Even the Stars of 'The Dog Stars' Can't Save Ridley Scott's Adaptation

It Was A Book First

Sophie and Rudi from 'It Was A Book First' discuss Ridley Scott's film adaptation of Peter Heller's 2012 novel 'The Dog Stars,' a post-apoca

Key takeaways

• The novel is praised for its beautiful, poetic prose and meditative pacing, rooted in Heller's background as an outdoorsman and nonfiction writer.

Main topics

• Comparison between Peter Heller's novel 'The Dog Stars' and Ridley Scott's film adaptation

Notable quotes

"This is one where it's disappointing. The adaptation's bad because it was really ripe for a good one."

Conclusion

While 'The Dog Stars' novel is lauded for its lyrical depth and introspective storytelling,

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:10) I love books. Speaker 2 (0:11) I'm Rudy and I love movies. And this is It Was a Book First, the podcast about new book to screen adaptations. Today, woof, we're discussing the Dog Stars. Director Redley Scott. Director Ridley Scott's adaptation of Peter Heller's 2012 novel of the same name. Set in a post-apocalyptic future ravaged by a flu pandemic, the film stars Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, and Guy Pearce. Speaker 1 (0:40) If you're new here, Rudy and I are culture reporters, and on this podcast, we discuss the page-to-screen adaptations that everyone's talking about. I read the book, we both watch the TV show or movie, and then we discuss the differences and what we thought of the new adaptation. And yes, that means there will be spoilers throughout for both versions of the Dog Stars. Speaker 2 (0:58) Quick programming note, next week we're discussing Coyote vs. Acme, the once imperiled live-action and animated Looney Tunes film that adapts a 1990 New Yorker humor piece by Ian Frazier. Speaker 1 (1:12) Reminder to like, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get podcasts. Follow us on Instagram at itwasabookfirstpod, on TikTok at itwasabookfirst, watch this episode on YouTube at itwasabookfirstpodcast, or visit our website, itwasabookfirst.com. Have a question for us or want to reach out about something? Email us at itwasabookfirstpod at gmail.com. Speaker 2 (1:33) So Sophie, before we get into talking about quite a film, Quite a film. Speaker 1 (1:40) The Speaker 2 (1:41) Dog Stars. I wanted to see if there's anything that you watched recently that you'd recommend for people. Speaker 1 (1:48) Yeah, this was an unexpected one. So the other night, my boyfriend and I watched a movie called Influencer. Now, before you tune Speaker 2 (1:57) out. Very Speaker 1 (1:57) appropriate for you. Yes. Oh, God. We don't have enough time to unpack that. But hopefully what Rudy is alluding to is that I ran the influencer program at the job that we worked at together. And so I have some insight into these communities a little bit. But this is a horror movie. I mean, pretty light on the horror of it all. It's more suspense. But this is really, really fun. And I think what I love most about this movie is I turn to Kevin. five minutes in and go, we're not watching this, right? Like, this is very bad. We should turn it off. And I, by the end, was just an idiot for having said that. It took twists and turns that took it so far away from what I thought it was going to be. It kept me guessing the entire time. And it ended up just being such a fun watch and such a tight movie. I absolutely loved it. I think it came out in 2022. And it sounds like there is a new sequel, Influencers. Multiple came out Speaker 2 (2:57) earlier Speaker 1 (2:57) this year. Yes. What could be scarier than one, but multiple, just kidding. Just kidding. Not, not taking the Nantucket bait. Um, but I, I just had such a fun time watching this. This feels like a great movie to watch over labor day, like end of summer vibe. So definitely check it out. It is streaming on Netflix. Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:16) I heard. Oh, it's on Netflix now. Okay, cool. This is like a shutter release. And for people who don't know, shutter is like the, um, horror streaming service and that's, they make a lot of movies or at least. I help distribute a lot of movies and I've heard this is good. It's been on my list. And then especially when I heard that there was a sequel. So I'm excited to check that out at some point. And I also happen to have a horror movie recommendation, although this is kind of a horror satire more than it is a straight horror film. