Big Game - Dan Smith Replies!

We had some questions for Dan Smith, the author of Big Game - check out his responses below. Make sure you take note of what Dan says about the importance of reading!


Hello Miss Simpson and Eager Readers of Room 6

I’ve now had a good chance to look through all your questions so . . .


1. Did you always want to be an author? How long have you been writing for, and what made you want to become a writer?

No, I didn’t always want to be an author. In fact, most of the time I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was older. Mind you, when I was seven years old I saw Star Wars for the first time and decided I wanted to be Han Solo (well, he is very cool). Sadly, that job was already taken. But, in a way, Han Solo helped me become a writer because after I saw Star Wars, I developed a huge interest in stories – books, films, comics, video games, everywhere you find stories, you’d find me! I first started writing stories when I was a teenager, and I read A LOT of books. My favourite author back in those days was Stephen King, and I decided I wanted to be a writer like him.


2. What inspired you to write Big Game and how long did it take to write?

Ah, now this is a great question. You see, my publisher, Barry Cunningham from Chicken House, sent me a film script for a movie that was being shot. The movie producers thought the story might make a good book, and Barry agreed so he asked if I would be interested in writing it. Usually it works the other way around – books being made into films – but this would be a film made into a book. At first I wasn’t too sure about it, but when I read the original script, I loved the story and I loved the character of Oskari. I really wanted to write the book but asked if I would be allowed to change the story. The biggest difference was that I wanted to tell the whole story through Oskari’s eyes. I wrote a first draft of the book in just a couple of weeks – which is really fast, but I had the advantage of already having the story. After that, though, there’s lots of editing and copy-editing to do!


3. Does Oskari ever get to go to the White House and play video games and eat pizza with the President?

I love this question, and I’ve thought a lot about what might happen if Oskari were to go to the white House and play video games with the President. Perhaps something dramatic? I reckon it would make a fantastic story don’t you?


4. What was your favourite part of Big Game?

There are lots of thing I love about Big Game. I like the part where Oskari fails to pull back the bow at the beginning – because he then proves everyone wrong. I love the fire arrow at the end because I think it shows how clever Oskari is and how brave he has become (this is quite different from the ending in the film), and I had a lot of fun writing the scenes in the plane when Oskari gets to have his hunt after all. Then there’s the exciting plane crash, the moment when he meets the president, the swim through the plane . . . I love it all!


5. Are you writing a book at the moment? If yes, what kind?

Ooh. Good question. Yes I am writing something at the moment. I’m working on another book for younger readers, and it will be an action adventure/survival story in a similar style to Big Game. DAN WROTE MORE DETAIL HERE, BUT HE HAS ASKED US TO KEEP THE DETAILS OF HIS NEXT BOOK A SECRET!


6. What is your favourite book you’ve written so far?

This is such a difficult question to answer. The first book I wrote for younger readers is called My Friend The Enemy - it’s set in England during WWII, and is about two friends who discover a German airman who has crashed in the woods near their village. The two main characters are called Peter and Kim, and they become such good friends. They’re brave and loyal and try to do the right things, so I can’t help how much I like them. My second book is about two brothers growing up in Nazi Germany, and I love the way the rebellious older brother sticks up for his little brother. There’s always a really horrible baddie, the local Gestapo officer who’s mean and cruel, so he was a lot of fun to write about, and then there’s brave Oskari! I don’t know! I love them all!


7. Did you get to meet some of the famous actors in the Big Game movie

Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet any of them. It might have been fun to meet Samuel L Jackson, though, eh? I did get to meet the producer of the movie, but that’s all.


8. We noticed the movie is different from the book (we watched the movie trailer). For example, Oskari and the President eject from the cockpit of the plane. How do you feel about this? Did the movie makers ask your permission to do this?

This is an interesting question. You’ll probably notice from one of my earlier answers that I based the book on the film. So what happened was that the producer sent me the original script (even that turned out to be different from the finished film) and I wrote an outline of how I planned to tell the story in my book. At first the director was a little unsure about my ideas because I wanted to change a few things – I wanted to tell the whole story through Oskari’s eyes which meant cutting out all the stuff back at the Pentagon in USA, I wanted to change the beginning, the end, and I wanted Oskari to know about the terrorists much earlier on in the story. In the film, Oskari and the President meet and are together for quite a while before they realize they are being hunted, but in the book it happens much sooner because Oskari witnesses Hazar kill Patu (this doesn’t happen in the film). As you have noticed, there is a moment in the film when Oskari and the President eject from the plane, but this doesn’t happen in the book. It’s a great scene towards the end of film, but I thought it would be too far-fetched for the book (Air Force One doesn’t have ejector seats etc). Also, I wanted Oskari to hunt Morris through the plane (to prove he’s a hunter) and I wanted him to do something clever with the traditional bow, his knife and his fire kit, so I came up with the idea of the fire arrow instead of the ejector seat. Another big change was that in the film there is never any mention of Oskari’s mum, of Mount Akka, of the waterfall, or of the mythical monsters that Oskari is afraid of. It was all really interesting to me because it taught me that while some things look good on film, they are almost impossible to make believable on the page! Things have to be treated differently in a book, because readers have time to think about them, but in a film the images are there and gone so quickly! Also, a character in a book can have more layers to their personality because we can see what they are thinking.


9. If you weren’t a writer, what job might you have?

In my last job I worked for a design company, working out how much projects cost. It was pretty boring but maybe I’d still be doing that. I don’t really know. What I do know is that I love writing and wouldn’t want to do anything else. I’m also really lucky that I have a hugely supportive family. Sometimes I just disappear into a world of my own – my daughter (13) and my son (9) call it Danworld!


10. Other than writing, do you have any hobbies?

Ah, well of course writing isn’t a hobby for me, it’ my job, so it takes up a huge amount of my time - not that I’m complaining! I’m very lucky to have a job that I enjoy so much. When I want to relax, I usually do something else that involves stories. I read, watch movies, play video games, make cool things with my children, go to the beach or the park with my family, or you might find me in the gym with the music turned up loud!


Thanks for all your fantastic questions, I hope I’ve answered them well enough for you. And, keep on reading because reading makes you smart!