Way back in 1719, the English author Daniel Defoe penned the famous classic novel, Robinson Crusoe. Since the original publication, the best-selling adventure story has never been out of print and is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. Widely considered by academics as the first English novel, and one of the most widely published books in history, Robinson Crusoe has been adapted to stage, graphic novels, radio, television, and film. Next year, in 2019, we will celebrate the 300th anniversary of the publication of Robinson Crusoe!
Four years ago, modern-day award-winning novelist, Wayne Reinagel, followed in Defoe’s footsteps by writing his own best-selling island survival novel entitled The Cast Away. Reinagel recently announced that he plans to adapt the novel into a feature-length major motion picture and release it on the 300th anniversary of Robinson Crusoe.
In the first two chapters, the main character in The Cast Away shares a similar fate to Defoe’s ill-fated Robinson Crusoe, becoming a lone survivor on a remote desert isle after a shipwreck at sea. And the title of the book might conjure images of the popular 2001 Tom Hanks movie Cast Away (no “The”). But Reinagel’s plot deviates sharply by the end of the second chapter and the main character faces unique challenges that Defoe never considered in his wildest flights of imagination. In addition to enduring starvation and solitude, the main character is soon beset by a blood-thirsty horde of cannibals, encounters an imprisoned demon named Legion, befriends a near-immortal hermit who was stranded on the isle two hundred years earlier, and stalked by a monstrous, prehistoric creature that haunts the island. The novel is aptly described as a tale of Gothic horror, sort of a Robinson Crusoe meets the Devil’s Advocate meets Jurassic Park.
Reinagel has assembled a film trailer and plans to raise all the funding through a crowd-funded Indiegogo campaign, beginning June 30th and running until August 1st. Further information can be found at www.indiegogo.com / or igg.me.
