Aaron blabey author study chris
Interview: Australian author Aaron Blabey on pitching The Bad Guys as &#;Tarantino for kids&#;; &#;The challenge was finding filmmakers that understood that&#;
To coincide with the release of the trailer for the anticipated animated action film The Bad Guys from Dreamworks Pictures, based on Australian author Aaron Blabey&#;s #1 New York Times best selling series, our Peter Gray chatted with the writer himself about where the books originated from, pitching a &#;Tarantino film for kids&#;, and how surreal it was to cast Sam Rockwell.
Before getting to the film itself, where did the idea for The Bad Guys books come from?
There were a few factors, but basically The Bad Guys is my love letter to cinema, in many ways. I wanted to take all the things I loved as a kid&#;I mean, these characters were all iterations of creations that have been in my psyche since I was a little boy. When I was looking at writing a series I thought of my boys, and The Bad Guys just stumbled out. It&#;s a culmination of everything I love within action movies.
Were children&#;s books always the genre you wanted to focus on as a writer?
I kind of fell into that, in a way. I started painting initially and that led me to creating some picture books. That format I actually found quite frustrating and I didn&#;t find my groove until my kids hit that age of around 6 or 7 years old, where they had quite defying senses of humour, and then everything kind of clicked and fell into place.
Were you quite taken aback by just how successful these books have been?
Oh absolutely. For the first 8 years or so I couldn&#;t give my books away! I was just getting nowhere, and it was really one last ditch attempt around the age of 40&#;this sounds ridiculous but I went for a really long walk and I created Pig the Pug, The Bad Guys, and Thelma the Unicorn all in one go. Without any sense of melodrama about it, it changed my life.
Was The Bad Guys the first of your boo The Bad Guys is an animated feature with a timely release in Australia to align with the Easter school holidays. I recently had the chance to speak with Australian author Aaron Blabey about his much-loved books being adapted for the big screen… Matt: I’m sure it’s something a lot of authors think about when writing books. Was there a point where you thought The Bad Guys could make a good movie or TV show? Aaron: The DNA was always in there but when I wrote the first book, I hadn’t had any real commercial success. It was beyond a flight of fantasy at the time but then, a part of me went “you know what… I love movies so much and I’m going to deliberately write something that is my version of movie except in book form.” Everyone picked up on that instantly, including movie studios, which is why there was so much interest so suddenly. Matt: So how does it work? How do they contact you and say “we want to buy the rights to your books”? Aaron: We had heard whisperings that a couple of studios were interested. The book had done well very quickly in American schools so word had got around that way. I flew across and had the strangest week of my life and the end of and met the heads of all the studios. A number of them were aggressively pursuing it. Dreamworks kept rising to the top of being the obvious choice. When my eldest was little, Kung Fu Panda had just been released and I always felt the tone of that was perfect. It was what I was hoping to achieve with this. Matt: Do you give up full creative control once you sign the rights over or are there things you still get a say over when the script is being written and the film being made? Aaron: That can certainly happen but I had a deal as an executive producer so I’ve been across each draft of the screenplay, each cut of the movie, and each major discussion about the film. If the studio dec Well&#; it&#;s been a while since I last blogged about books. But I had a good excuse and that is &#; I was writing my new book! But I&#;m happy to say, I just finished the first round of editing and now waiting typeset and then that&#;s a wrap! Powerful Writing Structures will be available February 7th! Yippee! So now I have a little more time to relax, enjoy the holidays, and get back to writing about and sharing great books! I don&#;t know about you, but my book pile gets very big this time of year! And if you are like me &#; you love gifting books as much as you like receiving them! So if you are trying to do some last minute book buying for that special little or not so little someone in your life &#; you have come to the right place! As there are too many books for one post, here&#;s the line up for the week: Monday (today) &#; Beginning and Early Chapter Books and Series, Nonfiction and Activity book Gifting Tuesday &#; Middle Grade and Graphic Novel Gifting Wednesday &#; Picture Book Gifting (Christmas, Winter and Others) Thursday &#; Book Gifting for teacher and book club friends Hedgehog adores his new bike. He wants to share it with his friend, Harry. Oddly, Harry does not want to ride it. What&#;s going on? Adorable early reader series, with simple text and repetition that builds fluency, and conversations. This is the kind of book I can see children wanting to read this book over and over and over. From the Newberry Honor author of El Defo comes a hilarious new graphic reader that will have your young reader in fits of giggles. Chick and Brain. And their friend Spot. Chick likes to follow the rules, Brain might not be as smart as he looks, and Spot just wants to eat lunch. Simple and oh, so silly! LOVE! Busting! by Aaron Blabey is a hilarious and relatable story about being absolutely dying to go to the toilet. Busting! has everything that makes Aaron Blabey&#;s story so great &#; simple and easy to read, bucket loads of humour, clever twists and solid illustrations. This story follows Lou who is BUSTING for the loo. He goes through all kinds of troubles to find a loo that range from public places and the zoo. Busting! is written in simple almost limerick styled rhyming which is great for reading out loud and will appeal to all age ranges of kiddos. The ending was spot on and really made me laugh out loud, and I can&#;t imagine anyone who wouldn&#;t laugh at it. It&#;s not exactly ground breaking in terms of story, but I really enjoyed it. It was a little above my non toilet trained toddlers head, but I&#;m sure once he drops the nappies, he will understand this story a bit more and love it as much as I do. It&#;s also a board book which makes it great for little hands to hold. Title:Busting! Author & Illustrator:Aaron Blabey Publisher:Scholastic Published: Ages: 3+ Tag Archives: Aaron Blabey
Beginning and Early Chapter Book Series
Hello, Hedgehog! 1: Do You Like My Bike? &#; Norm Feuti
Chick and Brain: Smell My Foot&#; Cece Bell
Unicorn D
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