It’s always so nice to happen upon new authors, which is why it’s so lovely to have Rose Lerner–author of IN FOR A PENNY–here with us today. Please extend an ultra-warm welcome to Rose as she chats about the new phenom, costume drama monster movies. 🙂
~*~*~
So I don’t know how many of you have heard about the possible upcoming production, Pride and Predator.
Personally, I’m excited. Because I love the idea of costume drama monster movies. And the only one I’ve ever seen is Ginger Snaps Back: the Beginning. Which I enjoyed because my very favorite musician Hugh Dillon played the fire-and-brimstone preacher, but which could definitely have had a more authentic period feel. Why are monster movies all set in the present day? There’s just no need for that! So my friend Sonia and I sat down and came up with some concepts:
1. The Unholy Sepulchre. This one is about vampire Crusaders. Think of how difficult it would be for them to wear those cloaks with the crosses on them!
2. Vanguard Party. This one is about a small unit of revolutionary Communist werewolves during the Russian Revolution. Possibly they would liberate a labor camp in Siberia. Werewolves look really dramatic in the snow. (Important note: these would be people who turned into wolves. Not people who turned into weird CGI hunched-over giant hairy people. I have Strong Opinions about werewolf special effects!)
3. Lieutenant Hornblower and the Kraken. Enough said.
4. Cowboys vs. the Blob. I don’t know how cowboys would come up with enough cold to freeze the Blob, but I’m excited to find out!
5. Running Scared. This is a World War Two movie in which submarines fight the Giant Squid. Is the Giant Squid a Nazi? you may ask. I’ll leave that creative decision up to you.
6. Sacagawea fights Bigfoot! It would be hard to make this movie not turn out racist. But I think if you put some thought into it and did it right, it could be awesome.
7. You know how there’s a type of B-movie where there’s an ancient monster sleeping under the earth, and then it’s disturbed by oil drilling or modern construction of some sort? I think there should be a movie like this with Industrial Revolution coal miners.
~~~
In For A Penny
Author: Rose Lerner
Publisher: Dorchester/Leisure
Pub. Date: February 23, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0373774395
336 pagesIN FOR A PENNY
No more drinking. No more gambling. And definitely no more mistress. Now that he’s inherited a mountain of debts and responsibility, Lord Nevinstoke has no choice but to start acting respectable. Especially if he wants to find a wife-better yet, a rich wife. Penelope Brown, a manufacturing heiress, seems the perfect choice. She’s pretty, rational, ladylike, and looking for a marriage based on companionship and mutual esteem.
IN FOR A POUND
But when they actually get to Nev’s family estate, all the respectability and reason in the world won’t be enough to deal with tenants on the edge of revolt, a menacing neighbor, and Nev’s family’s propensity for scandal. Overwhelmed but determined to set things right, Nev and Penelope have no one to turn to but each other. And to their surprise, that just might be enough.
~~~
8. Bonnie Prince Charlie vs. the Loch Ness monster!
9. Dust monsters in the Great Depression!
10. St. George and the Dragon. Need I say more? If you wanted, the dragon could be an alien, but it’s not necessary.
11. Aliens land in medieval Japan and Samurai must defeat them–or learn that even though they look different, we can share the galaxy in peace, depending on what kind of alien movie this is. I’m envisioning this as War of the Worlds-style aliens, but you could really take this in a lot of directions visually.
12. Suffragettes vs. giant robots! I’m a little surprised this hasn’t been done yet, what with the rise of steampunk and all.
13. The Greek War of Independence (1821-1829), but with monsters from Greek mythology. Byron would be a character, and possibly instead of dying of dysentery he would be eaten by a Cyclops.
14. An alchemist accidentally creates a monster in his lab, and must defeat it before it destroys his entire city, and then–the world!
15. In 19th century Cornwall, wreckers (who would loot ships that wrecked close to shore and sell the cargo, in extreme cases leaving the crew to drown or even killing them to cover up their illegal activities) are looting a ship–only to discover that it wrecked because the crew was eaten by monsters! Possibly vampires because they’re fond of killing the crews of ships as their coffins are transported from Transylvania (which seems really impractical, as don’t you need the crews to, you know, run the ship?), but not necessarily.
