An Introduction

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Michael Crichton

• An Introduction
• Sumantra The Book Club

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Introduction

• American Author, Producer, Director, Screenwriter
  and Physician.
• Best known for his work in Sci-Fi, Medi-Fi and
  Thriller genres.
• Books have sold over 150 million copies
  worldwide!
• Books mainly action thrillers and heavily depend
  on technology-gone-bad as the central theme.
• The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Sphere, Rising Sun,
  Disclosure, Jurassic Park, The Lost World,
  Timeline, State of Fear, Next etc

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Early Life

• Born October 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois.
• Father, John, was a journalist.
• Was raised in Roslyn, New York.
• Took a keen interest in writing from an early
  age.
• Joined Harvard to study English in 1960.
• Dropped out of the course due to issues with the
  professors.
• Switched to Biological Anthropology and
  graduated in 1964.

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Early Life (Contd.)

• Was initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society
  at Harvard!
• Joined Harvard Medical School and got an M.D. in
  1969.
• Published work while at Harvard.
• Unusually tall 6 feet 9 inches!
• So used various pen names with reference to his
  height.
• John Lange and Jeffery Hudson.

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More of his Early Life

• Co-authored Dealing with his brother, Douglas
  under pen name of Michael Douglas.
• Odds On First published novel. Year 1966.
• Book about an attempted robbery planned using a
  Critical Path Analysis computer program but
  unforeseen events get in the way!
• Next was Scratch One. Year 1967. About a
  handsome lawyer who practices law to support his
  playboy lifestyleand when in France gets stuck
  in a huge mess

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Writing Career

• In 1968, he published two novels Easy Go and
  A CASE OF NEED.
• Easy Go is about a brilliant Egyptologist who
  uncovers a hieroglyphic message about a pharaoh's
  tomb yet to be discovered
• A Case Of Need was a medical thriller. About a
  pathologist whose obstetrician friend performs an
  abortion that causes the death of a young woman.
• Turning point in his career.
• EDGAR AWARD in 1969.

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Year 1969

• Three Novels.
• Zero Cool about an American radiologist on
  vacation in Spain caught in cross fire between
  rival gangs for a precious Mexican artifact.
• The Venom Business about a smuggler, snake
  handler who smuggles rare artifacts with snakes
  which are for medical research.
• The Andromeda Strain..More about it ahead

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The first step towards movies and TV!!

• His first novel that would make him a Best
  Selling Author
• About a team of scientists investigating a deadly
  ET microbe that clots blood instantly causing
  death in just 2 minutes. It mutates with every
  growth cycle and changes its biologic properties.
• Turned into a movie in 1971!!
• In 2008, turned into a mini series executive
  produced by Ridley Scott and Tony Scott premiered
  on HBO!

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Further Work

• In 1972, he came up with Terminal Man about
  an epileptic sufferer who during seizures has
  blackouts and wakes up without memory of the
  things he has done while in the blackout. He is
  believed to be psychotic and electrodes are
  planted in his brain.
• Continued his trend of MACHINE-HUMAN
  interaction..

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The Great Train Robbery

• Published in 1975.
• About a huge gold heist in Victorian England
  circa 1855.
• It was made into a movie in 1979 starring Sean
  Connery and Donald Sutherland and himself!
• Movie was nominated for Best Cinematography by
  British Society of Cinematographers!
• Also nominated for Best Motion Picture for the
  Edgar Allan Poe Award!

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FUrther WOrk

• 1976 Eaters of the Dead. Later adapted into a
  film The 13th Warrior.
• 1980 Congo. Made into a movie starring Laura
  Linney and Tim Currey.
• 1987 - Sphere. Made into a film in 1998
  starring Dustin Hoffman, Samuel Jackson, Liev
  Schreiber and Sharon Stone.

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JURASSIC PARK

• Published in 1990.
• Fiction as Fact clubbed with Chaos Theory and
  its philosophical implications to explain the
  collapse of an Amusement Park having genetically
  recreated dinosaurs in a biological reserve.
• Movie made under the Universal banner by Steven
  Spielberg starring Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and
  Richard Attenborough.
• Probably the most successful movie of Spielberg!

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More work and movies..

• Published RISING SUN in 1992.
• Based on Japanese firm named Nakamoto where the
  rape and murder of an employee fuels a
  no-holds-barred investigation
• Movie in 1993 starring Sean Connery and Wesley
  Snipes.
• Same year as Jurassic Park.
• In 1995, sequel to Jurassic Park The Lost
  World.
• Movie in 1997 starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne
  Moore and Vince Vaughn. Directed by Spielberg.

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GOING ON.

• In 1996, an aero-techno-thriller called
  AIRFRAME.
• In 1999, he published TIMELINE. It was based
  upon Time Travel and Quantum Physics. Journey of
  a group of historians and archaeologists to
  uncover the truth of the disappearance of a
  scientist at a site of excavation.
• It was made into a VG and a movie starring Gerard
  Butler and Paul Walker.
• Then were PREY and STATE OF FEAR.

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STATE OF FEAR??

• It directly attacked the politicization of
  science
• Says that Global Warming and other such theories
  are baseless and used to just gain funding and
  publicity by organizations.
• Faced a lot of criticism from various places
  including former Vice President Al Gore

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The last ones..

• That was NEXT printed in 2006.
• Based on Genetic Research and wrong practices in
  the world of genetic engineering.
• Last Novel PIRATE LATITUDES will be released
  in November 2009.
• Including another one to be out in 2010.

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SOME TRIVIA

• Was exorcised in 1986.
• Visiting writer, MIT. 1988
• When writing a script or book, he always eats the
  same thing for lunch to aid his concentration.
  When writing Jurassic Park (1993), for example,
  he ate egg salad sandwiches with lots of pepper.
• First line of his autobiography "It's not easy
  to cut through a human head with a hacksaw.

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Oh YES!!!
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AWARDS

• Emmy for ER.
• EDGAR ALLAN POE award for A Case of Need.
• A Peabody award.
• A Writers Guild of America award.
• Dinosaur Crichtonsaurus bohlini.
• 50 Most Beautiful People Award 1992 by People
  Magazine.
• AAPG Journalism Award for State of Fear.

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THANK YOU!