WATCH: The Bad Guys trailer and check out our exclusive interview with book author, Aaron Blabey
The animated heist flick is set to be just as cool as the book series.
If you’re a parent of young kids, chances are you’ve heard the name Aaron Blabey and have read one of his globally popular books – The Bad Guys, Pig the Pug and Thelma the Unicorn.
The father-of-two’s book series, The Bad Guys is a #1 New York Times best seller and has sold 2.5 million copies sold in Australia alone and the animated movie adaptation by DreamWorks will hit our cinema screens on March 31, 2022.
The film’s voice cast stars Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, Craig Robinson and Marc Maron as a bunch of villains who decide to attempt to be good.
Watch The Bad Guys trailer above!
Bounty Parents spoke to Australian author Aaron Blabey about books, movie-making and why kids are going to love The Bad Guys.
Congratulations! How does it feel seeing your book being turned into a movie?
It’s such a thrill! It’s been a long process as we started we first spoke to DreamWorks in at the end of 2016. I’m one of the executive producers on the movie so I’ve been watching it evolve right from the first outline, through each draft of the script to each cut of the movie. When I saw the final version, I got really quite emotional. It far exceeded my wildest dreams of what the The Bad Guys movie could be. It’s very, very exciting.
Aaron Blabey’s hit book series, The Bad Guys has sold 2.5 million copies sold in Australia alone.
Why do you think kids will love the film?
As an animated movie, there’s nothing quite like it out there because it plays as a really exciting heist-slash-action movie for kids. They feel like they’re getting their own version of The Fast and the Furious, which is super cool. The books were always a mash up of Tarantino and Soderbergh for kids, but with a bit of Spielberg and Lucas threaded through it as well. And that’s always been my plan, to take all my favourite cinematic elements and stick them in a book.
You have two sons, aged 13 and 15. What do they think of their dad making a Hollywood movie?
When the series began, it was being written directly for them because they were my target market. They were six and eight when it started and I still get them to read each one. But, they’re amazingly blasé about it. They both underplay it, which I think is really pretty classy of them as well, but they love it and they think it’s really awesome. We are very excited to see what happens as you can’t predict how movies are going to go. It’s a dream come true and I feel like it’s a genuinely cool movie.
Aaron Blabey describes The Bad Guys movie as “a really exciting heist-slash-action movie for kids”.
How did the pandemic affect your book writing and the movie being made?
It didn’t alter my schedule at all as I’m isolated to begin with and I’m locked into a pretty insane publishing schedule. I do two Bad Guys books a year and I have a new series coming out, which is the same format as the Bad Guy.
The movies haven’t slowed down at all because with animation everybody can just work remotely. Even the cast were recording from their homes. I’ve been weirdly busier than ever during the past two years. It’s a very, very weird situation to be in because I’ve been so busy with so many things and I’ve just been watching the world kind of go bonkers.
