Ernest Cline's Armada

[Gabe99]

Read the Synopsis to ‘Armada,’ the Second Novel By ‘Ready Player One’ Author Ernie Cline

Considering this site is called “Slashfilm,” we don’t cover a lot of books. But most books aren’t written by Ernie Cline. Cline first hit our radar as the writer of Fanboys, the Star Wars fan story directed by Kyle Newman. He then truly hit a home run with Ready Player One, a massive sci-fi adventure influenced by movies, music, video games and more. It’s currently being developed into a movie by Warner Bros. That’s why Cline’s work fits so well on this site. Those who live and breathe pop culture will truly appreciate it.

His second novel, Armada, sounds like it further explores some of the concepts he’s played with before. The movie rights were picked up last year and, finally, Random House has announced an official release date for the book: July 14. Along with that, we now have the cover and a full synopsis. However, in that synopsis is something very odd. It seems Cline is drawing heavily from The Last Starfighter. Could that actually be?

 

[Gabe99]

SXSW: Ernest Cline, Intellivision forebears talk impact of early games

Author Cline spoke of how early video games shaped “Ready Player One” and will continue to inform his upcoming novel, “Armada.” Cline said the new book was inspired by how “Star Wars” impacted the video game industry, citing a “Star Wars”-influenced game such as “Space Invaders.”

“The idea behind ‘Armada’ is that was all by design, to teach us all to control drones to fight off an alien infestation,” Cline said. “That fantasy of all these video game skills I’ve been honing — what if they had value in real life?”

It gets right to the core appeal of games, Cline said. “The role video games fill in society is they fill this hunter-gatherer need,” he said.

“All of us are hardwired by millions of years of human evolution to form teams, hunt, gather … social climb, organize things,” he continued. “These are things that are hardwired into us that we don’t do anymore. We sit in cubicles and we do things that are not related to our hunter-gatherer tribal instincts. Video games let us do all that. They let us form clans and find treasures and conquer worlds. Humans are explorers.”

 

[Gabe99]

Variety DECEMBER 6, 2012:
Universal sets sail with 'Armada' - Studio snags feature film rights to Ernie Cline's novel

ust days after scoring a seven-figure deal for domestic and foreign publishing rights, bestselling author Ernie Cline ("Ready Player One") has sold feature film rights to his next novel, "Armada," to Universal, which has set the project up with Scott Stuber's Bluegrass Films and Dan Farah's Farah Films banner.

Based on a 20-page proposal, Cline's reps have already sold North American publishing rights for "Armada" to Crown Publishing, a division of Random House.

Stuber and Farah will produce "Armada," which features a high-concept hook: the ultimate wish fulfillment to every videogame fan on the planet. Other plot details are being kept under wraps.

Jeff Kirschenbaum and Scott Bernstein will oversee the project for U, while Alexa Faigen will oversee on behalf of Bluegrass Films.

A well-known author and pop culture authority in geek circles, Cline penned "Ready Player One," which Warner Bros. bought, outbid several other studios for film rights. Warners is currently putting together a movie based on an adaptation by Cline and scribe Eric Eason ("A Better Life"). Book landed on several major best of 2011 lists.

Farah partnered on the high-profile "Armada" project with Stuber, who recently produced Universal's hit movies "Ted" and "Safe House," as well as its upcoming releases "47 Ronin" and "Identity Thief."

Farah is currently developing a remake of "The Crow" at Relativity, "Ready Player One" at Warner Bros., a television series based on Terry Brooks' bestselling fantasy series "Shannara," a stage musical based on the Castle Rock comedy "Honeymoon in Vegas" and ABC sitcom "The Guys," starring Tony Danza. Farah is exec producing "The Guys" with Vince Vaughn.

Farah, Paradigm and Greenberg Glusker negotiated the "Armada" film deal on behalf of Cline, whose publishing deal was negotiated by Farah and book publishing agent Yfat Reiss Gendell of Foundry Literary.

Borys Kit

ARMADA centers on a group of MMO players who play a game titled Armada that are recruited by a govt agency to use their unique skills,

 

[terry78]

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/ne...writer-for-adaptation-of-ernest-clines-armada

Yes, the sequel prequel book to Ready Player One. About another geek that spends all his time playing shooters only to discover that it's training for a real alien invasion.

 

[DACrowe]

Is Steven Spielberg directing? If not...

 

[Mandon Knight]

The Last Starfighter got there first.....

 

[terry78]

Which they reference in the book. As well as Ender's Game and Photon.

 

[Kuwolski]

Definitely not as strong as Ready Player One, but a pretty fun read.

 

[:eek:]

Bumping this thread since a new one was created.

 

[Flash525]

Enders Game?

 

[Guts]

Sounds a little similar to this movie.