The Story Behind Cyber Fighter
When Brian discovers that the eccentric main programmer Humbert Cloogey has sold him off to the Army for induction, he makes his escape, assisted by his only ally Dr. Kate Rand, a neuroscientist who works for the company, but who has some secrets herself.
Simultaneously as Brian is undergoing the experiment, a Triad crime boss and part-time cloning engineer Lau Xiaoming, operating out of North Korea, hacks into the U.S. server hosting the software, planting a Trojan program into Brian’s brain that holds the secret to “Project Starfish”, his plan for world domination. Brian finds himself pursued by not only the U.S. Army, and FBI, but also by Xiaoming and his minions, all looking to grab him for their own exploits.
The core of my story is Brian’s journey, going from a middle-aged man who gave up on his dreams, to suddenly finding himself empowered with skills he never thought he’d ever achieve. Almost overnight he acquires an almost superhero status. But he discovers that he apparently hasn’t achieved any more control over his life than before. In fact, his life seems pretty much out of control now.
My message to the readers is to not just keep dreaming, but also be prepared for when you do achieve those dreams. Because there will be forces out there looking to use you for their own means. This story is also a satire on the U.S.’s military industrial complex and how it’s run almost like a corporate entity - completely profit driven. I’m also sending up popular action movie tropes in a fun, comic-book way. There’s a lot of humor in the book, and you can tell I was heavily influenced by Monty Python and other comedic sci-fi like Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Originally CYBER FIGHTER was a feature film screenplay that I wrote as a martial arts action movie that I want to star in, back when I was temping at an aerospace company (that became the inspiration for the fictitious Kirkman Enterprises). The story was originally inspired by cyberpunk adventures like The Matrix. The twist was that instead of having the fighting skills in the virtual world, we used Virtual Reality to give Brian skills in the real world.
Through the years, the script developed. The story changed and evolved, while periodically being shelved when I was working on other acting or writing projects. When self-publishing technology became easier and more user-friendly, I decided to adapt the screenplay into a novel and publish it before making the film. My intention was to put the story out there and build an audience, much like J.K. Rowling did with her Harry Potter series.
Along with developing this novel into a feature film, I’ve written and am working on a short film proof-of-concept that I intend to shoot later this year to help build an audience for the feature as well as to help promote the book too.
I self-published the novel on Amazon, using the Kindle Create software to format the book. The great thing about the software is that you can not only format the Kindle e-book, but also your paperback and hardcover editions as well. I also produced and performed the audiobook version for Audible and I created a comic book adaptation from the short film script which is on Amazon too.
CYBER FIGHTER is the first book in an intended trilogy exploring a wider story arc for my main character Brian Baldwin. Along with working on the film projects, I’m currently working on the mapping out the next book as well as writing a short story prequel that takes place in the early 1980s, highlighting the young Humbert Cloogey and how he first developed the technology for the Virtual Reality program.
William Joseph Hill’s book CYBER FIGHTER, with its big screen adaptation underway, is a sci-fi/martial arts/action-adventure story that will engage readers in this action-packed “page turner.”
Said the author Mr. Hill, “I’m hoping that my CYBER FIGHTER readers have fun with the story and have a few good laughs, along with being thrilled by the action sequences I have in the story. I’d also like them to think about the scientific possibilities that the story explores. As we spend more and more of our lives online, the idea that you could learn skills via Virtual Reality is becoming less science fiction and closer to actuality.”
Cyber Fighter is the story of a clumsy temp Brian Baldwin who takes a job at defense contractor Kirkman Enterprises, where he volunteers to test their latest software program on himself by getting black belt fighting skills downloaded directly to his brain via a Virtual Reality immersive experience, turning him into a human weapon.
When Brian discovers that the eccentric main programmer Humbert Cloogey has sold him off to the Army for induction, he makes his escape, assisted by his only ally Dr. Kate Rand, a neuroscientist who works for the company, but who has some secrets herself.
Simultaneously as Brian is undergoing the experiment, a Triad crime boss and part-time cloning engineer Lau Xiaoming, operating out of North Korea, hacks into the U.S. server hosting the software, planting a Trojan program into Brian’s brain that holds the secret to “Project Starfish”, his plan for world domination.
Brian finds himself pursued by not only the U.S. Army, and FBI, but also by Xiaoming and his minions, all looking to grab him for their own exploits.
The core of my story is Brian’s journey, going from a middle-aged man who gave up on his dreams, to suddenly finding himself empowered with skills he never thought he’d ever achieve. Almost overnight he acquires a superhero status. But he discovers that he apparently hasn’t achieved any more control over his life than before. In fact, his life seems pretty much out of control now.
Plans for a CYBER FIGHTER feature length movie from William Hill lie ahead. He said, “I am also developing CYBER FIGHTER into a feature film. Part of that process includes doing a short film version for a proof-of-concept for my vision of the full feature. I am hoping to produce and shoot the short film this summer and have it go to festivals. I also did a comic book adaptation of that short film version that is also for sale on Amazon. Learn more at this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZL6X6W6
“Cyber Fighter is a fun and engaging read…Multiple strands and characters -as well as many pop culture and martial arts references…”
“Cyber Fighter takes you on a wild ride that is funny and a wonderful escape from all that is currently going on in the world. “
“The Matrix on steroids!!!”
“For fans of Sci-Fi, a-la Monty Python”
“A great read for the Martial Artist”
“It’s Matrix meets Die Hard, and definitely keeps the action going”
Book Information:
Release Date: Updated February 2022; originally Published November 21, 2019.
Publisher: Independent
Number of pages: Hard Cover/206 pages/ASIN: B09QP6QPG8 ISBN-13: 979-8727262665, Paperback/284 pages/ASIN: 1082737933-ISBN-10: 9781082737930-ISBN-13:19781082737930Kindle e-book/286 pages. Kindle — ASIN: B081SJRMJ1
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081SJRMJ1
Audio version Links: Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/cyber-fighter-unabridged/id1531248640?uo=4&mt=3; Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Cyber-Fighter-Audiobook/B08DJBL4WX
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/CyberFighterMovie Twitter: https://twitter.com/cyberfightermov Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/williamjosephhill/
When interviewed, the author tells us his life story, “I’ve actually been writing since elementary school. I always liked writing my own science-fiction stories, though my early work was derivative of TV shows I loved like SPACE: 1999 and the 1970s version of Buck Rogers. When my family moved to Hawaii (my Dad was a Captain in the U.S. Navy), I started making my own movies first with a Super-8 camera and then our family’s VHS camcorder. In high school I wrote, directed, and starred in my very first feature Law of the Ninja, with my siblings as co-stars and the neighborhood kids as background actors.
When I came to Hollywood, I not only continued with my acting career, but also used my writing skills to pen some screenplays, a few of which I was hired to write from an indie producer. CYBER FIGHTER was originally intended as a vehicle for my acting career, but gradually developed into a bigger story which my debut novel tells. It is my very first book that I’ve ever published.
My wife Pamela and I started our own production company Four Scorpio Productions, and we have our own YouTube channel where we began making short films and then developed our own web series sitcom That Darn Girlfriend which is in its third season. It’s a quirky fun parody of classic 1960s/1970s sitcoms, done in that style as well. We’ve built an audience of over 3,500 subscribers. I also share my filmmaking/VFX knowledge with a tutorial series that I produce and host on the channel as well: https://williamjosephhill.com/ and http://fourscorpio.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/fourscorpio.
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