For those who don't know, Axis of Time is about an American carrier battle group from 2021 that gets thrown back in time to the middle of World War II. It's like that movie The Final Countdown, but much better. It doesn't just go into the military effects, but the social effects. Anyway, go read them.
They have now been optioned, and if they actually end up getting on TV, it will be very cool.
Story: https://www.patreon.com/posts/weapons-of-55747939
https://deadline.com/2021/09/axis-of-time-tv-adaptation-luke-sparke-1234827075/
This should be exciting to all fans of alternate history IMO!
They have now been optioned, and if they actually end up getting on TV, it will be very cool.
Story: https://www.patreon.com/posts/weapons-of-55747939
So I guess I'd better crack on and get this series written!
I think the deal was supposed to be announced next week, but somebody from Deadline got wind of it and Luke decided to go out early. I'll shrug at this point and say that the ways of the screen people are foreign and mysterious to me.
But I am stoked this is happening.
The Deadline story is here, but one deep they didn't get - I've been quietly working on the script too. It's been fun. I'm not writing the original copy, just going over it and giving it a touch up here and there. Polishing dialogue and character deets rather than messing with the plot structure.
The narrative arc of the pilot is quite different to the first couple of chapters of Weapons because it has to be. I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote that book and that lack of experience is obvious to me when I go back to it now, most especially in the structure.
As soon as I saw some of the techniques Luke had used to differentiate the uptime scenes from the Transition I thought, yeah, this guy knows what he's doing.
Anyway, most of my attention is still focussed here, on the story set a decade and a half after Weapons, but I did get one little treat for you from the producers.
A sample of the concept art.
https://deadline.com/2021/09/axis-of-time-tv-adaptation-luke-sparke-1234827075/
EXCLUSIVE: John Birmingham’s World War II alternate history book trilogy Axis of Time is set for a television adaptation.
Luke Sparke, the Australian writer/director behind the sci-fi feature franchise Occupation, has optioned the rights via his Sparke Films banner and will write the adaptation.
Weapons of Choice, the first book in the series was published by Macmillan in 2004, and the trilogy deals with a radical rip in the fabric of time when a technologically advanced naval task force from the near future is accidentally transported back through time to 1942, landing in the middle of WWII.
The series will feature all three books, including Designated Targets and Final Impact.
The project is a collaboration between Sparke and co-writer Jay Thames, who appeared in Sons of Anarchy. Carly Imrie and Carmel Imrie will produce, alongside Trimax Media’s Alan Glazier (Get Smart) and Zachary Garred (Occupation Rainfall).
The books begin when a military experiment in the near future has thrust an American-led multinational armada back to 1942, right into the middle of the U.S. naval task force speeding toward Midway Atoll, and what was to be the most spectacular U.S. triumph of the entire war. Thousands die in the chaos, but the changes in the time space continuum have only begun. The veterans of Pearl Harbor, led by Admiral Spruance, have never seen a helicopter, or a satellite link, or a nuclear weapon. And they’ve never encountered an African American colonel or a mixed-race female British naval commander. While they embrace the armada’s awesome firepower, they may find the twenty-first century sailors themselves far from acceptable.
Initial jubilation at news the Allies would win the war is quickly doused by the chilling realization that the time travelers themselves, by their very presence, have rendered history null and void. Celebration turns to dread when the possibility arises that other elements of the twenty-first century may have also made the trip, and might now be aiding Yamamoto and the Japanese.
Author Birmingham said, “I am stoked to see Luke and his crew turn this favorite, much loved story into something new and madly exciting. His Occupation films are enormous fun and his plans to blast Weapons of Choice onto the screen promise even more. More fun, more action, more head-spinning concepts and adventures. I’ve always had a movie of this series running somewhere in my head and reading his script, seeing the artwork, it was like it suddenly exploded all around me.”
“When I read John’s Weapons of Choice on its release back in 2004, I knew immediately it would make an amazing TV series. That book and the subsequent trilogy became my Catcher in the Rye. When I reached out to John with my ideas, I got to work developing the first season. Five years later, we have a series that is extremely relevant and timely with everything going on in the world. There’s never been a better time to look back on our history and see how far we have come, let alone throwing our current culture 80 years back in time and see the two worlds collide. This series is very dear to my heart and will developed for the screen with loving care,” added Sparke.
This should be exciting to all fans of alternate history IMO!