Status Report

Hi everyone. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Took some time, but I managed to recover all of the posts of this blog from a little over a decade ago (Our last post was in 2014). We had switched webhosts, but the blog database had gotten left behind in the transfer. It has been resurfaced with the last backup I had. The formatting may be off, but the content is all there for those who are feeling nostalgic and want to go back in time.

For current state, there are no plans to continue updating this site. Luckily, there is an active fan base alive on Reddit, and Scholastic is still producing Animorphs rereleases as audiobooks, e-books, and graphic novels (although these are adaptations and not new stories).

The movie is basically stuck ‘in development’, and Michael & Katherine have creatively parted ways with PictureStart. I’ve gone ahead and broken things down for those who have been out of the loop:

Official Releases

• Audiobooks
• Ebooks
• Graphic Novels

Active Communities

• /r/Animorphs on Reddit

Movie News (as of 2024)

Michael & Katherine left PictureStart’s Animorphs Movie in 2021 (Interview by the Animorphs Anonymous fan podcast), one year after the series was announced for development.

• Watch the interview here: Movie update starts at 31:25
• Read Fan Discussion about the Interview on Reddit
• animorphsmovie.com is still owned by Sony Pictures, however it continues to be a redirect to a generic page.

No further updates have been made. And since Michael & Katherine are no longer involved, we likely won’t hear anything unless PictureStart makes the announcement or updates their Animorphs page.

Cassie Short Story (as of 2024)

A mock interview was planned to be published on Katherine’s website in the summer of 2022, however it was never released (Source: Reddit & Twitter). It’s possible it may come out eventually, but we have no further news to provide there:

That is all the new info I can think of, but if you want to stay connected then there are still pockets of the fanbase out there creating projects and discussing the series.

As far as the state of this site goes, it will remain as an archive, even if updates are rare. The original intent for this site was to have a place where fans could look back on the series, and I think for the most part we’ve accomplished that, even if we couldn’t fill in all the blanks.

Thank you to everyone that has regularly visited, contributed, shared their thoughts and creative projects with us. This website started as a personal passion project, and I ended up connecting with some really cool people on the way that made it so much better as a community. Thank you.

 

While the Animorphs movie may be on hold indefinitely, there is some good news for fans of the Gone series by Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs). Confirmed via Twitter by Michael Grant himself, Sony Pictures has agreed to acquire the TV rights to the Gone series:

 

 

As Michael states above, please remember that this does not confirm an actual Gone series on television at the moment, but it does significantly increase the chances of one. Fans of the series can follow Michael Grant on his Facebook and Twitter for further info and future announcements.

 

K.A Applegate has won the 2013 Newbery Medal for The One and Only Ivan! A big congrats from all of us here at Hirac Delest! (If you haven’t had the chance to read it yet: Please do. The award is entirely well deserved.)

There have been many publications about this over the last week, but Publisher’s Weekly got a hold of K.A’s reaction approximately two hours after winning:

Normally Katherine Applegate would have been in her house in San Francisco the morning that “the call” came in. But she’d been visiting family in Richmond, Va., with her 13-year-old daughter, and found herself in a hotel room 3000 miles from home when the phone rang. Her daughter had caught a bug and was running a fever, and Applegate’s mind was not on the Newbery committee. “It just never crossed my radar screen,” she said. “They told me it was the medal, and I asked, ‘Are you sure?’ ”

As the news sunk in, Applegate said she told the committee, “ ‘It’s the best thing that happened to me since I gave birth, adopted my daughter, and got married.’ I heard a great deal of laughter on the phone. It was fun.”

…

Then, she recalled, “I just sat tight and watched the webcast. It was so much easier because I already knew what the outcome would be.” As soon as her Newbery was announced, “the phone started ringing immediately and incessantly. My husband texted me and said, ‘OMG you’re trending on Twitter!’ ”

Read the full article on Publishers Weekly:
Katherine Applegate on Winning the 2013 Newbery: ‘Stunned Disbelief’

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In other news: An amusing article has popped up on The Buzz where a new Mississippi bill has been introduced that forbids human-animal hybrids, such as the Animorphs. The HB 819 is The Protection of the Human Person Act, and would have slapped the Animorphs with a fine should they have ever gone public in our time.

The article explains a bit more in depth regarding the circumstances and intent behind the hybrids, and can be read in full at The Buzz.

Thanks to Jason for forwarding this to us!

 

Noah strikes again! Not only does Sony Pictures own animorphs.net, but they also own the following domains:

• animorphsmovie.com
• animorphs-movie.com
• animorphs-movie.net

Following up from our previous post, there is no doubt at all now that Scholastic had something in the works for over a year. However, it still remains to be seen as to whether or not they intend to go ahead with their plans. Remember that the relaunch is cancelled and that these domains are not recent purchases. In fact, they are over 3 years old, and Scholastic still hasn’t released any official statement to make us think this is a sure thing.

