This has officially sold out, but if you’re a lucky ticket holder, then I’ll be in the Class of 2015 bit again, with a slightly different, but no less awesome, line-up: Antonia Honeywell, Alex Lamb, Al Robertson, Tom Toner and Catriona Ward…
London Room 1 (click to enlarge)London Room 2 (click to enlarge)
This has just been added so grab your tickets now! If you’re a writer, this day is gold dust. If I weren’t already going, I’d be first in line for tickets. Top writers and agents (and, er me!) talking about their craft. Unmissable…
Not sure what I’ll be doing yet, but there will be an awesome line-up of talent (and me!), so you’d have to be some sort of weird anti-geek to miss out…
Last year tickets were sold out in three weeks, so to get yours click here.
As a huge fan of Google Translate’s butchery of foreign languages, I give you their version of the blurb…
Rise of the Empire robot man (or, Empire Robots: Human Rebellion):
Three years ago the Earth was conquered by an army of robots from a distant world. Bring your right: 1. Do not go out of the house! 2. Command observe robots! If you leave the house, you will get only one warning, then you will take care of a huge block, guard, sniper or flying Dron. You will die turned into a handful of ashes. But Sean Flynn is convinced that his father – RAF pilot who fought in the war with robots – is still alive. When he and his pack discovers a way to break the blockade of robots, begins an adventure that throws them at the mercy of the power of Lords ROBOTS.
You will also be able to hear my dulcet tones as I’ve recorded my ‘Afterword on living life dangerously’, and shoot diaries as added extras. In early May I found myself in the beautiful Gloucester countryside recording in producer Peter Rinne’s start-of-the-art recording studio/garden shed…
The home studio that I want when I grow up…
The audiobook will also include the short story THE MEDIATOR PROTOTYPE, an abundance of stomping, clanking and blasting Robot sound effects from the film, and excerpts from Christian Henson’s magnificent score, so it’ll be a full-on audio treat.
Come and see a screening of ROBOT OVERLORDS this Sunday 24th May at 2.30pm!
As part of the Greenwich Book Festival, I’ll introduce the event with a ‘From script to screen’ presentation, followed by a screening of the film. I’m pretty sure this will be your only chance to see the film before the DVD release later this year, so do please come along!
STOP STOP PRESS!
I’m also delighted to announce that I’ll be joined by James Tarpey, one of the film’s stars! We’ll have posters to sign and give away to those who buy a copy of the ROBOT OVERLORDS novelisation.
Well, maybe not the whole occupying force… Okay, it’s just me.
As part of the Bradford Literature Festival I’ll be in conversation with awesome steampunk author David Barnett. We’ll be talking about how the film came about, and how it evolved into the novelisation. We’re hoping to be able to show some cool clips, concept art and behind-the-scenes stuff… it all depends on the availability of projectors and speakers and stuff… if not, I’ll have to do it via the medium of speaking and gesticulating. Don’t worry: I’m trained.
… a store I have very fond memories of as it’s where I first met Neil Gaiman. It was back in 1996 and I had dragged my poor wife halfway across the country to see what was then the only IMAX screen in the country at the National Media Museum to watch SPECIAL EFFECTS: ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, a kind-of visual effects IMAX sampler complete with a colossal Star Destroyer and King Kong falling off the Empire State Building. Hey, it was before the internet took off and you had to travel to see the geeky stuff back then.
By complete coincidence Neil Gaiman happened to be in town signing copies of NEVERWHERE. I was kicking myself as I had a first edition of GOOD OMENS at home signed by Terry Pratchett and I wished I had brought it with me. Neil asked what Terry had written. “Burn this book,” I told him. So he scribbled a little retort on a Post-It note for me. I stuck it in the book where it still resides now…
In a couple of years I was working for Headline Publishing and selling Neil’s books into the trade and I got to meet him a few more times (he would greet me with a smile and the words, “Ah, the fanboy.”) and, more importantly, I got to read a proof of AMERICAN GODS before most of the reading public, and I would evangelise to booksellers about it until they caved and ordered a dumpbin.
