red rising film: showrunner notes series

Subject: The Red Rising Film Adaptation - Showrunner Notes Meeting #1

From: Alison Haselden, Showrunner
To: Department Heads, Production Team
Subject: Welcome to Red Rising

Hi Team,

Everybody here? Production, camera, wardrobe, casting, yes? Okay great - this is an emergency all-hands department head meeting for the film adaptations of the Red Rising book series by Pierce Brown! 

We’ll have time for individual department meetings next week but right now we all need to come together on solutions because if we don’t get this part right, this film will fail. 

If you are joining us virtually I expect you to chime in down in the comments under the video feed as we go - yes? 

Click to watch the full video from the first meeting for the Red Rising film adaptation.

emergency meeting: character visuals

We are gathered here today to discuss the elephant in the room and that is obviously the physical appearance of our characters in Red Rising. 

In the Red Rising books, it is a huge point that the different class systems  designated by color also have distinct physical attributes. Due to genetic modifications to not only denote their Color class but also to enhance the work they are  assigned to. So these physical differences range from hair and eye color, to actual significant difference in body size and shape. 

• The Golds are described as being essentially an entirely different species than Reds. Their bones are denser and their organs function at a completely different rate on top of their superior strengths and abilities. They are said to be nearly twice the size of a Red. 

• Obsidians have different numbers of fingers, etc.

  While these details are really cool and create a very distinctive mental image when reading the books, it poses some significant challenges for us in the adaptation. It’s very easy for physical attributes like this to come across as cheesy or not as cool as it does in our minds, on top of the obvious financial and time strain these types of depictions can create. Which is why I think a lot of folks really would be excited to see this story in an animated version. Unfortunately, I am not in charge of the animated version. I’m in charge of the live action version so this all hands meeting is for brainstorming ways to achieve the difference of class systems while still keeping it very cool and exciting. 

  
  As a showrunner, my priority is that the visuals enhance the story and our viewers' ability to feel completely immersed in the world. While I do care about staying as true to the books as possible, I also know that sometimes matching the books leads to a stupid looking aesthetic that brings viewers out of the moment. And to me, anything that brings the viewer out of the world is bad, even if it is accurate to the source material. So anything aesthetic needs to look like it is natural or if not natural, like it’s been actually made a part of the body.

stakes & tone

Tone References from Other Film/TV:

Tone is incredibly reminiscent of 

• Lord of the Flies

• The Hunger Games

• Khaleesi’s plotline in the early seasons of Game Of Thrones 

• A smattering of Star Wars with the nature of the physical attributes 

• A bit of a nod to classic sci-fi structure a la Dune

• And of course, the often self-proclaimed references to the literal Roman empire

red rising brainstorm / ideas overview:

• Alison:

  • Eye color:

    • Colored Contact Lenses

  • Hand sigils:

    • Temporary Tattoos

  • Casting to suggest:

  • Obviously we’re gonna be looking for our Golds to be exceptionally attractive and physically fit and strong ,while we’re going to try to cast some actors of shorter and smaller stature for our Reds

  • Utilize forced perspective tricks similar to The Lord of the Rings series when shooting Hobbits next to Gandalf

• Ted:

  • What if we go full Avatar?

  • Absolutely not, Ted.

• Denise:

  • Wig or dye everyone’s hair?

• I think if we are more subtle with it, and make sure the dye colors compliment skin tones and look natural and have some spectrum of variety across each Color group, this could work. I want us to prep some rounds of tests for this. 

• Lisa:

  • Prosthetics? Star Wars style?

• Honestly, Lisa I almost wish our characters were more alien looking because then we’d have that as a clear option. The cost/time factor isn’t worth it for the impact level, I fear. 

• Aaron:

  • Lifts in Gold's shoes?

• A hundred percent. Luckily in book one there are few interactions between Reds and Golds. Like most of our scenes are Reds with Reds and a lot of Golds with Golds. So in those crossover moments, we can utilize big platform shoes, forced perspective with camera, and set builds that help enhance this too. 

next steps

Great brainstorm session, everyone! I want us to start getting tests together for hair dye and wigging, colored contacts, temporary tattoos for our hand sigils. I also want to talk with camera, production design, and the art department about our options for the early scenes where we are mixing between multiple colors and will need those forced perspective tricks. And finally, casting let’s get together to talk about our dream specs list. 

All department heads for the Red Rising movie, please watch the full video recap of our meeting above & submit your feedback in the comments by next Friday.

XO,

Your Showrunner,

Alison Haselden

This episode of the Showrunner Notes series is inspired by the novel Red Rising by Pierce Brown. **Note: this video is satire and intended for entertainment purposes only. All rights reserved to the owners of the IP mentioned. All creative strategy and ideas presented in this video created solely by Alison Haselden.