Precision Pictures buys two stories by Matt Wallace

July 10th, 2007 — Precision Pictures Pty Ltd. announced today it has acquired the film rights to Parsec Award winning author Matt Wallace‘s acclaimed experimental podcast novel The Failed Cities Monologues. The Sydney-based production company has also purchased the rights to Wallace’s short story “Delve.” The author will adapt both properties for the screen himself.

“It ain’t Rogue Pictures,” Matt says, referring to fellow Podiobooks author Scott Sigler, whose novel Infested was recently optioned by the Universal Studios subsidiary, “but I’m definitely excited. Mostly because it excuses me from getting that job at Kinko’s for another couple of months, at least.”

Matt is currently scripting an as-of-yet unnamed project for another Australian production team. He expects to begin working on the adaptations within the next few months.

Precision Pictures is the brainchild of Australian producer Simon Smithers, who, in 2006, began developing a feature film project based on Matt’s Detective Jon “Busboy” Pacson character. That project is progressing steadily.

When reached for comment, Smithers had this to say: “I have read many books and the screenplays that evolve from them, often with disappointing results. Matt, on the other hand, has the unique talent to take a script that one step beyond where his story left off. It’s a little disturbing, but luckily for me it takes an Aussie to recognize true American talent. I am truly looking forward to seeing ‘The Failed Cities Monologues‘ and ‘Delve‘ rendered to the big screen.”

The Failed Cities Monologues are set in a dystopian version of New York City and combine elements of cyberpunk, noir, and gothic horror. It is notable for its multi-perspective storytelling technique, which shifts between the point of view of eight different protagonists. Delve is set on a small space station in the distant future and concerns a small group of people working to reconstitute the human race after it has been decimated by a bizarre plague.

Both The Failed Cities Monologues and Delve originally appeared on the award-winning Variant Frequencies podcast.