So, yes, happy memories… I hope you can join us and maybe we can make some new happy memories of our own.
Then from 3-4pm I’ll be on a ‘From script to screen’ panel with Nvizible’s Dan Churchill. We’ll be showing how the film went from Jon’s initial idea through to the finished the film. There’ll be a Q&A afterwards and then hopefully we’ll be able to sign a few posters and there may even be a handful of those ultra-rare Robot Overlords T-shirts (for those bold enough to ask a question!).
The Birmingham MCM Comic Con was great fun, but because we filmed in Belfast I’m sure this will be an even bigger blast. I hope to see many of our crew and extras friends there!
If you’re coming along to Dysprosium 2015 (EasterCon to the rest of us!), then here’s what I’ll be up to on the Saturday and the Sunday.
Saturday 4th April:
10-11am Build your awesome robot – Wright room
Described in the brochure thusly…
Build Your Awesome Robot: Child-friendly activity. Priority is given to children 17 and under. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Using cardboard boxes, egg boxes, toilet rolls, metal food trays, cereal boxes etc, plus some coloured card, tape, and glue, you can build your own ready-to-wear robot. Zandy has an incredible book that gives suggestions on things you can put on your robot. We’ll make sure to copy the relevant bits and people can draw their own signs on card. Zandy Hemsley, Mark Stay.
Yup, Zandy and me will be helping kids build their own robots. What could possibly go wrong?! Assuming that we haven’t all been enslaved by the children’s automations you can always come to…
12.30-1.30 Author reading (following Jaine Fenn) – Johnson room
10-11am Robot Overlords from script to screen – Bleriot room
This will be great fun. Myself and Paddy Eason (VFX supervisor on Robot Overlords) will take you on a journey from a page of script right through to a finished scene from the film. It’s also a great way to show just how an indie Brit sci-fi film gets made these days (with great difficulty, as it happens). This will be a multimedia tour de force with never-before-seen concept art and behind-the-scenes material.
11.15-12.15 Gollancz Room party
This will be where all the cool kids will be hanging out. So be there, or be a giant robot cube…
On 13th July 2010* I received an email from Director Jon Wright with the subject heading ‘Two page idea attached’. In it he outlined a movie idea that had come to him in a dream: a world where humanity had been defeated by an invading alien robot empire and everyone is ordered to stay inside their homes. Back then it was called OUR ROBOT OVERLORDS. Some of those ideas have survived through to the finished film, some have fallen by the wayside and others could still be used in potential sequels or TV series, but already the world felt strong enough to start bouncing ideas back and forth and start working on a script.
And so ROBOT OVERLORDS was born, and a mere four years, eight months and fourteen days later it’s in UK cinemas for the public to see. That’s pretty fast for an independent British movie.
Jon and I met back in September 2006** when he became attached to a screenplay I’d written called WAITING FOR EDDIE (later EDDIE’S DEAD). We were introduced by a Producer called Dean Fisher who had optioned WFE and had got the project into the inaugural Film London Microwave scheme. Over the week of workshops and development we all bonded, but I knew I’d get on with Jon because when we first met in a Nero’s outside Liverpool Street Station, we banged heads as we sat down and were both too polite to say anything about it.
We worked on developing a number of scripts over the following years while he made TORMENTED and GRABBERS, but ROBOT OVERLORDS is the first of our joint projects to get off the ground, and I have to admit that there are days where I feel like I’ve jumped the queue. Because what you’re supposed to do is make a mega low-budget horror or two and then you might be lucky enough to make the kind of science fiction adventure that you loved as a kid.
And it’s been one hell of a ride. I’ve seen and done some incredible things during its making:
Felt a strange, other-worldly thrill at the first shout of “Action” on set.
The first take… ruined by a bunch of us taking photos on our phones. Photo by Paddy Eason
Watched actors of the calibre of Sir Ben Kingsley, Gillian Anderson, Geraldine James and many others take our words and bring them to life.
SBK gives it his all.
