By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Originally intended for the screen, the lycanthropic tale will howl from the page next month.
Independent filmmaker Onur Tukel (SUMMER OF BLOOD, CATFIGHT, POUNDCAKE) has announced the June publication of his debut novel RUN WEREWOLF RUN by Impworks, a division of Pitchstone Press. The book, which features over 100 illustrations by Tukel himself, is adapted from an unproduced feature script he wrote in 2018. The synopsis: “RUN WEREWOLF RUN tells the story of a middle-aged father named Clifford Monroe, who is working his way through a midlife crisis. When a charming stranger named Channing enters his life, things will never be the same for poor Clifford, especially when the sun goes down. What follows is an insane, blood-splattered adventure that jeopardizes everything Clifford holds dear, including his wife and kids.”
“I’ve always loved this script,” Tukel says. “It’s one of my favorite projects. COVID complicated production for so many films in 2020, and I really wanted to bring this project to fruition, so adapting it as a novel made sense. It was much harder than writing a script, of course. I thought it might take a year or two, but it ended up taking five years.” He did appreciate the comparative freedom that telling a story in prose allows: “You can do so much externally and internally. You can write gigantic setpieces and delve into a character’s thoughts. It’s the best of both worlds.”
The book, which Tukel says deviates considerably from his screenplay, has as its key theme the clash of the domesticated Clifford and the wilder, freer Channing. “It’s just another way to tell the story of Jekyll and Hyde. We repress something primal when we behave like civilized adults. There is a small part of us, way down there, that could do serious harm to someone, that could kill and maybe even wants to. It’s terrifying to think about, this uncontrollable beast inside of us. But when you throw that conflict into a suburban setting, it can be really fun to write about.”
RUN WEREWOLF RUN has a publication date of June 24, and can be pre-ordered here.
