So first the big news. Alex Rider 7: SNAKEHEAD is finished and although I probably shouldn’t say it, I think its my favourite in the whole series.

As you all probably know, it opens in Australia a few days after Alex has splashed down from outer space. Alex is picked up by the SAS and taken to their headquarters at Swanbourne, Perth. He is then recruited by Australian intelligence and sent under cover to Bangkok to gather intelligence on a snakehead a gang run by the sinister master criminal, Major Winston Yu.

What Alex doesnt know is that Yu is also working for Scorpia, yes, they’re back and dare I say it that this time they’re nastier than ever. Yassen Gregorovich also makes an appearance in the book and there’s a character called Ash who knows some nasty secrets about Alex’s past and the way his parents died. This is certainly the most personal Alex Rider book to date.

If any of you come to the Oxford Literary Festival on 21st March. I’ll be reading a chapter. And of course I’ll post a secret chapter on this site some time later this year.

Anyway, my publisher read it yesterday and she loved it which is a good start as she’s a tough woman to please. In fact I had a big meeting at Walker Books last week which was followed by lunch and some of the most rubbery pancakes known to man (it was Shrove Tuesday) and they went through some of the plans for this year which begin with the launch of NIGHTRISE this April.

You may have noticed that the Diamond Brothers books have been repackaged and I’d be interested to know what you think of the new covers. I like them. They’re quite young and cartoony but fun and certainly more lively than the last ones. I’ve also written new introductions for them so if you find yourself in a bookshop, have a quick read (no need to buy the book nobody minds). The intros are short and they made me laugh anyway.

There’s a new Diamond Brothers novella coming out in October THE GREEK THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS. I adapted it from a radio play I wrote a couple of years ago but I’ve also expanded it and added some extra jokes. I still plan to write another full-length novel with the Diamonds one day.

SNAKEHEAD comes out in November in time for Xmas. And whats great is that I’ve already got an idea for the next one. The only slightly odd thing is that Alex wont be in it! Remember you heard about it here first!

Not much else to say. I’m not doing many school visits this year because of my usual insane work overload. Im in Andover and Devizes quite soon though. And I’m doing lots of festivals including Oxford, Bath, Hay-on-Wye (why?) and Edinburgh. You can keep track of my movements on the calendar designed by the ever-brilliant Xero.

Finally, just in case youre wondering. I’m working on the screenplay of POINT BLANC, currently on the third draft. The producers still hope there’ll be a second Alex Rider movie. We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.

I hate February. It’s cold and drizzling and my new pad in Clerkenwell is half-finished and I’m not even sure that the half that’s finished is as nice as the half that isn’t. My sons are up to their necks in exams, Lucky (the dog) refuses to answer to his new name and all in all I’d much rather be skiing. But I think its going to be a great year

Anthony Horowitz

I’m moving house. Right now everything I own is piled up in cardboard boxes and I’m spending half my life racing up and down the M4 between Devizes (where I’m living) and Clerkenwel lwhich is where I’ll be living once the flat is ready.

I’m insanely busy (as ever) just finished the LAST EVER EPISODE of Foyles War. And Ive begun work on a new series for the BBC.

Snakehead.

I’m 35,000 words in (but don’t tell my publishers or they’ll only want me to deliver it sooner). This one is taking a lot of research. I’ve already spent a day on a container ship down in Southampton and early in the New Year I’m flying to Malta to check out the chapter that features my old friend, Yassen Gregorovich. I’m also flying to Aberdeen to visit an oil rig for the climax.

I think the book is going really well, in tone its closer to Scorpia than Ark Angel (and Scorpia are back they feature in the first chapter which I’ll hide somewhere on this site early next year). So far, Alex has had a pretty rough time and its about to get a whole lot worse once he crash lands in the Australian rain forest

And since quite a lot of you are asking this, no Snakehead won’t be the last Alex book. At least, I hope not. There’ll be at least one more.

I’m also getting a lot of questions about the film of Stormbreaker.

Stormbreaker did pretty well in the UK it made around $15m which is fantastic for an independent British film. By and large it got good reviews too. (Did anyone notice how the press treated Eragon this week? They can be nasty when they want to!)

Meanwhile, the DVD of Stormbreaker did brilliantly: 110,000 sold in the first week.

Other news. Nightrise comes out in April. I’ve just seen the cover and Walker Books have done a fantastic job. I’m travelling to Hong Kong in July with fonoS (some of you may have had messages from him on this site just ignore him and maybe he’ll go away). That’s research for volume four!

A few things to look out for: Desert Island Discs on December 31st (please excuse the slightly weird choice of music). A TV appearance on BBC4 on December 28th. And an original Alex Rider story appearing in two issues of The Daily Mail some time around Christmas! It’s a sort of prequel featuring Alex when he was thirteen, before he became a spy. I hope it amuses you.

There’ll also be a short new Diamond Brothers book some time in 07: The Greek that Stole Christmas. Meanwhile, Walker Books are re-issuing all the old Diamond Brothers books with new covers (yet again). Ive written new introductions which made me smile anyway.

Anyway HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS. All good wishes for 2007the year of the new Alex. Cant wait

Anthony Horowitz

Id say Im home except weve just sold it. Goodbye Crouch End! From now on I’m going to be living in Clerkenwell which is a really old part of London Fagin (Oliver Twist) lived close by and when I wrote Ravens Gate, I put the HQ of the Nexus in the same street. Trains rumble past every few minutes and ghosts hang around the corners. I have a new study which I’ve built on the top floor and while I work I’ll be able to look at St Pauls and the Old Bailey. There’s not much green around although I have got my own lawn on the roofeven if it is made of plastic.

