You may be aware that Jacob Elordi is in a new movie out this week: “The Dog Stars,” directed by Ridley Scott, and also starring Josh Brolin and Margaret Qualley. What you might not know is that the film is based on a 2012 book by Peter Heller. “The Dog Stars” centers on two lonely survivors of a super-flu pandemic, Hig and Bangley, living in an abandoned airport in Colorado with a loyal hound named Jasper. “It’s like ‘Deliverance’ in an airplane,” John Seabrook wrote when the novel was published. “But it also has lyrical descriptions of landscape and nature reminiscent of James Dickey’s poetry.” I recently spoke with Heller about some of the books that have inspired him, both at work and in his life.
I loved “Hamnet” because I thought it captured the spirit of the book—love, grief, the alchemy of creative genius—while crafting a completely compelling two-hour romp. Richard Brody’s incisive piece about adaptation speaks to the essential question of creative freedom as a filmmaker adapts a work of literature. When Mark L. Smith, who wrote the script for the adaptation of “The Dog Stars,” called to ask if he could change this or that scene, I would say, “I’m honored that another artist is inspired by the book to create a discrete, new work of art. Have at it.” Freedom.
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Coming soon:
- Robert Harris, the author of “Conclave,” has a new book coming out September 1st: “Agrippa.” It’s about a young commoner in ancient Rome who becomes the protector of a potential emperor.
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Also out on the 1st is “The Disappearers,” Marlon James’s highly anticipated novel about a group of gay men in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1988.
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Grace Krilanovich, who wrote “The Orange Eats Creeps,” has a new book out on September 8th, called “Acid Green Velvet.” It’s set on the California coast, in the late nineteenth century.
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Speaking of the apocalypse…Emily St. John Mandel’s new book, “Exit Party,” out on September 15th, is set in L.A., in 2031—the first spring after the fall of the United States. Will it be as prescient as “Station Eleven” once felt?
P.S. Mackenzie Scott appears to be publishing a historical novel, in parts, on Substack.
