Adaptational

It's every filmmaker's dream, and every young artist's Achilles' heel. The adaptation. The desire to tell another man's story in your own way, or else in the way you believe is the right way. But what can you do when the world outpaces you? What is left for you when your aspirations stretch beyond their reach? What stories are you left to tell? In this special self-isolation bonus episode, your host Skye Thorleifson recalls the aspirations of his youth, reflecting on the stories that he wanted to retell, and what influences they left on his art and his soul. And yes, this is the exact tone of voice he intends to use throughout this entire saga.

What constitutes horror in either video games or film? Can you translate a lack of free will in a traditional cinematic media? What is the best way to kill a Big Daddy mech? Take the plunge into these questions and more on today’s discussion about director Ken Levine’s Ayn Rand-inspired masterpiece, ‘BioShock’. Recorded live at FanQuest 2018. Now available on all podcast apps: The Hardcover Edition, featuring the Appendices. Stay until the end of the episode to learn more about the material, its cinematic history, and my personal connection to it.

What are the makings of an exceptional female protagonist? Whatever happened to movies set in the medieval period? How do you pronounce Saoirse Ronan’s name? Join my quest to answer these questions on this episode about Tamora Pierce’s 'Song of the Lioness'. Now available on all podcast apps: The Hardcover Edition, featuring the Appendices. Stay until the end of the episode to learn more about the material, its cinematic history, and my personal connection to it.

Do video game heroes need to have the moral high ground? How do you write for a silent protagonist? Can any movie break the dreaded ‘video game curse’? Journey into the unknown and the uncertain on this episode discussing director Fumito Ueda’s ‘Shadow of the Colossus’. Featuring Harris Gale of ‘Superbomb!’ and Jackson MacGillivray of ‘Press Start Gaming’. Now available on all podcast apps: The Hardcover Edition, featuring the Appendices. Stay until the end of the episode to learn more about the material, its cinematic history, and my personal connection to it.

The dramas found in a small British community, the differences between British and American culture, and the question of how to respectfully depict a character who may or may not be on the spectrum. These and other discussions on this episode about Mark Haddon’s ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’. Now available on all podcast apps: The Hardcover Edition, featuring the Appendices. Stay until the end of the episode to learn more about the material, its cinematic history, and my personal connection to it.

What makes a comic book starring people with animal heads stand out as a literary masterpiece? How brutal can a depiction of the Holocaust get on the page? What happens when an author is determined not to have his work adapted? All this and more on the latest episode, discussing Art Spiegelman’s ‘Maus’. Now available on all podcast apps: The Hardcover Edition, featuring the Appendices. Stay until the end of the episode to learn more about the material, its cinematic history, and my personal connection to it.

What came before us? Where did they go? When will they return? Join us in an episode chockfull of ancient aliens, existentialism, and geeking out about Guillermo del Toro. Today, we dive into H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘At the Mountains of Madness’. Now available on all podcast apps: The Hardcover Edition, featuring the Appendices. Stay until the end of the episode to learn more about the material, its cinematic history, and my personal connection to it.

What do we think of when we talk about teenage angst? How much can one author and/or main character hate the cinema? How many times can I say the word 'society' in one episode? Find out on our first episode as we dive into the troubled history of J. D. Salinger’s classic novel, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’. Now available on all podcast apps: The Hardcover Edition, featuring the Appendices. Stay until the end of the episode to learn about the material, its cinematic history, and my personal connection to it.