Christopher Webster [Celluloid 01.13.10] post apocalyptic movie news book poster



I'm a massive fan of the apocalypse fiction of British author John Christopher (AKA Sam Youd). Have been for a long time. Even though his writing has a tendency to lean more towards the YA end of storytelling (read: "The Tripods Trilogy") his tales of survival are often told in a refreshingly frank and brutal style.

That's why I was excited to hear that a joint venture between Lago in Germany and Cherry Road Films (the folks behind Southland Tales) would give one of his most beloved novels, "Empty World", new life on film. The man given the task of adapting it? American director, Lucas Howe, who luckily for us, is as much a fan of the novel as we are:

"For the screenplay, I've tried to hold true to the source material as much as possible. I got to know Sam Youd (John Christopher) during the course of optioning the novel and writing the script. He told me that he had never been able to watch any of the film adaptations of his work as he's inevitably found them disappointing. I want to make this into a film that fans will love and that Sam can be proud of (or at the very least sit through in its entirety!)."

Howe has also passed along the first poster to share as well as a piece of concept art. The art shows some scope to the landscape, but just makes me want to see more from the production. Hopefully we'll have more to show you soon.

Until then, check out the embiggened poster and concept art after the break.

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Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Exciting!! Can't wait to see this!

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Wow!!! Poster looks promising!! who is in the film? do they have a cast yet?

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Sick poster!! This movie is gonna rock.

Sonia Arrubla (10 years ago) Reply

I love the Poster! look forward to watching the film!!!!

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Who's the kid in the poster?

Big Fan (10 years ago) Reply

I can't wait to see what Lucas Howe does with this amazing material. If you go to the Upset website (upset.tv) and click on Spiderfly you can see a pretty amazing short film by Lucas in a similar genre.

Max (10 years ago) Reply

Lucas is a brilliant director, I'm a big fan of his work. I look forward to seeing this film!!! - Max http://indigoprod.com/

agentorange (10 years ago) Reply

They have a cast, but can't release details just yet. We're hoping to get a bit more info soon though, so stay tuned.

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

Love this book! Poster makes me wanna see this film for sure. When is it coming out?

Bill (10 years ago) Reply

I have met Lucas. He is incredibly talented and extremely creative. I am also a fan of the material. This is a perfect match.

davin (10 years ago) Reply

WHOOHOOO!!!!! I'm a HUGE fan of Mr. Christopher's books. I'd love to see a new "No Blade of Grass" but will definitely settle for "Empty World"!!!

KelvarofArda (10 years ago) Reply

so this is basically "Lord of the Flies" in the apocalypse rite?
i got interested and found the wikipedia stub on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_World
your gonna have the whole movie synopsis soon?
sounds very intriguing.

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

wiki makes it sound a lot like Z for Zachariah

Ricky Chips (10 years ago) Reply

great source material. fun to see the apocalypse through the eyes of a child. hopefully it's better than the last few entries into the post-apoc genre...the road and book of eli...meh

Davros (10 years ago) Reply

Big fan of Mr Howe, great book, can't wait!

M.Sandoval (10 years ago) Reply

I am looking forward to this immensely. The concept art gives me tingles. I can only imagine what the finished film will be like. A unique take on a fascinating subject!!

Bunder (10 years ago) Reply

Lucas Howe is fantastic and this sounds extremely exciting. Can't wait!

tim (10 years ago) Reply

Lucas is a wonderful director. This is gonna be great!!

mike (10 years ago) Reply

This looks awesome. I've been following Howes projects for years and am excited to see this one.

Amy (10 years ago) Reply

have not heard of the director but I adore the book. I grew up with The Tripods books and have been anxiously awaiting the films. Empty World is in my top 10 books of alltimes. It is really quite different from Z for Zachariah. There was a German movie version years ago that I got off ebay back in the days! This book is really special and deserves special treatment. I like that this fellow plans to stick with Christopher's vision. Who the heck is The Taxman? Not in the book...

fyteclub (10 years ago) Reply

just read the book and their isn't any character called the taxman but looks cool anyways

agentorange (10 years ago) Reply

@fyteclub

You're right, there isn't. Howe has told us that some of the details and characters have changed, but I didn't mention it here because he is giving us more details later. Good eyes though.

Anonymous (10 years ago) Reply

any update???

Empty-World (10 years ago) Reply

Amy! If you have a copy of the German version of Empty World then please get in touch with me via www.empty-world.com - PLEASE!!!

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