WeAss #189: Amuse Him...

John Scalzi says, "Amuse me!"

Um. Yeah. OK! So I've been sitting here for a while now, wracking my brain, trying to think of something that Mr. Scalzi would find amusing. Lately he seems greatly amused by clever photoshoppery that relates to his life or writing. My pal Karen (aka Mavarin) has that pretty well covered. So I started thinking about what she did. I tried to picture who would star in the epic motion picture event that Old Man's War would surely be when it comes to a silver screen near you.

The book has great characters, some kick-ass action and humor too (but it's not a Will Smith vehicle, no no.) Arnold Schwarzenegger? He's an old man. He knows his way around heavy weaponry. But that accent... He just doesn't fit that old dude from Ohio vibe that John has in the book. Jack Nicholson! He'd be great as the "old" version of John Perry...but really, that would be more like a cameo at the beginning of the film. How about the new green super soldier version? Um. Christian Slater does a killer impression of a younger Jack; but damn, he's MY age now. Too old. I'm getting too out of touch with all the young whipper-snappers out there in Hollywood.

OK, so bag the casting of OMW for now. What if it wasn't a live action film at all? What if the Japanese are the first to jump on the bandwagon and they make an Anime version of the book?! Genius! So what would that look like...

I started flipping through my vast collection of anime titles, focusing on the ones that have to do with armies and war. Narrow that down to MODERN or SPACE warfare. OK. Now we are getting warmer. Narrow it further to a space armada...with strong Naval overtones...OMG! It hit me. I think I've found a heretofore unmentioned influence in Scalzi's writing.

So tell me John, did you watch many cartoons as a kid? OMW is TOTALLY Starblazers. No doubt.

*VBG*