Well, that was the case when I was in high school in the 90s, anyway.
Anyway, it's now a movie. And, to put it really damn simply; I'm frakkin' excited.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxb8rgq_Un8
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_series | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow,_ ... egan_(film)
Official site: http://www.tomorrow-movies.com/the-movies/
The Tomorrow series is a series of seven young adult invasion novels written by Australian writer John Marsden, detailing a high-intensity invasion and occupation of Australia by a foreign power. The novels are related from the first person perspective by the main character, Ellie Linton, a part of a small band of teenagers waging a guerrilla war on the enemy soldiers in their fictional home town of Wirrawee. The name of the series is derived from the title of the first book, Tomorrow, When The War Began.
The books in the series were originally published from 1993-99, by Pan Macmillan and have been reprinted sixteen times. A sequel series, The Ellie Chronicles, was later published from 2003-06. The follow up series concerns itself largely with the attempts of society and the protagonist to regain a normal level of functioning in the face of the psychological damage sustained during the war.
The invading nation is never specified in the books; in fact, no nation in the world meets the criteria laid out in the series most likely by explicit intent of the author. Likewise, no parts of the war outside Ellie's immediate perspective are covered; the reader is not informed exactly how much of the country is under enemy control, or how well the war is going for the Australian military.
It is likely that this was Marsden's intention, given that the series focuses on the characters more than the actual war, and is an accurate reflection of how Ellie and her friends are isolated and cut off from outside communication.
Tomorrow, When The War Began and its subsequent sequels are one of the most popular and critically-acclaimed series of novels aimed at young readers in Australian literature history. It has sold between 2 and 3 million copies in Australia alone and has been translated into five languages, one of them being Swedish, where the series has sold over 115,000 copies.
Last year's news release:
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Australia" co-writer Stuart Beattie is readying his directorial debut, an adaptation of the young-adult novel "Tomorrow, When the War Began."
Beattie also wrote the screenplay for the Aussie-centric production.
"Tomorrow" is the first novel in a popular series of seven written by Australian John Marsden and published between 1994 and 1999. The Tomorrow Series, as it is known, details the insurgency efforts of a band of Aussie teenagers fighting off an enemy invasion and occupation of their homeland.
"It's coming of age in a war zone," said Beattie, who is casting and hiring crew for a September shoot in his native Australia. Sydney-based Omnilab Media ("Dead of Night") is financing and will handle the sizable visual effects through its company Iloura, which worked on "Australia."
The filmmakers plan to make a trilogy of features from the first three books and, if they're successful, spin the next four off into a TV series.
In the age of "Twilight's" immense success, "Tomorrow's" youth-targeted themes and PG-13 sex and violence could appeal to the same audience. The main character is a teen named Ellie Linton, who struggles to become a fierce leader while navigating relationships with the seven other teenagers in her group.
The Tomorrow Series is one of the most popular Australian series ever published; the books are taught in schools there. Most of them were not available stateside until recently, but the filmmakers hope to persuade Scholastic to reprint them in tandem with the movie's launch. Marsden also penned a follow-up trilogy called the Ellie Chronicles, which look at the war's aftermath.
Beattie's screenwriting credits include "Collateral" and "Derailed," and he co-wrote "30 Days of Night."
