Hello readers! As we settle into the second (or for some, third or fourth) week of pandemic quarantine, I figured it’d be nice to help ease the stress of things to talk about something amusing and entertaining, even if, at this time, only hypothetical:
What if … a studio bought the rights to make Colony a feature of some kind?
It’s a fun hypothetical because there’s a lot of different ways you could do it. Film. Series. Animated. Live action.
Which one would you want to see? Or better yet …
Who would be the actors? Who would you want to see playing Jake, Anna, and Sweets? Who do you think could fill the shoes of the trio?
I’ll admit, I’m not super familiar with actors and actresses myself, but I’d be 100% adamant about not making major changes to the characters. So yes, Anna stays 6’2″. If they can make Tom Cruise look 6’0″ in all his films they can make Anna her proper height!
Maybe give her role to Emmy-Raver Lampman? She caught my eye after The Umbrella Academy (where they also made her quite tall) as someone who could maybe get the look if you could turn her into a tough-looking supersoldier mercenary. This one does feel hard to pin down. Maybe get one of the actresses from Black Panther? Can any of them do a Brazilian or South American accent?
William-Jackson Harper, maybe, for Sweets? Seeing him as Chidi on the good-place showed him nailing the innocent “What?” sort of out-of-element character that Sweets sometimes is. Honestly, part of me would just love for the role to go to Donald Glover even though he’s not at all how I envisioned Sweets, but Donald Glover is just a fun actor.
Ooh, or Justice Smith? I could see that!
Jake though, I don’t know. Again, not super familiar with actors and actresses. Wait, pipe dream but … Ryan Reynolds. Yeah, that’d actually work pretty well, at least in my head.
Or maybe not. Maybe grab someone else? Jake’s “mongrel of a melting-pot” original description really does mean it could be a lot of different actors.
How about you, readers? Who do you think would be best suited to play each member of the Trio? Who would you want to see? Who’d play them live on the screen?
And while we’re at it, what sort of show would you want to see? Two-hour film? Or a streaming series (like The Expanse or Stranger Things)?
Me, personally … I think I’d want to see it as a show. Six or eight hour-long episodes. Maybe more. I think there’s more than enough material there. Shoving the whole of Colony‘s plot into a single film would mean a lot of compression, which would cut a lot of tense moments short, like Anna’s expedition through the wreck of The Traveler. Though if it were to be a show, it’d need a budget to bring it up to par, especially for the big finales with the fleet engagements and then the drone attacks. Plus the sets for the underwater cities …
Okay, it’d be expensive either way. Any film or show involving water, especially underwater, always is. But it would be worth it to see North Shore on the screen, wouldn’t it?
But yeah, I say “show.” What do you guys think?
While we’re at it, let’s hit that last question: Live-action or animated? And if the latter, what kind animation?
Me, personally, I’d ask for CG. Something … Noirish. Stylized, maybe? I don’t know. What do you guys think? Personally I’d prefer live-action, myself. But if it’d be animated I’d want to see it done with a realism-style CG myself. Don’t get me wrong, I like other forms of animation, but I don’t see them as being my first choice for Colony.
Especially anime. Just … no. Ill-fitting entirely.
So, what do you guys think?
And that’s it! Leave your comments and thoughts below, I’m curious to see who you readers think should play who if Colony ever does get a live-action adaptation in one form or another. Or if you think it shouldn’t be live-action, but animated. Or a show instead of a movie.
Comment below, and let’s see what we all think!
Oh, and if you came across this and have no idea what Colony is about (which means you missed one of the best Sci-Fi novels of 2016) then click here to check out the first four chapters absolutely free.
Unusual Things 
First off, I would never want anything of mine made into a film/show and not be animated. There are far too many boons to going the animated route. Characters can look exactly how you want without having to worry about things like choosing the right actor, make-up, CG add-ons, etc. And if a voice actor leaves the show for whatever reason, at least you can find someone else who sounds reasonably similar to play the role and, again, not have to worry about an entirely new actor gumming up how the character looks. And while live action can certainly achieve amazing special effects these days, I can’t imagine it being cheaper or more effective than doing it through animation as the base medium in the first place.
In terms of how it’s animated? In the case of Colony and Jungle, I’d totally go the Titan A.E. route. The film had its flaws, but in terms of presentation it was downright beautiful. Aesthetically speaking, it could certainly capture the style I’d imagine being required for your stories. You might also consider that of Disney’s woefully underrated Treasure Planet.
No preference for actors. It’s never something I ever thought about even for my own characters. I might be picky about such things if this wasn’t a hypothetical, but I dunno. Then again, Chris Pine could make for a good Jake or Sweets. I know everyone only thinks of him in terms of the latest Star Trek films, but if you check his overall filmography he’s quite a talented actor with a lot of variance in his roles. Seriously, check him out in 2016’s The Finest Hours; he might look like the same guy, but as a character he’s totally unrecognizable.
Last but not least, given the story’s size and what all would need to be contained, I’d suggest a Mini-Series. A Feature Film would force things to get cut for time-consumption purposes, but a regular 20/30-episode series would require you to add more to fill up airing time, especially if they’re hour-long episodes as are so typical these days. A Mini-Series would allow you to make the show exactly as long as it needs to be, since there is no formal length required for them.
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Ooh, Chris Pine is a good pick for Jake! I didn’t think of that! I’d agree, he’s got range and he could definitely bring him to life!
And yeah, the old format of “26 episodes, half of them filler?” NEVER. Like I said, I much prefer the Amazon/Netflix approach of “however many episodes you need, as long as you need them to be.” Eight episodes, for example, could probably do the show pretty well. Let me think—
1. Introduce each character and have them get nabbed, just like the opening.
2. Characters are given the job, go to the elevator, get aboard the ship.
3. Arrival at Pisces, West, and The Python
4. Lemuria
Etc. Maybe ten episodes. But no, old TV seasons are dying for a reason. We all hate filler, and we all hate being sold ads.
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I was kind of seeing Zoe Saldana for Anna… but that’s just me. Maybe Avatar style CGI for the animation. And speaking of Avatar, could totally see Stephan Lang as Rodriguez maybe? Or maybe instead the head of the Navy. I’d watch it regardless that is certain.
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Zoe Saldana could definitely do a good Anna. After all, she got lots of practice being a merc as Gamora!
I definitely see Stephan Lang as a good pick for Admiral West. He could do that stern, commanding presence.
Then for Rodriguez … How about Benicio Del Toro? I think he could capture the kind of unsettling lengths Rodriguez is prepared to go through while still holding that he has to do it.\
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Oh, HECK yes! Del Toro would be perfect! Yes, bring the popcorn, I would SO be there for that.
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Oh boy YES! I would watch that. I only know of about two or so actors, though, so I’m not any help there. But Paul’s suggestion for animation sounds pretty darn good. I’ll get the popcorn, if anyone can make this!
Anime Colony. That… excuse me while I laugh into a bucket. That would be absolutely /hilarious/, if in the worst way possible. I’m going to have to try really hard not to imagine that, now….
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[…] Now, quarantine chat! I started doing these this week (and they’re not dead) but I just wanted to give you readers the tally for this week’s most successful post by far: Colony – The Film (or Show?). […]
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[…] a quarantine chat discussing what sort of movie (or series) you readers would like to see if Colony ever hit the silver screen. What actors you felt could fill the roles, and what style the film should be […]
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