For the past year, people have heaped pity on Tucson author Adam Rex.
That’s because his 2007 novel “The True Meaning of Smekday” is the basis for DreamWorks Studios’ “Home,” which hits theaters Friday. It’s hard to imagine anyone hasn’t seen the ubiquitous trailers, but just in case, here’s the nine-word rundown of the animated flick: It’s a road-trip/buddy (kid and alien) comedy.
“Adults are feeling very sorry for me because my book is being made into a $132 million movie,” Rex dryly notes as he sits in his office at The Historic Y. “They think that I’ve been had, that I didn’t get enough money.”
Well, he’s got some news for you people: Simmer down. He’s really OK with it.
“I think books and movies need to be their own thing,” says Rex, 41. “It was kind of exciting, thinking of a group of people making an alternate universe of my story.”
As for the deal he inked, well, Rex can’t spout specifics off the top of his head.
“I’d have to ask my agent,” he says.
But, he did get a new bathroom and plans to renovate the attic of the West University-area home he shares with his astrophysicist wife, Marie, and 2½-year-old son, Henry.
A prolific author who’s written and illustrated many children’s books and been on The New York Times best-seller list, Rex has routinely fielded calls from screenwriters over the years. “The True Meaning of Smekday” was optioned by a small animation studio right after its publication eight years ago, he says. DreamWorks bought the studio, but nothing happened until about four years ago.
Rex recalls that he had jury duty — “I was downtown trying to grab a quick burrito” — when he received a voicemail from “Home” director Tim Johnson’s assistant that the movie was greenlighted.
Rex, who does most of his writing at Fourth Avenue-area haunts such as Epic Cafe and Time Market, has made multiple visits to DreamWorks and had already seen several versions of “Home” before he and his wife attended the Hollywood, red-carpet premiere Sunday.
Rex loves the final cut, although he admits that, at first, he was disappointed with DreamWorks’ version of the Boov, the aliens that take over Earth. In his book, the Boov are gray, beady-eyed aliens with eight appendages.
DreamWorks trimmed off a few legs, colored them purple, added “nostricles” to the sides of the head (Rex likes those — “If I’d thought of that myself, I’d have done it”) and gave them huge eyes, which will make them, says Rex, much cuter toys.
The author got over his initial disappointment after director Johnson showed him earlier, rejected versions of Oh, the misfit Boov, who befriends an adventurous girl named Tip.
“Suddenly I’m like, ‘There he is! That’s my guy,’” he says.
Rex says it’s hard to believe his creations will be on clothes and turned into dolls and even Happy Meal toys.
As for what’s next, he has two children’s books he’s written that will be illustrated by other artists. He’s also in talks with DreamWorks about an unpublished story of his. As for a film follow-up to “Home,” well, he figures that all depends on how the movie does at the box office.
“I don’t know if it’ll be enormous and change my life, or it’ll be quieter and I’ll move on to the next thing,” Rex says.
He just published a sequel to “The True Meaning of Smekday” (Disney-Hyperion, $7.99) called “Smek for President!” (Disney-Hyperion, $16.99). But, he thinks “Home” varies too much from the original to adapt the second book.
Rex’s extended family is eager to see “Home,” so he figures he’ll take Henry and his cousin who’s the same age and experience the joys of taking toddlers to the movies.
Says Rex, “Halfway through, when they crap out, I’ll take them into the lobby and play with them.”
