HBO to Remake Westworld

According to Variety, HBO has given the go for the production of a pilot of a series remake of Westworld. Michael Crichton wrote and directed the 1973 film. Jonathan Nolan, who has written the films The Prestige and The Dark Knight Rises, plus the TV series Person of Interest, will be writing and directed the remake.

From Variety:

The HBO rendition of “Westworld” is described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” The pilot production commitment is a big one by HBO’s standards, indicated the depth of the pay cabler’s interest in the project.

While you’re waiting, check out Michael Crichton in “The Making of Westworld”:

John Lange Novels to be Published in Paperback

Ask and ye shall receive.

When the digital publication of Michael Crichton’s pseudonym novels was announced, many people said they wished they could get print editions. Most of the titles were out of print and the second hand copies were often quite expensive.

Especially Odds On, Drug of Choice, and The Venom Business.

Hard Case Crime, which republished Grave Descend in 2006 and Zero Cool in 2008, will be publishing the eight novels Crichton wrote under the name “John Lange” in October/November 2013.

Charles Ardai, the owner and publisher of Hard Case Crime, worked with Crichton in getting two of the books republished—Crichton even wrote two extra chapters for Zero Cool—but he was unable to persuade “John Lange” to reveal his true identity. In a recent interview, Ardai said:

Working with Michael (even if we had to keep it secret) was one of the great pleasures and privileges of my career, and ever since, I've wished we could have completed what we began. I've also wondered whether Michael might eventually have given in to temptation and written a whole new Lange novel for us -- no less persuasive a figure than Stephen King was encouraging him to do so! Alas, a new Lange novel will never be…but we’re very pleased to announce that five years later we finally will get to finish what we started. We’re going to be bringing all eight John Lange novels back to bookstores for the first time in more than four decades – and with the blessing of Michael’s family, the first time ever under the his real name.

I work in a bookstore and I remember telling several Michael Crichton fans about the John Lange novels we had for sale. Most were very surprised, having had no idea that Crichton had written under a pseudonym.

Odds On (1966)

Scratch One (1967)

Easy Go (1968)

Zero Cool (1969)

The Venom Business (1970)

Drug of Choice (1970)

Grave Descend (1970)

Binary (1972)

Unfortunately, Dealing or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1970) by Michael Douglas is still available only in digital or out-of-print editions.

A Case of Need (1968) by Jeffery Hudson was out of print but was republished in 1993 with Crichton’s name on the cover. It’s available in paperback and has been for years. There’s an interesting story behind that. (Coming Soon: “A Special Case of Need”)

“A Portrait of Michael Crichton” video

This video, made in 2001, contains an extensive interview with Michael Crichton. It’s included in The Andromeda Strain (1971) DVD. Crichton talks about his writing during the Med School Years, and explains how he chose the pseudonyms “John Lange” and “Jeffery Hudson”.

Michael Crichton Pseudonym Novels Released

Eight of the ten pseudonym novels by Michael Crichton were released in digital format on July 23. Ebook releases of Grave Descend and Zero Cool have been pushed back to August 27, 2013. No explanation has been given, but the other books will provide plenty of reading for now.

I have print copies of all the titles. My favorites are Binary, Easy Go (aka The Last Tomb), Drug of Choice, and Scratch One. But all are fascinating reads, not only for what they reveal about Crichton as a writer, but in their own right.

Bonus
The ebooks contain a special treat for Michael Crichton’s fans—nine photos from the Crichton archives:

• A photo of Michael Crichton with his brother Douglas when they were boys. This photo was taken by their mother and appeared on the hardcover dust jacket of Dealing.

• A telegram informing Crichton of his acceptance to Harvard

• Crichton’s Harvard yearbook photo in 1961. He was in Lowell House. (I have a 1964 Harvard yearbook which shows Crichton in his senior year.)

• A photo of Crichton as an anthropology student at Harvard. He’s measuring some statues that I believe are the Elgin Marbles.

• Cover page for a paper Crichton published with the Peabody Museum

• 1969 Harvard Crimson article about Michael Crichton. As I documented in an earlier post, Crichton also wrote a number of articles for the Crimson.

• A photo of Crichton as a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute in 1969

• A photo of Crichton scuba diving, which was taken for his autobiography Travels

• A photo of Crichton “hiking while doing research for his novel Micro”. This choked me up a bit. As you know, Crichton died before he could finish the novel. Micro was published in November 2011 after Richard Preston completed the novel based on Crichton’s drafts and notes.

Michael Crichton “The Med School Years” video

To promote and celebrate the release of Michael Crichton’s pseudonym novels, the Crichton website now features a short video giving some background on these books. Interviews with Michael Crichton are included, as well as some comments by Crichton’s longtime agent Lynn Nesbit. (I believe I read that she became his agent on the second John Lange novel, Easy Go. Will have to find the reference.)



The main page of “The Med School Years” contains links to order the books from Amazon or Apple. I get my books from Barnes & Noble, so I’ll post the links for any who want to go there.

Easy Go

Odds On

The Venom Business

Drug of Choice

Binary

Scratch One

Grave Descend

Zero Cool

A Case of Need

Dealing or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues

Michael Crichton—The Med School Years

The Michael Crichton website has a new section on his pseudonym novels:

Michael Crichton “The Med School Years”

It contains a good deal of fascinating information. Although the phrase “The Med School Years” is a little misleading as four of the novels—Grave Descend (1970), Drug of Choice (1970), Dealing Or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1970), and Binary (1972)—were published after Crichton graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1969.

I've always wondered why he published the last few John Lange novels after he published the highly successful The Andromeda Strain (1969) under his own name. Did Crichton already have them written or did he have a contract for a specific number of John Lange novels?

Unanimous Supreme Court Decision: Gene Patents Illegal

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that patents cannot be issued for “naturally occurring” substances. In the case Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Myriad had claimed that the act of isolating the two genes that indicate a higher risk of breast cancer justified the company receiving a patent on said genes.

The court did, however, allow patents for cDNA (complementary DNA) but stated that they were not declaring that cDNA was entitled to be patented—just that right now there is no legal reason for forbidding it. This is a boon to biotech companies, who will be able to patent some products and therefore, receive some compensation for their research and hard work. However, as the court did not hold that cDNA is legally eligible for patents, this leaves the door open for Congress and the patent office to close this exception.

Gene patent decision: In Plain English

Somewhere, Michael Crichton is grinning broadly.