Not to mention watching our gang of heroes Callan, James, Ella and Milo genuinely become friends over the course of the shoot.
Jon chooses who get vaporised next…
Stared in awe at a bluescreen stage and wondered what the ten-year-old me would make of all this…
Blue is the new green.
Strolled around Pinewood Studios like we owned the place.
Author videos are so much cooler on the backlot of a major studio complex! Photo my http://www.mpsv.co.uk
And, bloody hell, Jon even let me be in it (and my family!)…
Me in the much-coveted role of shouty man in dressing gown…George, Claire and Emily in costume for our day as extras.
Being thrilled as Nvizible took our ideas and came up with stuff like this!
I attended the premiere at the London Film Festival like a proper Z-list celeb!
All the beautiful people at the LFF premiere… and me!
And did my first panel at a ComicCon:
2000AD creator Pat Mills ran our panel!
I’ve chronicled some of those events on this blog, and there’s a whole ‘shoot diary’ section in the book, and I’ll no doubt bore you with it some more over the years, but for a first film I could not have asked for a more incredible experience and I suspect I may never have it this good again. And now the film is now in the hands of the Great British Public.
Some folk have expressed dismay that it’s not on everywhere, and we do indeed have a limited release, but that reflects the reality of British indie cinema distribution at the moment. And you only have to look at the box office returns of the last ambitious Brit Sci-Fi Film to see why some lesser distributors were nervous about taking us on. But our bold and pioneering independent distributor Signature have a very clear strategy for the film over the coming year, and this is only the beginning. I have faith that you’ll all get to see it one way or another, but if you can see it on the big screen then do please go: plenty of people worked very, very hard to make it look and sound so magnificent.
See you at the movies…
*I keep a diary, so can very specific about dates.
Robot Overlords shows us a near-future where Earth has been invaded and occupied by an overwhelming force of Robots from another world. Everyone has been confined to their homes, and while the Robots’ purpose here is a mystery, they’ve promised to leave after seven years.
So what books would I grab to keep me sane during the occupation…?
As used by Connor (played by Milo Parker in the film) to identify edible mushrooms, this is the only book I know of with a chapter on how to survive a nuclear explosion, an essential bit of info when your enemy has defeated every army on the planet (though, to be fair, they do make it clear that the odds aren’t great for surviving a nuclear holocaust). Also check out the Homefront chapter, with excellent advice on food storage, rationing, vitamins and filtering and sterilising water. Of course, for when times are really bad, there’s the obligatory bit on drinking urine.
Also available as an App, not that you’ll have any use for that once the robots destroy your phone.
In Robot Overlords the Volunteer Corps are humans who have chosen to collaborate with the robots by delivering rations, making repairs etc. But these are exactly the kind of humourless sociopaths you find in every level of bureaucracy (best represented by Robin Smythe, Ben Kingsley’s character in the film), and so you don’t want to be relying on them to fix a leaky tap. I’ve had a copy of this for twenty years and it’s so clearly laid out that even an idiot like me can use it with only the occasional flood and mild electric shock.
There are many works of literature to inspire a burgeoning resistance against the invaders, but I can think of none finer than the seventh instalment in the Gaulish saga in which our heroes stage an enormous punch-up to save their village. A bit of genuine light relief in all the trauma.
When the Volunteer Corps deliver your weekly ration of unleavened bread, unidentifiable grey meat, and misshapen vegetables, you’ll need more than a little imagination to keep things exciting and varied at the dinner table. My wife bought me a copy of this when we first started living together and it set me in good stead when all we could afford was unleavened bread, unidentifiable grey meat, and misshapen vegetables.
And finally, something to keep you going through those long winter nights of the occupation. As a busking level guitarist (ie: a bit rubbish) I can select any one of over 170 songs from Keep The Home Fires Burning and We’ll Meet Again all the way through to erm… Careless Whisper and I Believe In A Thing Called Love. And if you do drive your fellow housemates mad with your caterwauling, then it’s big enough for them to beat you to death with, and makes for good fire fuel.
Mark Stay Writes 