Alex Bell – fantasy author

Ninth Circle Press Release from Reelart Media:

Monday 8 March 2010- London

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE

The Ninth Circle by Rising Star Author Alex Bell, Optioned for Movie Rights  

Reelart Media Limited are pleased to announce that Reelart have optioned Movie Rights for The Ninth Circle by Gollancz fantasy author, Alex Bell. Hampshire based Alex Bell is recognised as an up-and-coming young British talent with three novels successfully published to high critical acclaim.

Contracts have been signed to bring the book’s hero Gabriel Antaeus to where he rightly belongs – on the big screen.  With a movie adaptation already underway and directors, leading cast and locations being sought in the UK and Hungary, production is expected to commence September 2010.

Reelart Managing Director, Daniel O’Toole stated, ‘We are thrilled to be working hard, to turn Alex’s first novel into what will undoubtedly be a talked about movie adaptation.  We believe we have found a talented, young British writer and the character of Gabriel Antaeus is one we can see developing into other projects. Obviously we’re very excited to bring this novel to the big screen.’

‘Alex Bell and her novels already have a growing army of fans and we know we can do justice to her work,’ Reelart Producer, Matthew O’Toole commented as contracts were signed.

‘After my initial meeting with Reelart, I knew they were the right people to bring my work to life. It’s always such a pleasure to talk to people who really get the book, and if anyone can successfully bring a faithful version of The Ninth Circle to the big screen, I am sure it is them,’ said Alex Bell.

The Ninth Circle, is Alex Bell’s first novel and begins as our mysterious hero wakes beaten and bloodied on the floor of a Budapest flat with no recall of his past.  His efforts to rediscover his identity are punctuated with cryptic clues, strange visions, terrifying dreams which eventually come together into an epic battle of good and evil and Gabriel asking the question: is it really better the devil you know?

The Ninth Circle takes its place in Reelart’s upcoming production slate with production due to commence September 2010.

—-ENDS—-

Notes to Editors:

For more information on Reelart Media Limited:

www.reelartmedia.com

For more information on Alex Bell:

www.alex-bell.co.uk

For more up to date releases on The Ninth Circle Movie

www.theninthcirclemovie.com

For more information on The Ninth Circle Novel and reviews

http://www.alex-bell.co.uk/books/the-ninth-circle/ 

I’m very pleased to announce that the film rights for The Ninth Circle have been optioned by Reelart Media. After meeting with Matthew and Daniel O’Toole of Reelart, I was very impressed both with their enthusiasm for the book, and their understanding of it. It’s always such a pleasure to talk to people who really get the book, and if anyone can successfully bring a faithful version of The Ninth Circle to the big screen, I am sure it is them.

I can’t add too much more about it at this stage because it’s all top secret, and if I told you I would have to kill you – or send Sam Sykes to kill you – but watch this space . . .

In other news, Lex Trent versus The Gods has also been optioned for film. Lex and his twin brother Lucius are to be played by none other than John and Edward Grimes, otherwise known as Jedward, who, as I have already stated elsewhere, look shockingly like the Lex Trent I see in my head (apart from the hair, obviously):

Nah, I’m only kidding. About Lex, that is. The Ninth Circle/Reelart stuff is all true.

Today I have received the Portuguese edition of The Ninth Circle, or, 09.˚ Cίrculo, as it is in Portuguese. I have since had several requests for photos, so here they are:

Front:

And back:

I am incredibly chuffed with this version of the cover. The stone angels give it a religious look, which I love, and I think it has a fantastic gothic feel to it. I have been very lucky with all of my front covers so far. Law of averages says that at some point I will have to get a cover that I’m not delighted with, but it hasn’t happened yet. When it does, I will, of course, have to be publicly tactful about it, and just say something like ‘this is an . . . interesting front cover’. But, thankfully, that day is not today.

Publicações Europa-América are the publishers for this one, and they have also got the Portuguese rights for Jasmyn as well. I very much hope that when they bring Jasmyn out they do it in a similar style to this one, as I think that would look absolutely stunning.

It seems very odd flicking through a book that I know I wrote, but which I can’t understand because it’s all in a different language. If only I were as multi-lingual as Gabriel – then I could read this book, and any other foreign language edition I receive in the future. Alas, I shall just have to content myself with flicking through it with a big grin on my face.

Yes, you heard right – Jasmyn is now in a teacup. Available in all good kitchenware stores now . . . Oh no, hang on, it’s not in all good stores now because there is, in fact, only one Jasmyn teacup. Only one Ninth Circle teacup too, come to that. My Mum gives me a present on the day one of my books come out (yes, she really is that cool). When The Ninth Circle came out last year she gave me a little desktop Mephistopheles.