One other important thing to note is that the registration for all these domains are a little different from animorphs.net. These movie domains were purchased months before the relaunch was announced, which again confirms the fact that they were testing the market based on the sales of those books.

Also, these domains all expire on June 19th, 2013. So it’s best to disregard the deadline date from our previous post as well, because we don’t have a year anymore. If the fans want to show support, they have to do it fast!

That’s all for now. We’ll post more info as we hear it.

 

A big thanks to Noah for pointing this out: Sony Pictures currently owns the animorphs.net domain name. However, before you get too excited, you should know that going to that domain simply takes you to a default landing page on their site. As of yet, there is no official announcement regarding an Animorphs movie.

I researched this a bit and it looks like this was not a recent purchase. In fact, Sony bought this domain on December 8th, 2009 — approximately a week before we officially confirmed the Animorphs relaunch here on Hirac Delest. So most likely this was just one of the few possible domain names seized in preparation of the reprints.

As to why it is registered by Sony Pictures and leads to them, instead of Scholastic? The most likely reason is that Sony Pictures owns Columbia TriStar Home Video, which was the company responsible for distributing the old TV Show on VHS. As far as I know, the licensing agreement and distribution rights still stand (Source: Scholastic/Columbia TriStar Press Release, 1998).

But forget about the TV show for a moment, because what we’re all really interested in is the possible production of a movie release, right? So here is what we do know: Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant (co-authors of Animorphs) both replied to a Q&A in early 2008 saying that they had been seriously approached by a producer for an Animorphs movie (Source), but that never seemed to go anywhere past the original pitch.

However, from what I’ve been told, Scholastic still does want to make it happen, and that at one point Scholastic did have plans for a feature length Animorphs movie on the back burner for over a year. Whether or not they still do after the cancellation of the relaunch, I have no idea. But this information has been passed on to me by more than one anonymous source involved with Scholastic.

That all said, this is still not official, and the circumstances haven’t changed: Scholastic still needs to know if there is a market for Animorphs. The relaunch was a way to gauge that, but the low sales and eventual cancellation of the reprints have not been a good sign.

So what can we do to help change this? At the current moment, the animorphs.net domain is registered until December 8th, 2013. If the Animorphs fan base wants to build any kind of campaign to help convince Scholastic, then consider this as the deadline. Until there is something that lets Scholastic know there will a reasonable profit in pursuing a movie or a 2.0 book series, we will not see it happen anytime in the near future.

I think that covers everything for now. As always, we will keep you updated should there be any official progress in the continuation of Animorphs. Also, if anyone comes across anything else that is interesting, then please be sure to forward it to us to have a look. (And if TPTB are reading this up at Scholastic HQ, then get a hold of me too — I want to help make this happen just as much as you do!)

 

Eve and Adam marks the first writing reunion of K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant since the Remnants series. The book is officially released today in hardcover and ebook, and will also be available in audio format on October 16th, 2012. Trailer and summary provided below:

 

 

In the beginning, there was an apple –

And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker’s head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother’s research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal.

Just when Eve thinks she will die – not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy.

Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect . . . won’t he?
 

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KATHERINE APPLEGATE is the author of many books for children and young adults, include the award-winning Home of the Brave. Her husband, MICHAEL GRANT, is the author of the BZRK series and the bestselling Gone series.

Together they wrote the popular Animorphs series. They live in Northern California with their two children and numerous unmanageable pets.

 

Also, if you missed it, Jeff Sampson (co-founder of Morphz, and one of the writers for K.A and Michael’s Remnants) has released a new book series as well, this time under the pseudonym Christopher Holt. The Last Dogs #1 is now available in both hardcover and ebook format:
 

The Last Dogs: The Vanishing

When all the humans in his world disappear, Max, a yellow Labrador Retriever, begins the search for his family. He knows that if he can just find Madame Curie, a wise, old black Lab, she’ll be able to help. Madame had a premonition of astonishing events to come– she might know where Max’s family is.

But Max can’t make the journey alone. Joined by friends Rocky and Gizmo, Max sets off to find Madame. Along the way, the trio must face a pack of angry wolves, forage for food in a land where kibble is akin to gold, befriend a house full of cats, and outsmart a gang of subway rats. Ultimately, they’ll have to escape from the biggest threat of all: the Corporation, a “perfect” society for dogs and by dogs, where nothing is quite as it seems.

The Last Dogs: The Vanishing is a thrilling adventure and a tale of three unlikely friends on an epic quest to find their people — and bring them home.

