The Selective Collective features INK: Page to Screen

The Selective Collective reads INK by AMANDA SUN

The Selective Collective features INK by AMANDA SUN provided to us by Harlequin Teen for review and book club discussion!

For my part in this Selective Collective post, I’ve got what used to be our Casting Call feature, but we’re changing things up a bit around here! Firstly, you might notice our new banner which I am SUPER excited for! Originally, we came up with a tagline that was geared more toward fierce female main characters which we always enjoy, but as we’ve been reading more and more books for The Selective Collective, we’ve found that the books we tend to fall in love with have been mostly contemporaries. Don’t get me wrong, these girls can still be pretty fierce even if they’re not fighting dystopian governments or discovering supernatural powers, but we thought the tagline wasn’t quite as relevant for the books we started leaning towards. Instead, we came up with this new banner that just plain looks nice! 🙂

Second, we’ve updated our Casting Call feature, evolving it into PAGE TO SCREEN. Page to Screen will still keep our initial idea of fan casting, but also bringing more elements into the feature such as setting, thoughts of how best to adapt the book, and even soundtracks to really bring this book to life as if we were adapting it as a TV show or movie.

Before we jump in, here’s a little info on the book:

Publishing Info: June 25th 2013 by Harlequin Teen
Source: Physical ARC provided to us by Harlequin Teen for review and use for the Selective Collective promotions

Book Synopsis: On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.
Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they’ll both be targets.
Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive. — From Goodreads.com

Bringing INK from PAGE TO SCREEN…

What would be the best adaptation? I know usually when we’ve done our “Casting Call” feature in the past, we’ve always talked about the book being adapted as a movie. With so many books being adapted as TV shows recently (or were in talks of being adapted as TV shows at one point in time) such as Delirium, The Selection, Vampire Diaries and of course big adult series like True Blood and Game of Thrones, I really think INK could do well as a TV series!
But then the question is… what network would it work best with? I thought about SyFy because of the paranormal aspect of it, but it’s really more mythology-related then science-fiction so SyFy was kind of iffy for me. Ultimately, I think if TV show writers were to focus on familial and romantic relationships, delve more into the sense of being out of place in Japan, and get some awesome special effects from the drawings, you know what… I’m kind of leaning towards the CW. Traditionally I think of the CW as more of a “contemporary” channel, so to speak. Not a lot of paranormal or fantasy going on there BUT with the Vampire Diaries being such a major show for their network, I think building on that could really help INK fit in nicely!

ON THE SET

I don’t know much about Japan, but clearly we’ve GOT to be someplace with cherry blossoms. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to see them in full bloom because that’s got to be gorgeous.

Washington D.C.: Don’t want to film all the way in Japan? Washington D.C. might be a nice alternative! D.C. is well-known for its cherry blossom trees and they have Japan-America Society of Washington D.C. that sponsors Sakura Matasuri which is an annual Japanese street festival. Each year, the festival takes place during prime cherry blossom season which sounds really amazing!
Macon, GA: Georgia? You bet! Macon, Georgia has over 300,000 cherry trees within the city and they have a 10-day international cherry blossom festival each year in March. The architecture may not be correct, but the trees!!
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA/Japantown, San Francisco, CA/Japantown, San Jose, CA: Filming in Japan too far out of reach? These may be the next best thing in the US. There are three Japantowns (according to the good old stand-by Wikipedia) in California which could be very convenient to try to get a Japanese-feel within the United States!

 CASTING CALL: INK

Katie: Nicola Peltz
You may have seen her in… The Last Airbender (2010), Bates Motel (2013 TV)
I think she looks a little like the artwork on the cover, no? (And not just because of the position of these pictures… Although it helps!) I know her hair is naturally brown, but it’s dyed blonde for Bates Motel so when I was looking for a girl to play Katie and saw her face, I just knew she was the right choice! I think she could bring a lot of personality to show both Katie’s discomfort with being out of place in Japan as well as a sense of boldness when she first confronts Tomo and begins to find out his secrets.

Tomo: Kengo Kora
You may have seen him in… Well, to be honest, unless you’re watching Japanese cinema or TV, you probably haven’t seen him! He’s actually in his 20s but he LOOKS like a teenager. Even reaching out to the rest of my SC gals, we hard a hard time coming up with an actor for Tomo! Most of the Asian-American actors I could think of were way too old and the younger ones just didn’t fit the part in my mind. With help, we decided to go with Japanese actor Kengo Kora… His haircut just reminded me of Tomo and that’s all it took for me to be sold! If you have any ideas of who to cast, we would love to hear!

Hope you enjoyed my choices for our newly modified feature, PAGE TO SCREEN! We’d love to hear how you would adapt INK! Do you see it as a movie? A TV show? Who would be the stars?

And please don’t forget to check out the features from the other ladies in The Selective Collective! We each have a post to feature a different side of INK so please go visit their take on the book as well!