Tor/Forge Publicist Leslie Ann Henkel reports that A. Lee Martinez‘s “celebrated and hilarious Gil’s All Fright Diner looks like it is actually headed for the big screen, with In the Company of Ogres sure to follow.” According to “a source at New Line, Barry Sonnenfeld (who directed Men in Black I and II) is attached to direct Gil’s…,” with the Jim Henson Company producing. And Rough Draft Studios (The Simpson’s Movie, Futurama, and more) has optioned the film rights to Ogres.
Gil’s, originally published in April 2005, is now in its fifth printing as a trade paperback. Martinez offers the following description of the book:
Bloodier than Fried Green Tomatoes! Funnier than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre!
Welcome to Gil’s All Night Diner, where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and you never know what might be lurking in the freezer…
Duke and Earl are just passing through Rockwood County in their pick-up truck when they stop at the Diner for a quick bite to eat. They aren’t planning to stick around—until Loretta, the eatery’s owner, offers them $100 to take care of her zombie problem. Given that Duke is a werewolf and Earl’s a vampire, this looks right up their alley.
But the shambling dead are just the tip of a particularly spiky iceberg. Seems someone’s out to drive Loretta from the Diner, and more than willing to raise a little Hell on Earth if that’s what it takes. Before Duke and Earl get to the bottom of the Diner’s troubles, they’ll run into such otherworldly complications as undead cattle, an amorous ghost, a jailbait sorceress, and the terrifying occult power of pig-latin.
And maybe—just maybe—the End of the World, too.
Gory, sexy, and flat-out hilarious, Gil’s All Fright Diner will tickle your funnybone—before ripping it out of its socket!
She goes on to describe Ogres thusly:
For someone who’s immortal, Never Dead Ned manages to die with alarming frequency; he just has the annoying habit of rising from the grave. But this soldier might truly be better dead than face his latest assignment.
Ogre Company is the legion’s dumping ground: a motley, undisciplined group of monsters whose leaders tend to die under somewhat questionable circumstances. That’s where Ned’s rather unique talents come in. As Ogre Company’s newly appointed commander, Ned finds himself in charge of such fine examples of military prowess as a moonstruck Amazon, a very big (and very polite) two-headed ogre, a seductively scaly siren, a blind oracle who can hear (and smell) the future, a suicidal goblin daredevil pilot, a walking tree with a chip on its shoulder, and a suspiciously goblinesque orc.
Ned has only six months to whip Ogre Company into shape or face an even more hideous assignment—but that’s not the worst of his problems. Because now that Ned has found out why he keeps returning from the dead, he has to do everything he can to stay alive…
In the Company of Ogres does for fantasy what Gil’s All Fright Diner did for horror, and elves and goblins may never be the same!