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Michael Crichton

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Michael Crichton

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Michael Crichton An Introduction Sumantra – The Book Club
Introduction • American Author, Producer, Director, Screenwriter and Physician. • Best known for his work in Sci-Fi, Medi-Fi and Thriller genres. • Books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide! • Books mainly action thrillers and heavily depend on 'technology-gone-bad' as the central theme. • The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Sphere, Rising Sun, Disclosure, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Timeline, State of Fear, Next etc…
Early Life • Born October 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. • Father, John, was a journalist. • Was raised in Roslyn, New York. • Took a keen interest in writing from an early age. • Joined Harvard to study English in 1960. • Dropped out of the course due to issues with the professors. • Switched to "Biological Anthropology" and graduated in 1964.
Early Life (Contd.) • Was initiated into the "Phi Beta Kappa" Society at Harvard! • Joined Harvard Medical School and got an M.D. in 1969. • Published work while at Harvard. • Unusually tall – 6 feet 9 inches! • So used various pen names with reference to his height. • 'John Lange' and 'Jeffery Hudson'.
More of his Early Life… • Co-authored "Dealing" with his brother, Douglas under pen name of 'Michael Douglas'. • 'Odds On' – First published novel. Year 1966. • Book about an attempted robbery planned using a "Critical Path Analysis" computer program but unforeseen events get in the way…! • Next was 'Scratch One'. Year 1967. About a handsome lawyer who practices law to support his playboy lifestyle…and when in France gets stuck in a huge mess…
Writing Career • In 1968, he published two novels – 'Easy Go' and "A CASE OF NEED". • "Easy Go" is about a brilliant Egyptologist who uncovers a hieroglyphic message about a pharaoh's tomb yet to be discovered… • "A Case Of Need" was a medical thriller. About a pathologist whose obstetrician friend performs an abortion that causes the death of a young woman. • Turning point in his career. • EDGAR AWARD in 1969.
Year 1969 • Three Novels. • "Zero Cool" – about an American radiologist on vacation in Spain… caught in cross fire between rival gangs for a precious Mexican artifact. • "The Venom Business" – about a smuggler, snake handler who smuggles rare artifacts with snakes which are for medical research. • "The Andromeda Strain"………..More about it ahead…
His first novel that would make him a Best Selling Author… • About a team of scientists investigating a deadly "ET microbe" that clots blood instantly causing death in just 2 minutes. It mutates with every growth cycle and changes its biologic properties. • Turned into a movie in 1971!! • In 2008, turned into a mini series executive produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott premiered on HBO! The first step towards movies and TV!!
Further Work… In 1972, he came up with "Terminal Man" – about an epileptic sufferer who during seizures has blackouts and wakes up without memory of the things he has done while in the blackout. He is believed to be psychotic and electrodes are planted in his brain…. Continued his trend of MACHINE-HUMAN interaction…..
"The Great Train Robbery" • Published in 1975. • About a huge gold heist in Victorian England circa 1855. • It was made into a movie in 1979 starring…… Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland and himself! • Movie was nominated for Best Cinematography by British Society of Cinematographers! • Also nominated for Best Motion Picture for the Edgar Allan Poe Award!
FUrther WOrk • 1976 – "Eaters of the Dead". Later adapted into a film – "The 13th Warrior". • 1980 – "Congo". Made into a movie starring Laura Linney and Tim Currey. • 1987 - "Sphere". Made into a film in 1998 starring Dustin Hoffman, Samuel Jackson, Liev Schreiber and Sharon Stone.
JURASSIC PARK • Published in 1990. • "Fiction as Fact" clubbed with Chaos Theory and its philosophical implications to explain the collapse of an Amusement Park having 'genetically recreated dinosaurs' in a biological reserve. • Movie made under the Universal banner by Steven Spielberg starring Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Richard Attenborough. • Probably the most successful movie of Spielberg!
More work and movies…….. • Published "RISING SUN" in 1992. • Based on Japanese firm named Nakamoto where the rape and murder of an employee fuels a no-holds-barred investigation… • Movie in 1993 starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes. • Same year as Jurassic Park. • In 1995, sequel to Jurassic Park – "The Lost World". • Movie in 1997 starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore and Vince Vaughn. Directed by Spielberg.
GOING ON……. • In 1996, an aero-techno-thriller called "AIRFRAME". • In 1999, he published "TIMELINE". It was based upon Time Travel and Quantum Physics. Journey of a group of historians and archaeologists to uncover the truth of the disappearance of a scientist at a site of excavation. • It was made into a VG and a movie starring Gerard Butler and Paul Walker. • Then were "PREY" and "STATE OF FEAR"….
STATE OF FEAR?? • It directly attacked the "politicization of science"… • Says that Global Warming and other such theories are baseless and used to just gain funding and publicity by organizations. • Faced a lot of criticism from various places including former Vice President Al Gore…
The last ones….. • That was "NEXT" – printed in 2006. • Based on Genetic Research and wrong practices in the world of genetic engineering. • Last Novel – "PIRATE LATITUDES" will be released in November 2009. • Including another one to be out in 2010.
SOME TRIVIA • Was exorcised in 1986. • Visiting writer, MIT. [1988] • When writing a script or book, he always eats the same thing for lunch to aid his concentration. When writing Jurassic Park (1993), for example, he ate egg salad sandwiches with lots of pepper. • [First line of his autobiography]: "It's not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw."
Oh YES!!!
AWARDS Emmy for "ER". EDGAR ALLAN POE award for "A Case of Need". A Peabody award. A Writer's Guild of America award. Dinosaur – Crichtonsaurus bohlini. 50 Most Beautiful People Award – 1992 by People Magazine. AAPG Journalism Award for State of Fear.
THANK YOU!