SOMETHING FISHY?

[Geoff McGeachin]

There is suddenly a bit of an online buzz about the TV movie "Mega Piranha." It’s showing on the SyFy channel in the US on April 10th and is about mutant Piranhas making their way from the Amazon to Florida and going on a killing spree.

The tagline is: "They were created to save mankind. Something went
wrong."

I seem to recall that my fourth book ‘DEAD AND KICKING’ which was published by Penguin in Australia in January 2009 and released soon after internationally as an audio book by Bolinda had a similar storyline. My fish were called Barrana, a Barramundi/Piranha cross intended to produce a large, delicious tasting (and voracious and thus fast growing) product to help ease world hunger. The developer ordered the plan scrapped and all the Barrana destroyed after it was found they were a little too boisterous for safe handling.

But by golly some evildoer gets his hand on the breeding stock and plans to introduce them into the Northern Territory waterways during the Big Wet, thus flooding the rivers and oceans with these nasty creatures. This is intended to bring Australia’s love of all things aquatic to a sudden and bloody end - and might possibly mean the boys from Bondi Rescue could be reduced to working in telemarketing.

There are a lot of comments about the SyFy movie having a ludicrous premise but most reviewers seemed to thing I’d managed to pull it off in my book. And after Carl Hiaasen gave one of his characters in SKIN TIGHT who was missing a hand a Weed Whacker (Whippa Snippa to Aussies) as a replacement I figure the boundaries have been moved way out there.

I’m not sure when the SyFy show will turn up in Oz but I’ll be watching it with interest, and with my attorney at my side. He’s half man/half Piranha and believe me the Piranha half is the nice part.

[Lindy Cameron]

That movie sounds way too close to Alby's adventure with the Barranas, Geoff. Odds are the movie will be awful!