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. I really Speaker 1 (3:49) want to see this. Yeah, Speaker 2 (3:50) you should see this. This is director Jane Schoenbrunn's third feature and stars Hannah Einbinder as a queer director who is tasked with resurrecting a once beloved, now problematic slasher franchise and becomes obsessed with getting the first film's reclusive star, played by Gillian Anderson, to return for the reboot. This is a really funny, gross... Speaker 2 (4:14) smart, satirical horror comedy. If you don't know Jane Schoenberg's work, I saw the TV Glow was their last film. That is a very inventive, also weird, depressing film. Jane Schoenberg is trans, and so many of their films deal with trans identity. And that's inherent in this film as well, without kind of getting into spoilers. This movie is shot so well. Jane has such an eye and there's a needle drop that is hilarious. It's a Counting Crows song and it is like a one take slasher scene that is incredible and highly, highly recommend you check it out for that scene alone. Okay. Let's talk about the dog stars. So Sophie, this is Speaker 1 (5:07) a movie that I think Speaker 2 (5:09) both of us were kind of medium on at the outset. Like it's got a good cast and it's from a director who is 88 years old and has made 30 films. This is his 30th feature film. Some of them among the most important. in innovative films in history and Alien and Blade Runner and as well as like Black Hawk Down and Gladiator. Speaker 1 (5:37) And I think too, the really important thing with Ridley Scott though is that he adopted The Martian, which is the other book by Andy Weir who wrote Project Hail Mary, which is the first book we covered on this podcast. And I would say that is probably one of the most successful book to screen adaptations we've seen in recent years. And so, you know, I know Ridley Scott doesn't have... perfect track record needless to say but I think you could hope that yes it might be done well he's Speaker 2 (6:07) a very prolific and inconsistent director um and this Sophie so this comes from a book from Peter Heller from 2012 I didn't know anything about Peter Heller or this book other than my my mother-in-law read it and really liked it shout out Joanne I'm sure she's listening to this Speaker 1 (6:26) Yeah, let me tell you a little bit about this. So Peter Heller seems like a pretty cool guy. This book was published by Knopf, which is part of Penguin Random House in 2012. Peter Heller is the author of 12 books, but this was his fifth book but first novel. His other books were nonfiction sort of adventure stories. And he himself is an outdoorsman. He's self-described as an outdoorsman on his website. I recommend going to his website and just reading his bio. It's like a wild list. of. And then I went to this country and then did this insane thing and wrote a book about it. So Speaker 2 (7:00) he like goes places and then like writes about his like journeys basically. Yeah, Speaker 1 (7:04) exactly. So he worked for, I think like Outdoors Magazine. He's written for places like Esquire and Men's Health and places like that. Had done a lot of nonfiction adventure reporting. So he really comes to, you know, this is an adventure story, sure, among other things, but he really comes to it with that background. This was his first book. He has an MSD from the Iowa Writers Workshop in Fiction and Poetry. I will say this book is very beautifully written, very much makes sense that someone who studied poetry wrote this. It's beautiful. I mean, it's really meditative and thoughtful. But he has now at this point written 12 books, Dog Stars being his fifth, and all of those are novels. So he's had quite a successful career as a novelist since 2012. Speaker 2 (7:52) So he did... He did sort of nonfiction talking about the adventures he went on for like his first four books. And then he switched to novels with dog stars. That's interesting. Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:02) Exactly. This book is what we'd call a breakout bestseller, which means it wasn't really sort of like anticipated to necessarily be this huge book. I don't think it was like big little lies numbers, but it sold really well. It was translated into 26 languages, had a really successful life. This is the kind of book I will say that when I read it, it's like, oh, like your dad would love this book. It's the same with the movie. Yeah. Well. I would say like maybe someone's teenage boy might love this movie, but I'm just going to go in saying, I think as a precursor for our conversation here before we get into the details that these are very different. They feel different. The vibe is different. The book is incredibly slow and meditative. Speaker 1 (8:52) And the movie just inserts all sorts of things to make it an action, a summer action movie in a way that even though there is action in the book, please don't get me wrong on that. Speaker 2 (9:04) Yeah. Speaker 