For Jasmyn, I got a specially commissioned, one-of-a-kind, Jasmyn teacup. I have a bit of a thing about teacups. I blogged here about the magic one I have. And I can tell already that my Jasmyn  teacup is going to be a magic one too. Here are some pictures (although they don’t really do it justice):

How. Beautiful? And how perfect? Black roses, castles, knights, swans . . . it has everything. For anyone who’s interested, this teacup was designed and created by the wonderfully named Bethan Lloyd Worthington at http://www.bethanlloydworthington.co.uk/. Man, I wish my name was Bethan Lloyd Worthington . . . Her work bears more than a passing resemblance to the renowned Kustaa Saksi – creator of my fantastic Gollancz covers.

But, not only do I have a Jasmyn teacup, I now have a Ninth Circle coffee cup. Behold:

I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to use them yet. The thought of pouring tea into them horrifies me a little. I don’t want to stain the cup inside. But I’m thinking I might, perhaps, use them to hold M&M’s when I’m writing. After that they will be safely relocated back to the special cupboard for the special cutlery. I do, after all, have a Siamese cat who . . .  well . . . breaks things. Rather a lot. So the teacups can’t be left out in the open.  But they can be stared at adoringly through the glass windows in the special cupboard. In fact, I’ve spent the better part of the last day doing just this. These two cups are now my most treasured possessions. They even top Erin and Abu, and that is seriously saying something.

But the best part? There is going to be a Lex Trent teacup. Oh yes, there is. And a Lex Trent 2 teacup. The first Lex Trent one is being worked upon as we speak. Already, I feel about ten times more excited about the 3rd September release date for Lex, simply because of the cup. I also feel that, when devising a new project from now on, I’ll be thinking – what will this book look like as a teacup? Is that wrong? Well, if it is, I’m afraid I just don’t care. These teacups are wicked cool. There is no other description for them. Take it from me – it is worth being a published author, simply for the teacups.

When my Dad joined the merchant navy (in the brief time before deciding that stockbroking was the way forwards) he was told that there were three subjects that must never be discussed in the officers’ mess: religion, politics and sex. If you don’t want to upset people then this is generally sage advice wherever the conversation happens to be taking place. Obviously I endeavour to ignore sage advice whenever possible on principle. And, indeed, the above rule is why I was very often shushed at any dinner party my parents threw for clients back in the day (although admittedly this was more because I wanted to talk to them about religion and politics rather than sex – even I am not quite that odd).

The point is that religion is a tricky subject. People get upset much more quickly when talking about religion than they do discussing, say, Hungry Hippos (although I guess it depends on how competitive you are at games). It’s therefore not my intention to go into great detail about religion on my blog, nor do I plan to respond to reviews (be they good or bad) for the simple reason that I find blogging about my animals and my love for strange headgear more entertaining.

But I’m going to make a bit of an exception with this post because I’ve seen – a couple of times now – reviewers state that Gabriel’s religious views in The Ninth Circle are clearly my own. When I talk to people about the book they often expect this to be the case as well. This week I spoke to a book club about The Ninth Circle. I’ve never done this before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. They were a lovely bunch of people who asked me some very intelligent and thoughtful questions about the book. I did, however, get the impression that some of them expected Gabriel Antaeus to walk through the door rather than me. Hopefully by the end of the session they realised that we are two entirely separate people – after all, at no point during the evening did I attempt to attack anyone, or suggest we engage in group prayer (that I can recall).

But – for the record – I am not Gabriel.

Gabriel is a fictional character that I made up and just because the book is told in first person does not mean that I’m simply writing down everything that I believe. It’s probably unavoidable that a little bit of the author seeps into the character, but it’s something I actively try to avoid even to the extent of deliberately distancing myself from my characters (this is another reason why I generally prefer to write male protagonists).

Gabriel is a fiercely religious man, but I do not believe in God. I’m not an atheist, but I am an agnostic. In its attitudes towards women, slavery, gay people, working on the Sabbath etc, I think much of what the Old Testament says is utter – utter - nonsense. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of good in the Bible too. But I would never blindly accept every word it says even if, much of the time, Gabriel does.

My name is not Gabriel, chaps. When I write about his faith I’m not writing about my faith, but imagining his. The first thing they always told us in creative writing classes at school was “write about what you know.” I’m afraid I would have to dismiss this completely. Where’s the fun in that? I might even go so far as to say “write about what you don’t know.” I don’t believe that I need to be religious to write about a religious character. Much in the same way that I don’t think I need to cut off my own hand before I can appreciate that it will hurt. Surely you can conceive of these things using your imagination alone.

It’s not that I would ever be offended by people mistakenly believing me to be religious. Far from it. Nor do I get offended when people see my name and automatically assume I’m a bloke. It’s not insulting; it’s just that it isn’t true. But considering what an odd character Gabriel is, it concerns me a little that people sometimes think I am him. It should be a common sense thing, really, and I’m sure most people don’t believe it. Otherwise no one would talk to me at the author parties (or at family get togethers, for that matter). But for those people who do suspect that I am Gabriel, I guess you’re just gonna have to take my word for the fact that I’m not. Honest.