For more info, all of the authors can be found at their official sites: katherineapplegate.com, themichaelgrant.com, and jeffsampsonbooks.com

 

Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs) will be attending the National Book Festival this Sunday, September 23. He will be there for a presentation to primarily promote Eve and Adam (co-written by Katherine Applegate), but will also give an exclusive read of Light (book #6 of the Gone series). Fans will also be able to meet him for autograph signings as well.

Check out this video released by him on Facebook last week:

Full details are available at loc.gov/bookfest/

 

This is unconfirmed, but there is a very strong possibility that there will not be any Animorphs Relaunch releases in the near future. With the release of #8 in little over a week, there has been no official renewal of any further releases for the rest of the year, or the next.

Amazon and several retailers list #8 as the only upcoming book, with nothing planned ahead. Scholastic has been quiet on the subject, and has not publicly released the rights or covers for any future books, which are usually available months before even being listed. The only response I did receive was from a customer service representative saying:

“I researched our system and it shows that we do not have information about other Animorphs books being released. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.”

As I mentioned at the start of the relaunch, Scholastic has been using these reprints as way to gauge the interest in the series to start a potential Animorphs 2.0. So for the fans who were looking forward to that, a cancellation or hiatus of the Relaunch series is obviously not very promising.

So the question comes: Where do we go from here? What can fans do to show their continued support? The first is, obviously, to buy the books! ($$$)

Scholastic will not financially support something that is not good for business! If you have been skipping on these releases to only buy the books that are missing in your collection, then you may not get the chance to do that anymore, as the releases of those future books depends highly upon the sales figures of the ones that are currently out now. Buying the books is the most direct way of letting Scholastic know that you are interested in more!

If you have already bought the books, then the next step is to let Scholastic know we are still interested. Customer Care, Twitter, and Facebook are all a good place to start. Email campaigns wouldn’t be a bad idea either, if someone was willing to co-ordinate it. (Skip petitions though — they are a waste of time.) If anyone knows of any direct channels or representatives to send all this to, then please let me know and I’ll post it up on this blog to help spread the word.

The ball is in your court, fans.

 

Michael Grant (co-author/co-creator of Animorphs) is attending a YA dystopian panel at the San Diego Comic Con this year! He updated his facebook recently with the following details:

Hungry for Dystopia
Room: 25ABC
Thursday, 7/12/12
3 to 4 PM

With the skyrocketing popularity of the Hunger Games, dystopian literature has been creating major waves in the media. What attracts these authors to explore the concept of a totalitarian future that possibly awaits us all? Anna North (America Pacifica) leads the discussion with panelists: Neal Shusterman (Unwind trilogy); Lissa Price (Starters); Paolo Bacigalupi (The Drowned Cities); Michael Grant (BZRK); Daniel H. Wilson (Amped); Gennifer Albin (Crewel); and Marie Lu (Legend trilogy).

Tickets and program details can be seen at www.comic-con.org

 

Adam from the Cinnamon Bunzuh! blog has posted an exclusive interview with David B. Mattingly, the Animorphs series cover artist from the Classic run. Here’s a small excerpt:

 

Adam: When you were working on covers with animals in them, did you have physical animals in front of you to work from sometimes, or did you just use photographic reference, how did that work?

Mattingly: No, I use photographic reference, but its very rare where you find the perfect piece of reference. I also needed to avoid, you go on google and you find a picture of a tiger and morph the character into the tiger, because you’ll get sued for that. There’s actually a zoo in New Jersey that I went to, where I shot a lot of photographs. It’s called the SpaceFarms Zoo. I looked it up the other day, because I wondered if it was the zoo that this Matt Damon movie called I Bought a Zoo was based on, but it wasn’t. But Space Farms New Jersey, it’s sort of a weird private zoo. And they had bears and tigers and all kinds of stuff. And they let you in and you wander around, just like a regular zoo. So that was the source of a lot of reference for the series.

Adam: Likewise, when you were working with human models for the covers, how did you tend to work with them?

Mattingly: I’d shoot models on it, and a problem I had throughout the course of the series is that it went on for I guess five years, and the kids, kids from when they’re ten to fifteen change profoundly, and I’d bring the kid in for another shoot, and he’d look like a completely different person. And Scholastic didn’t want me to reuse old photographs because it would have forced them to re-pay the models, so I consistently shot new models and then attempted to make them look as close to the old models as I could, I’m not sure entirely successfully. The only model who I used throughout the series was the model for Cassie, because she was kind of a petite girl, she might have been a little older when I cast her, and she changed little enough over the course of the book that I used her consistently. She was also a wonderful model.

Read the full interview at Cinnamon Bunzuh! >>