BLACK FLAME BEGINS ROLLING ON BOOKS
Fangoria reports:
‘Gascoigne reveals additions to a couple of the key horror lines: JASON X: PLANET OF THE BEAST by Nancy Kilpatrick arrives in June 2005, and FINAL DESTINATION: END OF THE LINE by Rebecca Levene is coming the same month. He adds, ‘It looks like August 2005 for our fourth launch, a new FRIDAY THE 13TH series, with the brilliantly named CHURCH OF THE DIVINE PSYCHOPATH by Scott Phillips and HELL LAKE by Paul Woods.’
Gascoigne adds that Black Flames primary goal is to deliver to the franchises fans. ‘It all boils down to two simple rules, really: Be true to the subject matter, and be any good,’ he says. ‘If youre writing about Jason, its gotta be Jason. He cant give it all up in chapter six and settle down to run a convenience store. The guys a machete-wielding maniac, pure and simple.
‘Meanwhile, yeah, OK, so these books are kinda pulpy. Damn right they are! Cheap trash, though? Perish the thought! We might be firmly in the land of the B-movie here, but what made the movies so popular was a certain flair and quality, and our books are written the same way. The last thing we want is for a curious reader to try one, only to hurl it away in disgust at a lame plot or an unrecognizable star. Pulp and proud, thats us, and were damn good at it.’
Black Flame became involved with New Line after its parent company, Games Workshop, had great success with its LORD OF THE RINGS games. Gascoigne notes that the New Line honchos ‘check and approve absolutely everything we do, pure and simple. They are very active in ensuring that their properties are represented properly, and have been incredibly helpful in guiding us and our writers to produce books that were all proud of. Yes, weve had a few occasions where weve sent in something we thought was great, but theyve not been so keen, but were definitely learning what gets them excited. And I must add that theyre really into their stuff. Weve not had one report of spontaneous vomiting or similar reactions to any of our material. We cant help but suspect those guys are as big a bunch of gorehounds as we are.’
Gascoigne and company have so far nabbed a number of significant genre authors to contribute, including vampire fiction veteran Kilpatrick, UK ‘queen of cyberpunk’ Pat Cadigan and ex-JUDGE DREDD editor David Bishop. But as far as film people becoming involved, ‘Weve cast the net wide while researching these titles, and weve managed to put our writers in touch with various members of the original creative teams for these movies. To a man theyve been incredibly helpful and supportive. But like all their charitable work and donations to deprived children, Im not going to embarrass them by naming them here. Theyll get their reward in heaven.’
Courtesy of Fangoria
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