The 5th Wave Call Conference

Provided by http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2304933/

Provided by http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2304933/

Angel Bacol, Editor-in-Chief

Within the film industry, there have been studios that have been making movie adaptations of well-known book series. Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series has both a movie and tv series. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series have been a great hit in both the movies and books. Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games film series has recently ended. The next well-known book that have been made into a movie is Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave.

The 5th Wave is released in theatres on January 22nd. It focuses around a young girl named Cassie Sullivan (being played by Chloë Grace Moretz) who is searching for her brother Sam (being played by Zackary Arthur) while the human face is facing extinction from alien attacks. Cassie has fate lead her to her possible last hope, an alliance with Evan Walker (being played by Alex Roe). They have no other choice but to trust each other as they fight to prepare for the next assault sent by the aliens.

I have been given a chance to interview Rick Yancey through a conference call with many other journalists as well. There are many authors who would love to see their books turn into movies but not all books have that ability. There also movie adaptations that are not always true to the books and flop in the big screens.

“I think I was luckier than a lot of writers who had their original works adapted,” Rick Yancey said on the subject of the process adaptation. “The rights to the film were picked up even before I finished the book. They were picked shortly after the book was purchased by Penguin Publishing, and I had meetings very early on with executives and produces and also had some interaction with the screenwriters, so I was in the process pretty much from the beginning.”

Glad to know that Yancey has been evolved in the process since it first started. There are many fans of the Best Selling YA novel that are very loyal to the book, they want the movie to match the book, and there is always criticism coming from them for better or for worse. At least the author understands that what the fans’ want can’t always happen.

“I did not have a hand in adapting my work, which is probably a good idea, because movies are not books and books are not movies, and there are demands that are narratively possible in books and not in movies and vice versa and I always try to keep that in mind as we move through the process,” said Yancey.

Fans should expect some parts of the movie not being 100% identical to the novel, it is a movie adaptation after all. So fans should also understand that the actors and actresses playing their favorite characters may not be the one they visualized as them, but they were chosen as should be given a chance.

“When a reader reads the book, they’re going to have a Cassie in their head, and anytime the Cassie on the screen doesn’t do something they think the Cassie in their head should do, there’s going to be a disconnect. I know that I’m going to have to keep in mind when I watch the movie that Chloe Moretz’s Cassie is not going to be a carbon copy clone of the Cassie that I have in my head. I’m going to enjoy the movie for the movie that it is.” said Yancey.

When writing a novel, authors can’t immediately know what they want to write about. There’s a reason why there’s such a thing as writer’s block. Authors need to be inspired and think outside the box sometimes, whether it came from watching tv or experiencing something meaningful.

“The story was probably planted around 2008 when the financial markets nearly collapsed worldwide. I guess that got me thinking about apocalyptic events.” said Yancey, “I’d been writing books for young adults for a few years prior to that and particularly that time in a young person’s life is rather apocalyptic… It was like one day you’re under your parents roof and your life is one way and the next day it’s totally different, totally turned on its ear and completely changed, and I think that’s one of the reasons that this genre is so popular right now. I think young people really relate to that, sort of ‘I’m on my own and how am I going to navigate surviving in a world so foreign to me and to everything I’ve known before?’” said Yancey.

In literature, authors always have a message for their readers that they want them to understand and learn from. In most science fiction novels about alien invasions, it’s mostly been about human survival. For The 5th Wave, it’s more than just that theme. You also need to wonder who you can trust once aliens place their feet on earth soil.

“As I wrote this series, the story kind of unfolded for me as the writer. It goes beyond the message of “humans will do anything to survive and we are like cockroaches in the sense that we are indestructible.” That’s one of the reasons we triumphed over nature, but for me the deeper message is about the bonds that bind us together in the human family and that how, even an advanced species as presented in the books really has no answer for that in terms of engineering our own demise. I think that’s one of the positive messages of the story is that it’s very difficult to eradicate humanity out of humans. Just as tribalism and hatred and prejudice and bias exist in us, so do the opposite side of that coin, you know, love and the ability to sacrifice our own personal needs for somebody else which is remarkable and very hard to explain when you start talking about survival of the fittest and Darwinian concepts, the idea of altruism and sacrificing yourself for a greater cause,” said Yancey.

The 5th Wave is a novel that appeals to different kinds of audiences. For the YA audience, they have been used to reading female heroines’ point of view within a novel (The Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.). Although, all authors have a reason as to why they chose a specific gender as their main character.

“I wanted to challenge myself and really create an authentic female voice, if you will. I didn’t realize until after the fact that much of Cassie’s voice alludes to the one female I know best in my life which is my wife, but that was the major personal reason I did it. I guess another reason I did it goes back to the thematic elements of the story, which is what qualities do we ascribe more closely to males like aggressiveness, physicality, or those things that are more traditionally or are typically more ascribed to females; the nurturing part of human nature, the part that’s about preserving, protecting, defending, and what is ultimately stronger. It’s probable that the feminine force will ultimately save us, so I think there’s a lot of things at play in the decision beyond ‘oh I need a girl to be my hero because people think that’s cool.’” said Yancey.

In many stories about alien invasions and the extinction of mankind, it mostly happens within one massive attack. What makes The 5th Wave so unique and different from the rest is that there are waves of destruction attacking humanity all at different times. A brilliant idea that helps readers think about the different ways that aliens can try to attack us.

“Obviously the bad guys, the aliens, could have destroyed us all at once. All they would have to do is hurl a big rock at the earth – we wouldn’t be able to stop it and it would pretty much take care of everything. The problem with that is that I wouldn’t have a story to write… If I was an evil alien, and I didn’t want to risk my own survival in order to take the earth, how would I do it in a low impact way in terms of damaging the earth? That’s how the ideas of the series of attacks came out… It was more of an organic process than anything else… Figuring out as I went along, you know, playing the evil alien,” said Yancey.

The call conference has allowed me insight on the process that goes through an author’s head while they write their novels as well as how they feel about a movie adaptation. Rick Yancey has provided the journalists and I with very descriptive replies to our answers. A lot of excitement about The 5th Wave have been buzzing around my school and with my friends. A movie that I am excited to watch!