1 (9:05) It's not a Ridley Scott movie. Let's put it there and I'll turn it back over to you. Well, Speaker 2 (9:10) it is also slow and meditative at times as well, the movie, but yeah. Yeah, Speaker 1 (9:14) I will say. So I did not love this book. Don't get confused on that. I found, like the first half of the movie, excruciatingly boring, the first half of the book to be kind of excruciatingly boring as well. It is a lot of him just flying around places. I, you know, take a lot of notes as I'm reading these books, and I think my note was, I can't handle one more flight scene. I just simply don't care anymore. And I felt the exact same way in the movie, where it was like, is this all this is about to be? Speaker 2 (9:45) Yeah. Well, as... As we mentioned earlier, this is Ridley Scott's 30th film and his feature film and his first since Gladiator 2 in 2024. The adaptation was written by Mark L. Smith, who is best known for co-writing The Revenant, for which Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar, The Boys in the Boat and Twisters. So he's made some movies that are OK, written some movies that are OK. Scott was supposed to make a Bee Gees biopic before this film, but that fell apart. And Paul Mescal, who starred in Gladiator 2, was originally going to be the lead in the Dog Stars, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. And we can talk a bit later about whether that would have been better casting than Jacob Lord. I Speaker 1 (10:31) think it would Speaker 2 (10:31) have been better. This movie reportedly had a budget in the $70 million to $110 million range, which is... kind of wild when you see what's on screen. Before we get into talking a little bit more deeply about the plot, I want to talk about Ridley Scott's last decade Speaker 1 (10:49) since Speaker 2 (10:49) The Martian, since you brought that up earlier. Because Ridley Scott, as I mentioned, is one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood. And he's 88 years old. He continues to work at a breakneck pace. He has two years in the last 10 where he's put out. multiple movies. So I'm going to go through these movies, Sophie, and you can tell me if you've seen any of them and what you thought. So 2017, Alien Covenant. I assume you did not see that. Speaker 1 (11:13) No, somehow missed that one. Neither Speaker 2 (11:15) did I. That's one of the Alien sequels. Ridley Scott, of course, directed the first Alien movie and has directed a couple of other sequels to that film. 2017, All the Money in the World. This is the movie that Kevin Spacey had to be edited out of. So Christopher Plummer replaced him. at the last minute, if you remember this, I never saw it. About Speaker 1 (11:33) the Hearst family? Speaker 2 (11:35) Maybe, yeah. That sounds about right. Speaker 1 (11:37) I honestly might have as like background TV, but who knows? Doesn't matter. The Speaker 2 (11:41) Last Duel. This is the, from 2021, this is the Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in like medieval times movie. Are you familiar with Speaker 1 (11:50) this at all? Speaker 2 (11:50) Wait, wait, sorry, Speaker 1 (11:51) wait. What? I actually have no idea what you're talking about. You Speaker 2 (11:54) almost kind of have to see this just for their accents because the accents are ridiculous. If you watch this movie, you'll see why Odysseus speaks in a normal accent in The Odyssey. Speaker 1 (12:05) I'm Speaker 2 (12:06) a Speaker 1 (12:06) pretty terminally online person, so it surprises me that I've never heard of that. That's how bad it is. There Speaker 2 (12:11) are people who love The Last Stool. I am not one of those people. The Speaker 1 (12:15) Last Speaker 2 (12:15) Stool. Speaker 1 (12:15) Okay. Speaker 2 (12:16) 2021 also, I'm sure you've heard of this movie, House of Gucci with Lady Speaker 1 (12:20) Gaga. Speaker 2 (12:20) I have seen that. Yes. Didn't like that either. Speaker 1 (12:23) It's pretty bad. I mean, I liked it. Speaker 2 (12:24) 2023, Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon. I kind of liked this movie. This is an example, again, of Ridley Scott maybe being as good as the material he's working with. Joaquin Phoenix reportedly called in Paul Thomas Anderson to rewrite some of his lines of dialogue. And there are some funny, weird... like lines of dialogue in this movie that I assume PTA wrote. So I kind of enjoyed it for that reason, but it's Speaker 1 (12:51) a Speaker 2 (12:51) little bit slow and boring. Gladiator 2. Kind of liked it, but I think I would never rewatch that movie again. Speaker 1 (12:58) I haven't seen it. Speaker 2 (12:59) Right. So I wanted to go through that exercise because I think it's interesting that in the last