Army Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Kennedy Johnson, writer of \u201cThe Last Sons of America,\u201d also plays the trumpet in the U. S. Army Field Band.<\/b>
\nA gritty future where nobody in the U. S. is able to have children after a biological terrorist attack will soon be brought to life as a Netflix original movie starring „Game of Thrones“ star Peter Dinklage \u2014 all from the imagination of an Army sergeant.
Based on the post-apocalyptic graphic novel \u201cThe Last Sons of America,\u201d which Sgt 1st Class Phillip Kennedy Johnson wrote while serving as a trumpet player with the Washington, D. C.-based U. S. Army Field Band. The adaptation will be produced by Matt Reeves, writer and director of the upcoming Warner Bros. film \u201cThe Batman,\u201d Netflix announced earlier this month.
\u201cI haven\u2019t had time to really process everything yet, but I\u2019m really excited,\u201d said Johnson, who has served 13 years in the Army.
Johnson\u2019s graphic novel, with the art of D. C.-based comic book artist Matthew Dow Smith, was published as a four-book series in 2015 and was released as compendium in January 2017.
It\u2019s set in the near future, when the world\u2019s adoption rates boom and human trafficking is the norm as children become a valuable commodity. Brothers Jackie and Julian, who operate a South American adoption agency, get mixed up with criminal organizations who kidnap children to sell them to desperate Americans.
\u201cWhen the brothers suddenly find themselves with their backs against the wall, Jackie makes a grave mistake that sends them spiraling into a dark mystery at the root of their world\u2019s status quo; a mystery much darker than they might be able to bear,\u201d a Netflix synopsis said.
The world of the story is a dystopia, but \u201cnot like a \u2018Mad-Max\u2019 type dystopia,\u201d Johnson said.
\u201cThe story is more about the two brothers and how they move through this world and develop together,\u201d he said.
He got the idea for the story after a January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, killing a reported 300,000 and leaving about 1 million without homes. Johnson, who was doing volunteer work to combat human trafficking around that time, heard a story on the news about a group from Idaho that had tried to \u201crescue\u201d three-dozen Haitian children by taking them across the border to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.
There were two problems\u2014the Americans didn\u2019t have permission to transport the kids and many of them had living parents. The group was arrested on kidnapping charges, and Johnson began asking himself, \u201cwhat would happen if this was the only way for Americans to have kids.\u201d
Published by BOOM! Studios, \u201cThe Last Sons of America\u201d is his first published comic and explores contemporary issues like the effects the U. S. has on the rest of the world, as well as concerns about for-profit adoption agencies and human trafficking.
\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing to see this all come together\u2026 The opportunity to tell a story that means so much to me, to such a huge audience is more than I\u2019d hoped for,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cSeeing it come to life on the page with Matthew Dow Smith\u2019s art was already a dream come true. Seeing it come to life on the screen is going to be a little insane.\u201d
The move to turn it into a feature film came after Dinklage picked up the book one day.
\u201cAll the buzz around \u2018Last Sons of America\u2019 started when Peter Dinklage discovered the book and apparently really liked it and saw himself in it,\u201d Johnson said.
Dinklage then brought it to Reeves, best known for helming 2008\u2019s \u201cCloverfield\u201d and the last two films in the recent \u201cPlanet of the Apes\u201d trilogy. The film will be adapted and directed by Josh Mond, writer and director of 2015\u2019s \u201cJames White,\u201d Netflix said. Additional casting is still being discussed, Deadline Hollywood reported.
Since his first book was published, Johnson has written several others, including the four issues series \u201cWarlords of Appalachia\u201d about a feudal warlord in rural Kentucky after a second U. S. civil war.
He says being a soldier has given him a unique perspective on the world, that other writers may not have.
\u201cAll of my stories are about America and I think show my patriotism a little bit,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cMy experience of being in the military has been nothing but positive for me as a writer and a person.\u201d
The Army and his command have been supportive of his writing and have allowed him the flexibility he needs, though he sometimes struggles to find time to write.
\u201cI travel a lot for my job, so I write all the time on the bus, or in hotels, or even just for 30 seconds at a time at the gym or in line at the pharmacy \u2014 whenever I get a chance to write,\u201d Johnson said.
While his writing career is flourishing, he said he wants to stay in the Army.
\u201cI love my writing, and I\u2019m definitely going to keep doing it. I have a ton of stories I want to tell. But, I value the work I do with the Army Field Band,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t quit for anything.\u201d
Servicemembers pursuing creative projects will face challenges, Johnson said, but they should know that it\u2019s possible to succeed.
\u201cYou\u2019ll have to make sacrifices to give everyone your best work, but you can do it, and it can be extremely rewarding,\u201d he said.
egnash.martin@stripes.com
Twitter: @Marty_Stripes<\/p>\n