore is “I will.“‘”  I wondered who Kauffman was quoting, so I Googled the sentence which gave me one result, and it was from a review of NBNJG.  No luck on that.  But as a statement, I think it’s very interesting, and revealingly true.  Punk was defined by saying “no” to societal expectations and the way people are “supposed” to live.  The original British punks were disillusioned working class kids who decided that they didn’t have to follow the path their parents made, and their “revolution” was made visible by their bondage-style fashions, simplistic music, loud swearing and nihilistic worldview.

Hardcore, on the other hand, was about taking action.  It was a response to the overindulgence of 80s buttrock and disco and the overall lack of real “revolution” in punk.  Hardcore was about saying “yes” to the ability of a community of kids to change society.  Hardcore is saying “yes” to straight edge, vegan and vegetarian culture, to having a political stance and caring about your neighborhood and music scene.

In many ways, I wish I had the opportunity to grown up in an urban area with this kind of music scene.  I wasn’t exposed to “real” hardcore until I was 17 years old, and wasn’t really a part of it until I was 19.  To add to that, it wasn’t until this past year that I really started listening to the originator’s of hardcore: Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Black Flag and the like.  Unfortunately, the hardcore patriarch’s music does not have the same effect on my ears as does the music of 2nd and 3rd generation hardcore bands: Converge, Breather Resist, Breach, Botch, Curl Up and Die, Cave In and others.  I wish I had been there in that moment, and had been a member of that scene! I wish there was some scene where I live!

This makes me sad for the city I live in/near.  Saint Louis music scene is deader than dead nowadays, way worse than when I first moved to the area in 2002, and about as bad as Hampton, VA when I was in high school.  Is there any hope for the scene?  Can a few bands bring it back?  Part of me thinks that it is very unlikely a scene as good as DC, Boston, LA and any other good hardcore town will ever rise up in STL for any reactionary musical style. Mostly for reasons including urban blight, the great Saint Louis diaspora and suburban sprawl.  The city isn’t crowded with enough angry teenagers for a scene to rise up.  They all live in the county, with suburban, middle to upper-middle class parents.  The only hardcore that comes from there is derivative scene-core and screamo; predominantly garbage, without teeth or edge.  Which is funny and seemingly contradictory because that is exactly where I came from. Then again, the music I made as a teenager was extremely derivative and those kids have the same chance to grow out of it as I did, but we’ll see if it happens.  Either way, it’s more likely by the time they go to college they will stop making hardcore, so there won’t be any other good “harder” bands in St. Louis anytime soon. The “hardcore” in me should say “I will make a scene in Saint Louis!”  I should stop sitting by and just do.  But I do not have those teenage, revolutionary, “pissed off” feelings like those original hardcore kids of the 80s and 90s did. I just want to write music I like, and it happens to share the “aggressive” qualities with the music that propelled those scenes.  Who knows what I should do then?

Maybe I should move to Louisville, or Boston or to some city where the music is still happening and let St. Louis fend for itself.

Nah….

Needless to say, the book is fantastic.  Very few times have I laughed this hard at a book.  I have also been moved to tears, as Mr. Louis describes the same pain I too have felt a the douche-phenom that has affected my life and the hotties of my past.  (On a side note, lucky for me I was able to successfully do combat to any douches who attempted to pick up my wife while we were dating, and yes, there were a few that I did true combat with.  Though the combat of the douche is more of intimidation; deep, agressive stares, the battle of the head tilt, as well as using PDA in my favor.)  I’m currently half-way through the douche types in the book, and Louis is dead on.  I definitely encourage a purchase, especially if you’re currently struggling in the hottie-arena in your love life.

On a more serious note, I’ve also started reading “The Writer’s Time: Making the Time to Write” by Kenneth Atchity.  So far he has great insight on the process of writing for the “Writer” and those who think they are a “writer.” Writer’s with a capital W must constantly write regardless of anxiety, inspiration, and the loathed “writer’s block.” The introduction in this book is just fantastic, I can’t wait to get more into the meat of the book.

I ordered a few more books from Amazon for my birthday, and Doc J gave me a few of his that I’m pretty excited to read.  They’re all on my Readernaut page if you’d like to check them out.