My friend and I were also really excited about The Severed Hand of Franklin, in which Lord Franklin’s expedition looking for the Northwest Passage is murdered by the Abominable Snowman, and then it turned out there already was a horror novel about the Franklin expedition: The Terror
Suggest your own costume drama monster movies in the comments! My favorite suggestion gets a signed copy of IN FOR A PENNY.
Thanks for having me on The Season!
~*~*~
For an additional opportunity to win IN FOR A PENNY plus a package of 10 (ten) of Rose’s favourite Regency-set novels, visit Rose at www.roselerner.com/contest.html
Hi, Beverly and Rose! Concepts Nos 8, 13, and 15 rock! Many have written about Bonnie Prince Charlie in passing, but I’d like to read about him in action! It is hard to top your concepts, but here’s my suggestions. I moved to Hawaii last summer and I am learning more about its mythology, including Pele, the Volcano Goddess. She is hot tempered (hence her connections to volcanoes), frequently throws tantrums, and has a string of lovers.
Meanwhile, the Black Pearl recently arrived in Hawaii for this summers’ filming of the next Pirates of the Caribbean. I’d like to see Captain Jack Sparrow team up with Pele, just for convenience, to battle the evil sea monster that keeps creating the deadly tsunamis. Pele and the sea are constantly battling, but she is winning as her home, Kilauea, continues to spew lava that flows to the sea, hardens, and allows the Big Island of Hawaii to grow.
Great blog today.
Congratulations on the new book Rose! I am not too familiar with monster movies but my choice would be Gone With the Wind meets Godzilla which I would title Gone With Godzilla.
Hello, Rose! Congratulations on your delightful new book!
Warlocks & Peace: The Untold Story of Leo Tolstoy’s World of Witches, Werewolves and the Undead!
This was a fun post, but a little harder than I thought it would be to come up with an idea.
How about—-Johnny Appleseed and the Man-eating Worm…
Rose, the real plot of your own book seems perfect to me! I’m looking forward to reading it. I confess to reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but will have to be awfully tempted to dip into the para world again—altho Janet Mullany lures me with Jane Austen in Bath with vampires, LOL. She wanted to call it Blood Bath, but that was nixed. 🙂
How about Frankenstein and Madame DeFarge keeping us in stitches as they terrify Paris?
Kim—ooh, cool idea! Now that you mention it, I guess the Pirates movies are already kind of costume drama monster movies, aren’t they? Maybe that’s part of why I love them so much.
Maureen–I love that! Hordes of fleeing women in hoopskirts would be a great visual. Perhaps the former slaves could team up to defeat Godzilla and it would end up making Reconstruction come out better, too…
Virginia–That would certainly liven up War and Peace! I shouldn’t say that but I guess I am just a Dostoyevsky girl at heart.
Deb–Johnny Appleseed and the Man-eating Worm! That might be my favorite suggestion so far. My friend suggests he could be backed in his fight by an army of living trees. That would be AWESOME!
Maggie/Margaret–did you like P&P&Zombies? I was put off by the description on the back of it turning a classic of literature into something you might actually want to read and maybe didn’t give it the chance it deserved…and aww, I feel sorry for poor Frankenstein! He is always a pawn in someone’s game. Mme Defarge is only using him to kill aristocrats! But she did make him a nice sweater at least…
Maybe it’s because I really take paranormal stuff too seriously, but it was hard for me to wrap my mind around some of those, lol. I’ll take a stab, though.
I personally always thought that the Phantom of the Opera should have been a REAL phantom. Or a vampire. Or a demon bargaining for a piece of Christine’s soul.
Or, how about a zombie virus on the Titanic?
That’s all I got. 😛
How about Pretty Woman meets Fredy Krueger and is saved by Aliens monster. Only he saved her for himself and his colony.
Hi Bev and Rose,
For some reason suggestion number 13 really appeals to me. Maybe because i’ve been reading the Percy Jackson series of late. How about Star Wars meets Star Trek and try to take down the Borg who has joined up Frankenstein. Or Dracula wishes to have a “conversation” with the sparkly Twilight vampires about vampires being vampires not pixies. ^^
I have to say, I totally suck at stuff like this. My favourite monster has always been Michael from Halloween. How can he be fit int there somehow???
