Courtesy of Rick Yancey
Young adult literature has perhaps more influence today across media worlds than it ever has. The oft dystopian, always apocalyptic tint seems to speak to a specific and very modern fear of a world gone mad and an obsession with societal collapse. Perhaps a particularly millennial twist on sci-fi’s often touted ability to speak metaphorically about the fears of our society.
Rick Yancey is one of the latest to tap into this post-Hunger Games moment in the zeitgeist with his 5th Wave trilogy. A tale of alien invasion and the apocalyptic effects on the life of one young girl, The 5th Wave seemed a natural fit for a film adaptation of the same name, released on Jan. 22.
The Wheel participated in a conference call with Yancey about the adaptation process, his inspiration for the novel and more.
Brandon Wagner, The Emory Wheel: What did you think of the process of adaptation? Were you privy to it and was there any trepidation you had moving your book from a novel to the big screen. Was there anything you were surprised by?
Rick Yancey: I think I was probably luckier than a lot of writers who have their original work adapted…the rights to the film were picked up even before I finished the book. They were picked up shortly after the book was purchased by Penguin publishing, and I had meetings very early on with executives and producers and also had some interaction with the screenwriters, so I was in that process pretty much from the very beginning.
I did not have a hand in adapting my work, which is probably a good idea, because movies are not books and books are not movies, and there are demands that are narratively possible in books and not in movies and vice versa. I always try to keep that in mind as we move through the process. But, the short answer is, I was pretty involved. I wasn’t there on a daily basis because I was working on another book at the time, but the days I was there, I had regular talks with the producers and the director. From what I have seen, I think that fans of the book will be very pleased how the filmmakers have captured those core stories and how they built the characters.
Amanda Brendel, The Sentinel: What did you feel in the creation of your story was a strong or meaningful event to you that became your inspiration for the novel?
RY: Actually the germ of the story was probably planted around 2008 when the financial markets nearly collapsed worldwide. I guess that got me thinking about apocalyptic events, or it could have just been totally an accident, but I doubt it because very few things in the arts are accidents. The germ of it was planted there…I’d been writing books for young adults for a few years prior to that and particularly that time in a young person’s life is rather apocalyptic. Childhood is coming to almost an abrupt end…I still remember bringing my three boys to college. It was like one day you’re under your parent’s roof and your life is one way, and the next day it’s totally different, totally turned on its ear and completely changed.
I think that’s one of the reasons that this genre is so popular right now. I think young people really relate to that, “I’m on my own and how am I going to navigate surviving in a world so foreign to me and to everything I’ve known before?” Certainly that’s one of the major themes of the book; obviously it’s in an alien apocalyptic setting which is not very usual. But you can look at that as a metaphor of being forced to grow up, [and] I guess that was the initial kicking off point. First my love of science fiction, and then secondly, world events…you know, it’s only interesting in a story when the world teeters upon collapse. We just find that fascinating.
Trent Lira, coogradio.com: What do you think sets apart your book and movie from the stories that have been told in the past, and what compelled you to write this way?
RY: I wouldn’t call it dystopian…there’s still society left, I think the alien invaders are staying but they’re not exactly setting up a society. They’re doing the exact opposite, they’re actually trying to blow society apart. That’s one key difference to some of the dystopias that are out there. I think it’s an incredibly popular genre where there’s still room for exploration to take different aspects of the genre and to play with them. This story is unique in that it presents a worldwide phenomena that is happening but [is] also very intimate and human. This is why it’s told through different points of view and narrowed in on a particular story, which, in the first book, is Cassie trying to find her little brother. This makes it very human and very intimate and very real. I tried very hard not to go too far afield as some books in the genre will do — it really starts to strain believability that these characters are actually able to achieve what they are achieving. I try to always keep it grounded in what I love, which is a story where you have ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. My litmus was, “How would I react in a situation that their characters faced?” What would be my choices or my goals throughout this story, instead of just trying to give thrills for thrills’ sake.
Neelou Goodarzi, The Egalitarian: Tobey Maguire said that your writing is wonderfully cinematic. How do you think that played a part in the production of this movie and just in having your vision and story told as true to the books as possible?
RY: I have a background in visual arts — I was in theater when I was in high school and college, and a little bit beyond college as well. I did a little bit of writing for theater, directing, acting and then in my writing, I turned to script writing and was doing screenplays. I was fascinated by the whole medium of film and of course, theater, so when I turned to prose, I tend[ed] to approach stories in a very visual, very visceral, sort of immediate way, which is why I suppose it’s most comfortable for me to write in first-person. I love writing in first-person because you get to slip in and out of a character’s head and heart and skin. I think that’s directly owing to my background, my first loves of theater and film. So that’s probably where he’s picking up on the fact that now when I write prose, it tends to be very visual sort of stuff. That’s what the cinema is, it’s very visual.
Jason Wiese, Lindenlink: What I especially love about the book right now is Cassie’s narration — it feels so genuine and authentic. I know you weren’t that involved in the production, but how do you think [the filmmakers] are going to translate that characteristic into the film, or how do you hope that they translate that characteristic of that internal narrative into the film?
RY: That is a huge challenge, because the entire book is told from a first-person’s point of view inside the character’s head (their monologue, their thoughts) and that doesn’t usually translate well into a movie. What you have to choose to do is to present a story visually; you have to take care that you capture the essence of what happens in the book, but you still are true to the rules of the book and the rules of filmmaking. I think that’s a delicate balance. From the script that I’ve seen, they do a pretty good job of balancing that. Obviously, there are going to be some lovers of the book that will not agree with the choices that are made, and that’s their prerogative. But I hope I can watch the film and understand that there are two separate mediums going on here — there’s the book and there’s the film. They don’t have to contradict each other; they can actually complement each other. What’s wonderful about reading the book is creating those characters in our minds…a writer can’t describe a character down to their last eyelash and they would never try, because they understand that a reader wants to do that. When a reader reads the book, they’re going to have a Cassie in their head, and anytime the Cassie on the screen doesn’t do something they think the Cassie in their head should do, there’s going to be a disconnect. I know that I’m going to have to keep in mind when I watch the movie that Chloe [Grace] Moretz’s Cassie is not going to be a carbon copy clone of the Cassie that I have in my head. I’m going to enjoy the movie for the movie that it is.
Opinion Editor | Brandon Wagner is a College Senior from God Only Knows Where, America studying Film and Media Studies with a minor in Religion. This is his first year for the Wheel, in a likely misguided experiment to be a film critic. When he's not writing on the biggest blockbusters or the films of Spike Jonze or Andrei Tarkovsky or Zack Snyder, he's writing on comedic television, the future of gaming as an art, or the relationship between audience and cinematic experience. In other words, Brandon Wagner has basically nothing else going on but this.
