….by Karna Small Bodman

My Rogue Women Writer colleagues have written several fascinating posts recently about international kidnappings and revolutions that occurred some years ago — heady stuff, and I always learn so much reading their extensive research and seeing how much of it is or could be translated into terrific thrillers.  Now that we are beginning a New Year, I thought I would switch gears  and look ahead to see what’s in store for all of us – new books, new movies, new ideas. What are we anxiously waiting for and what might we hope to see or achieve?  To get some answers, I polled family members (of varying ages) around the dinner table last night and received a long list — with heavy emphasis on books-to-movies, “next in the series” projects and especially remakes of much loved classics.  We also made a few predictions.

First is a new project involving a great Rogue friend, Lee Child — international bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series of books.  If you haven’t yet become addicted to these stories, you might start at the beginning — with this recently released set of the first three.

Two of Lee’s thrillers have been made into block-buster films starring Tom Cruise.   Now, there’s word that Jack Reacher may be headed to the television screen in a deal with Amazon–complete with a new star. According to Child, “It would be toplined by a new actor more befitting the imposing, burly character” he created. Still in “nascent stages” we all are anticipating a great launch.

Second in line will be the new Avengers film the younger set is waiting for.  Everyone is speculating on what happens next. I found one theory which is circulating online.  Here’s a quote from heroichollywood.com: “In this new theory, a Reddit user proposed that Vision survived his encounter with the Mad Titan. Vision apparently greyed out before Thanos had the chance to tear the Mind Stone out, thus enabling him to transfer his conciseness into the Mind Stone. This, in turn, allowed him to affect what happened to the people when Thanos dusted half the universe and may have transferred them elsewhere.”

I confess to not having a clue what any of that means since I didn’t see the first one (and only include it here for those die-hard fans).

Another highly anticipated release is one I DO understand and will want to see, along with a lot of other folks with fond memories of the original, which came out way back in 1941! It is the upcoming

fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton with a screenplay written by Ehren Kruger…inspired by Walt Disney’s animated film of the same name — DUMBO — to be released March 29, 2019 –starring Colin Farrell as a one-armed war vet and former circus star who is hired to care for the newborn elephant, Michael Keaton plays a ruthless entrepreneur who acquires a circus to exploit an  elephant,  and Danny DeVito is cast in the role of ringmaster.

Getting back to books, remember the wonderful series by P.G. Wodehouse featuring Jeeves and Wooster?  Now bestselling author Ben Schott brings this “odd couple” back to life  in Jeeves and the King of Clubs where literature’s favorite gentleman and his gentleman’s personal gentleman become spies in service to the crown.  Many will also recall that  the original Wodehouse stories were made into a fabulous series of programs shown on PBS. As described by the publisher — In this escapade, Jeeves’s association of butlers and valets is revealed to be an arm of the British Intelligence service and Jeeves musts ferret out a Fascist spy. Sounds like a terrific new read.

 One more highly anticipated book is by our own Rogue, Robin Burcell, writing with Clive Cussler.  The new one is titled The Oracle and is next in the series featuring husband and wife team, Sam and Remi Fargo, as they return for another great adventure. This time it’s the hunt for ancient treasure that may or may not be cursed. It is available for pre-order here — I predict you will  truly enjoy this new thriller in the New Year!