So after TWILIGHT, what will be the next Urban Fantasy hit?
Once the Twilight franchise either loses steam or runs out of books to adapt, what will be there to fill its shoes? There’s a million and one urban fantasy series out there, both in the YA and adult areas of the bookshops, so which ones would make good candidates to take on the mantle of the Next Big Thing? The shelves have been bulging with paranormal titles these past few years, with many bookstore chains even adding an Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance section to their shops.
Specialist shops have seen an influx of new readers come through their doors for another fix of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches and so on, as long as they can find material full of one-liners, romance and characters to fall for.
The choice is staggering, but there are some outstanding urban fantasy series that would make excellent film franchises, series that have been fascinating and enthralling readers for years now. All of these feature the prerequisite paranormal elements as well as strong storylines and powerfully written characters. While they aren’t the pinnacle of literature, they are a damn sight more fun than your average slab of supposed genius.
Kelley Armstrong’s books would be fantastic as films, with novels such as The Summoning, Bitten, Industrial Magic and Dime Store magic all strong contenders for a great film adaptation. She is one of the leading lights in the Urban Fantasy genre, one of its most prolific writers and one of the best selling examples of the genre under Stephanie Meyer herself.
Rachel Vincent’s Werecats novels would be great as films if done right. ‘Stray’ and ‘Rogue’ are both strong sellers and would be engaging films with likeable characters and a very different paranormal edge to that of the regular vampire and ghoul variety. Laurel K Hamilton’s name always comes up with Urban Fantasy, but the Anita Blake books, while they do bear all the hallmarks of Urban Fantasy, might be a little too graphic to recreate on screen without them being edited away to nothing.
Jim Butcher’s ‘Dresden Files’ have made their way to TV with strong results, and with shows such as Buffy, Angel and Charmed all done with, their is a great deal of scope for the genre to expand further on TV. Kim Harrison’s books, such as Dead Witch Walking or For A Few Demons More, would make great films or TV miniseries, with their strong female protagonist kicking all kinds of supernatural backside. It is a genre both sexes can enjoy pretty equally for many reasons, be it romance, action, intrigue or the fantasy elements.
But the Urban Fantasy tag doesn’t just refer to romantic books with vampires or werewolves in them. The term means exactly that- fantasy in an urban setting. Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Dean Koontz, Stephen King and James Herbert can also be counted as writing Urban fantasy in that case, as can many, many science fiction authors too. How about Un Lun Dun, the incredible novel by China Mieville, set in an alternate London? Genius. It would make one hell of a movie. The same goes for the Weather Warden books, Darkling, Witchling and lots of other titles currently available.
The term may have been linked to a ton of properties that echo Buffy the vampire Slayer, but there’s much more to it than just that. Urban Fantasy is a genre that sets extraordinary events in ordinary settings, and thus provides readers and viewers with a much deeper sense of enjoyment, as they can relate to surroundings and events in greater detail. It is a genre that is ripe for adaptation, in all its guises.