Michael from Halloween time-travels to 18th century Scotland. . .
Gwen–I LOVE the idea of zombies on the Titanic! That would explain why no one saw the iceberg coming, wouldn’t it?
jedisakora–RE: your Dracula/Twilight concept, check out the first comic in this post!: http://beatonna.livejournal.com/132035.html
Now I think of it, Edward Cullen is supposed to be pretty old, right? Where are the flashbacks to his vampire past, like Angel and Spike got? He must have been doing SOMETHING for the past 200 years when he wasn’t dating…
Beverley and Gwen–Yes!!! Time travel is ALWAYS an option! Man, I am really enjoying the image of Michael rampaging across the heather…
Great post! I don’t do many monster movies but I could see Vampires in London or Scotland!
Hi Rose,
Hehe. ^^ Another instance of the epic fail that Stephine Meyer writes. Those flash backs really should have been included. Carsile had some… Spike, Angel, or even Blade could totally beat him up. As bad as it may sound, but i’ve always felt it was a waste of trees for have the books printed. I read all of them and can’t see why they’re so popular. Have you seen either of this pictures:
http://www.gearfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/twilight-ending-blade.jpg
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/9100000/Edward-meets-Dracula-critical-analysis-of-twilight-9175375-612-792.jpg
First let me say I visited your site and like your REGENCY STARTER PACK list. I copied it so I can look for the ones I don’t have.
I don’t do horror movies. How about NIGHTMARE AT NORTHANGER ABBEY. Freddy Krueger stalks young friends on their summer at Bath.
THE PIRANHAS OF BATH. Hiding in the water supply pipes, they come out to attack when bathers least expect it.
THE WERECAT AND THE BEAST -(I’m a Beauty and the Beast fan) – A quiet young woman is sent out to be governess to the son and daughter of a Lord who has cut himself off from the world since his wife scarred him and ran off with her lover. Little does he suspect her secret and how she will help him survive the further attempts on his life by his enemies.
Hello Rose! Happy release week!
Okay, so here’s what I came up with.
Grapes of Wrath v. the Dust Monster- Instead of the dust bowl, Tom Joad has to fight a ginormous dust monster with nothing but a pitchfork and a bushel of oranges. Like he didn’t have enough going on.
The Scarlet Letter- Hester Prynne gives birth to a kick ass witch and Pearl lays down her own brand of justice on Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. I’d pay to see that.
LOL! ‘The Goths, the Witch, and The Wardrobe’.
jedisakora–I am not a Twilight fan myself but I will freely admit I’ve passionately loved way worse things, so. But the Dracula in that comic is ADORABLE! “Put your shirt on!” [slap!] He seems like he would be fun to MST3K movies with. Maybe not the image he was going for?
librarypat–Thanks! Let me know what you think of the books when you read them. I ADORE that Piranhas of Bath idea! Imagine the carnage! The feeding frenzy! The dowager skeletons, picked clean! It’s perfect.
Anna–I’d pay to see that too! I always liked Pearl. I bet there would be As scrawled on the wall in blood at some point!
If people have more suggestions, go for it! I won’t be choosing a winner until sometime tomorrow.
Part 2.
Joye–Sorry, not sure how I missed you! I had to look up Freddy Kruger (yeah, I’m not really all that up on horror movies, I will admit it) but it looks like he kills you in your dreams? The idea of the Aliens monster stalking through my dreams may actually be CREEPIER than that. Wow.
Quilt Lady–I agree! You do see lots of Dracula movies but other than that, there aren’t nearly enough historical vampire settings. The flashbacks on Buffy and Angel were always some of my favorite parts (even though sometimes the wigs and accents were EXTREMELY unfortunate) and a whole movie of that would make me VERY happy.
Mel–What’s that one about? Baby Goths in Narnia? That would be cute, wouldn’t it? Although if liking nylons and lipstick disqualifies you from Narnia, Goths might be right out of the question.