You never know what you’re going to get when Hollywood adapts classic sci-fi stories so I’m not sure whether to be excited about this news or just go ahead and be disappointed. But Alex Proyas, who is most famous for directing Dark City and I, Robot (and the upcoming Knowing) has optioned the rights to Robert Heinlein’s novela The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag.
Heinlein is probably best known today for writing the book Starship Troopers as well as the very famous Stranger In A Strange Land which, strangely enough, became a sort of bible for the Hippie movement in the ’60s.
The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag was originally published in a 1942 edition of Unknown Worlds magazine. The story was later republished in Heinlein’s 1959 collection of short stories. The story is about a man named Jonathan Hoag who one day realizes he has no memory of what he does during the day time. After discovering a red-brown substance, blood perhaps, under his fingernails, Hoag decides to hire a private private detective agency, run by a husband and wife team, to follow him in order to find out what he does during the day. It’s described as a psychological thriller.
Proyas says the story has been one of his favorites since childhood. “I read this story as a kid, and it really stayed with me. It’s part of my creative DNA,” he said. It does seem that perhaps this story served as some inspiration for Dark City.
I’m going to remain positive about this project because I think it has a lot of potential and I’m an Alex Proyas fan. It seems to me that Proyas should really be able to do something special with a good story that he’s loved his whole life.
The tentative plan is to begin production on Jonathan Hoag in 2010, after Proyas finishes up Dracula Year One for Universal.
Now I want to read the book…sounds pretty cool.
Now I want to read the book…sounds pretty cool.
So why does it always seem that when fictional people can't remember what they did during a particular period of time, it always ends up being something violent… leaving a blood-like substance under our nails. Just a question.
With that aside, the book and movie sound interesting!
So why does it always seem that when fictional people can't remember what they did during a particular period of time, it always ends up being something violent… leaving a blood-like substance under our nails. Just a question.
With that aside, the book and movie sound interesting!
Stranger in a Strange Land, while I wouldn’t call it a bible for my generation, is the book that I credit with heavily influencing my life and thoughts when I read it (under cover in bed with a flashlight so my mom wouldn’t know). I love all of his stories, novels and novellas. But I’m not sure how well The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag will translate to the big screen.
But with that said, I’ll be interested in hearing if it ever gets developed. And will probably go see it.