Saturday 11 April 2009

The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko


Read: June 2006

Having recently spent $6million acquiring the Hollywood film rights, Twentieth Century Fox will be hoping this book is as big a success here as in its native Russia where more than one million hardback copies have already been sold. In a time of blurred moral and political demarcation, this is a vital book (the first in a trilogy) in which the ancient forces of light and dark struggle to live alongside each other in unwelcome acquiescence and disturbing compromise. Written with the humour of Buffy and the pace of The Matrix, this is a blockbuster novel, ready made for the big screen. Read it now before it becomes massive.


PLEASE NOTE: This review was written in the summer of 2006 before either book or film were even released. I am well aware the film has been released since (along with three other books in the series) and will try to update this review in the near future.



6 out of 10

2 comments:

Sean said...

I fail to accept that Fox has bought the movie-rights -- there's already a Night Watch movie, and it was very well done.

Sean said...

You know, considering the matter -- at least, for "Why the heck not?" value -- I don't suppose it's necessarily any film-making rights they've acquired, about the series. I think it's probably more like "import rights" -- however the guys with the suits and the glittering MBAs would choose to put it.

I was watching the trailer, again, for the film, Day Watch (that being the English translation of the original film's Russian name). In that film -- in the official release with English subtitles -- the masthead of FOX Searchlight pictures appears, there.

I would presume that the FOX Searchlight company would have a specialty about film import and international rights management. It's really not that important to me, though, whatever their business is. I'm simply glad if FOX is not going try to to ruin the film with any arrogant remake.