Digital horror story tells of terrifying reality that awaits Hollywood snaps up Birmingham author’s novel
BIRMINGHAM author Liam Brown’s latest novel is a hit before it has even been published.
Broadcast has been snapped up by a major Hollywood studio which intends to make it into a film.
It has being translated into several languages including Turkish and the Australian rights have been sold to Penguin Random House.
Yet the irony is that it is partly a novel about how books are being forgotten by the YouTube generation.
Set in the very near future and a cross between Black Mirror and The Truman Show, the work is about a YouTube sensation called David Callow who agrees to take part in a revolutionary new online show called MindCast.
A small chip is inserted into the back of his head and then his every thought and memory is streamed live, 24 hours a day, to the billions of people watching.
He quickly becomes the most talked about person in the world, but David soon discovers the downside of sharing his every secret.
The book is a sharp, funny and disturbing satire on popular culture and our obsession with celebrity and social media.
It has been optioned by Annapurna Pictures, the company behind the hit films Zero Dark Thirty, American Hustle and the current Detroit starring John Boyega and directed by Oscar-winning Kathryn Bigelow.
Although it has not been cast yet, author Brown has a few ideas about who he’d love to star in it.
“I can picture Tom Hiddleston as the lead,” says Brown, 34, who lives in Selly Oak with his wife Simone and their two children.
“And Elisabeth Moss as Alice, the writer brought in to pen David’s autobiography.
“The film option is very exciting. My first two novels were well received but not massive, been a bit overwhelmed interest in this one.”
After attending Bishop Challoner School in Kings Heath, Brown spent six years travelling the world doing odd jobs such as working in a fairground in Australia and as a chef, before taking a degree in creative writing.
His second novel, Wild Life, is set in a secret community of men living off the land in a park which he based on Cannon Hill Park in his native Birmingham. To research it, he spent several nights camping out there.
“I went foraging for some food, but I drew the line at killing squirrels like my characters,” he says. “I love living in Birmingham. “Every Brummie I know is the best storyteller and I also think there’s a lilting musicality to the accent.” so by I’ve the
And as for Broadcast, he says: “I’m surprised that no-one has thought of the idea before. I kept watching episodes of Black Mirror expecting it to pop up but it hasn’t so far. I have grown up mostly in an age where people no longer have a filter and are rewarded for vomiting up their every thought for everyone online.
“Broadcast is just an extension of that. Very quickly there has been a generational pivot from living in the real world to living online.
“I can see the irony about writing a book, an analogue medium, in a digital world, but actually the sale of books are on the rise again. There’s something about the smell of a book and the weight of it in your hand.
“A book is the antithesis of fast food media. A tweet goes viral and then is dead in 24 hours, but you have to invest time in a novel. That’s refreshing, sadly.”
So could the disturbing concept of Broadcast actually happen in real life?
“Yes, it could,” says Brown. “I did a lot of research into the mechanisms behind mind reading and that technology is on the cusp of existing. We can already use MRI brain scans to tell, for example, that you are thinking about a dog.
“It’s only a matter of years before Broadcast is no longer in the realms of science fiction but becomes science reality and that is terrifying.”
Broadcast by Liam B Brown is published by L Legend Press on Septemb ber 15.
A book is the antithesis of fast food media. A tweet goes viral and then is dead in 24 hours, but you have to invest time in a novel. That’s refreshing, sadly Author Liam Brown