decade, he's made a bunch of movies that you've either never heard of or haven't seen, some that I have seen and that I don't like. So yeah. Speaker 1 (13:11) And I think that this would go into people Speaker 2 (13:12) who Speaker 1 (13:12) are either. Yeah, people are either going to not see this or not like it, most likely. I mean, it'd take you to something like 30 % on Rotten Tomatoes. I got to admit, I was a little worried going in, having just read the book and having seen the trailer. And then I think the movie surprised me and like. how off the second half of it is. I literally said like, oh, come on, multiple times. I promise I was in a pretty empty theater, so I don't think people heard me, but it did just escape my lips. Speaker 2 (13:41) I will just say that there were some people in my screening last night who clapped at the end. Speaker 1 (13:46) No, no. Speaker 2 (13:48) That's upsetting. Look, I was shocked too. Clap for Speaker 1 (13:52) Jacob Elordi's. pristine suede jacket. That's what they were clapping for. His Speaker 2 (13:58) clothes were like at times way too nice. Speaker 1 (14:01) The clothes in general. I was like, sorry, that t-shirt, that cotton t-shirt you bought for $15 at Walmart has survived more than 10 years in the apocalypse. Like my shirt I bought last week looks worse than that. Speaker 2 (14:14) The Speaker 1 (14:14) costumes really got me. I'm so distracted by something like the costumes here. I'm distracted by the fact that like we're in Italy and not in Colorado in any way, shape or form. Oh yeah, the whole movie is shot in Italy. Speaker 2 (14:28) Oh, I didn't even look into that. Wow. And I'm about to go to Speaker 1 (14:31) Italy. So I loved it as like a preview. But I found so much about this movie. baffling. And what's so interesting is like, it's not a good movie if you read the book and it's not a good movie if you didn't read the book. It's simply just not a good movie. Speaker 2 (14:48) Yeah. I can't disagree with you there. This is actually a pretty simple, straightforward plot. So Jacob Elordi stars as Hig and Hig is a former mechanic who is a real sad boy. Speaker 1 (15:06) He's a real sad boy. He's a real Speaker 2 (15:08) sad boy. His wife and their child died during this flu pandemic, which we do not learn. His child died Speaker 1 (15:17) before the flu pandemic. He says that they lost their kid a year before the wife died. Right. Speaker 2 (15:23) I think they were both in the pandemic. It's just that one died prior to. I got the sense Speaker 1 (15:28) that the baby died in utero. Here's the Speaker 2 (15:32) thing. No idea. Because the movie doesn't really dig into the background of what happened that much. No, Speaker 1 (15:41) this Speaker 2 (15:41) is not a world Speaker 1 (15:42) building. Speaker 2 (15:42) It's Speaker 1 (15:42) very Speaker 2 (15:42) surface level. Speaker 1 (15:44) This is not a world building story where they're going through how this pandemic happened. And I do think, too, it's really important to remember that this book was written in 2012. Speaker 2 (15:53) Yes. Yes. And we can we can talk about how that how much post-apocalyptic content has come out since this book was published and why this maybe feels a little dated and tired and and well-worn territory. Yeah, we essentially. Speaker 1 (16:10) flu pandemic has wiped out the majority of the world. Speaker 2 (16:13) Yes. And there Speaker 1 (16:14) are rogue survivors and there seems to be, as far as we know, no real organized anything around. It's sort of just factions of people fighting. But we are not learning about like, this is this group. This is how the government fell. We just sort of learned that it happened really fast. Most people died and now there's something called the blood disease. That's how it's referred to. Is that in Speaker 2 (16:38) the book? Speaker 1 (16:39) Yeah, it's like what the Mennonite children have. Speaker 2 (16:41) They Speaker 1 (16:41) don't even say that. Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah, Speaker 2 (16:43) it's like what the Speaker 1 (16:43) Mennonite children have, but it's sort of made like it's like a secondary thing. They don't know how contagious it is, but it's like a lot of people, even if they did live, are sort of sick. Speaker 2 (16:52) Right. But that's all Speaker 1 (16:53) we got. We come to this really with only two characters. Right. And it's Higg. Well, three, kind Speaker 2 (16:59) of, because it's Higg and his dog Jasper. Please, show respect, yes. As well as Josh Brolin's character. who is, I guess, former military, like, I think he's maybe a former Marine. He's referred to as Bangley. And he's clearly was like a prepper before this pandemic and