International bounty hunters chase a target across the globe on the orders of a shadowy council of 12 businessmen, billionaires and defence interests that want to plunge the earth into a new cold war. That’s a teaser of Matthew Reilly’s 2003 book, Scarecrow, and he wants to see it made into a video game.
It’s no secret that Australian author Reilly has sold many of his books to Hollywood studios for a handsome sum. His 2004-book Hovercar Racer was sold to a little start-up called Disney for a million bucks, for example.
Other projects have also been optioned as TV shows but one of his favourite works, the 2003 book, Scarecrow, has recently had its option expire — meaning nobody bought it. Following the expiration, Reilly’s now looking elsewhere to get the book made into a visual blockbuster, teaming up with a figurine and merchandise production company in the US to pitch the book at game studios.
“I’ve sold Hovercar Racer to Disney and Seven Wonders to ABC in the US, and with those rights go the video game rights, but the Scarecrow film rights have just come back to me. The option on those has expired, and I wouldn’t mind going direct to a video game company and getting a game made,” he told a packed house at Supanova Sydney yesterday afternoon, adding that any such project would have his blessing.
“I’d love to see it. The books would work very, very well as video games.”
Time will tell if a studio picks up the Aussie author’s work to be the next local success story, but it’s certainly a game I’d play.
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