Not sure how I’m going to exercise the dog but I\m experimenting with a treadmill and a hanging bone.

Anyway, the world tour had its high points and its low points.

I started in Bangkok where I was researching Alex 7. I found some great locations in the Chinese area where Alex has to live, pretending to be an Afghan refugee and also on the river. Expect filthy water, mouldering buildings, vicious Thai criminals and lots of rats! I also saw some stomach-churning food on sale in the streets. Most of it actually seemed to be made from churned-up animal stomachs. Maybe Alex will have to face up to a bowl of entrail soup. Well see.

Then I went to Perth and visited Swanbourne which just happens to be the headquarters of the Australian SAS. Also very useful for the book although sadly they wouldnt let me in. Well I’ll have my revenge when I portray the whole lot of them as a bunch of cissies.

I did a couple of school visits before heading off for New Zealand, then back to Melbourne and Sydney, probably my two favourite cities in the world. Alex walks round Sydney Harbour in Chapter Four and I made loads of notes in the sunshine, watching the ferries pull in and out, occasionally smashing into the jetty in a cheerful, Australian sort of way. I also did the famous bridge walk while I was there. Amazing views particularly as night fell and a storm closed in. It was like watching the end of the world.

I got back home in September but I was only there a few days before I had to head off to Canada and the Toronto Film Festival for some early screenings of Stormbreaker. The film went down really well although I felt a bit weird being there. Actors and directors go to film festivals but the truth is that nobody is terribly interested in writers and as far as I could tell I was the only writer there.

By now I was travelling with Alex Pettyfer and his mother (who will soon find herself in one of my books you wait and see). It was the beginning of a four-week Odyssey and very odd it was too. We went to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Saint Louis (home of the worlds biggest arch so big it looked faintly ridiculous although I have to admit its very impressive too), Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC and New York.

The best thing about the tour? Seeing so many different cities, standing on the grassy knoll where President Kennedy was assassinated, staying in some pretty classy hotels (my bedroom in Washington was so enormous I actually managed to get lost in itno kidding), the weather, art galleries, the International Spy Museum in Washington, seeing Little Miss Sunshine at the cinema, writing the first episode of my new BBC TV series in the evenings, cheap T-shirts and definitely getting back to the UK.

The worst thing? Well, almost everything else, really. Being asked two thousand times where I got the idea for Alex Rider from. All that travel! Airports and security systems. Suitcases and passports. Packing and unpacking. Doing TV interviews at 11.00am in the morning and knowing that nobody was really watching apart from bored housewives and kids missing school.

Was it all worth while? Well, the film opened in America last week but on a very limited number of screens. I dont really understand why. Its still possible that Stormbreaker will do well in the USA just as, if you strike a match in a rain forest, theres always a chance youll start a fire. But I cant say Im very optimistic. Which is a shame because we screened the film loads of times in the USA and all the audiences I spoke to seemed very enthusiastic.

Anyway, its all behind me now. Im back, working on Chapter 5 of Snakehead and look out for a brand new Alex Rider short story in the Daily Mail close to Christmas. Its called Christmas at Gunpoint and takes place on a ski resort (Gunpoint, Colorado) the year before Ian Rider died, before Alex became a spy.

I’ve also finished really finished – Nightrise and I still think its one of my best books with a lot of things in it that are going to surprise you. Well, they surprised me. That comes out next April. Only two more books and the series is complete. The next one is set in Hong Kong and Ill be heading that way early next year.

Finally, there’s the new design of this website. I hope you like it as much as I do. My thanks to Xero in Cork, Ireland who put it all together and, of course, HHQ who run it and occasionally beat me around to get me to write a couple of pages like this. I do drop in from time to time for what its worth and try to answer your postseven from fonoS who is clearly a prat. (The clue is in his name)

All the best,

Anthony Horowitz

Get your popcorn now!
www.stormbreaker.com

This Saturday, I’ll be in Bangkok, having a couple of days rest on my way to Perth which is where my book tour of Australia starts.

It seems like the right place to think about Alex 7 or Snakehead as everyone now knows its called. Ive already worked out the plot and Im starting to think about the action which will include a chase through Bangkok. But what sort of chase? On the river or on the roads? By boat or on foot? Or how about stealing a tuk-tuk, one of the motorised rickshaws (and death-traps) that crowd the city? Hopefully, Ill get some ideas as I walk around.

I’m thinking of throwing Alex into a cage fight too, although Im not sure how hell survive it. So Ill head for one of the main stadiums on Saturday night and see what its like.

Ill be in Sydney in about a weeks time which is where Chapter Two of Snakehead takes placesomewhere called Darling Harbour. One of the things I really like doing when I write the Alex books is to walk round the locations and plan everything on the spot. The chapter involves three bank robbers, a speedboat and of course – Alex. Ill take a tour in the morning and write it in the afternoon.

That only leaves about 80,000 words to go

The reason that I can start thinking about Alex again is that I have just finished my new book, NIGHTRISE the third in the Power of Five series that began with RAVENS GATE and EVIL STAR.

I think NIGHTRISE is very different from anything Ive ever done. For a start, its longer. For the first time Ive broken the 100,000 word barrier (but dont worry its still shorter than a Harry Potter and its probably as long as Im going to get). Ive already posted stuff about my recent trip to America which really helped the book to take shape. The heroes are two Indian or Native American kids. Scott and Jamie Tyler. Twins. They have telepathic powers and get sucked into a conspiracy involving a huge international business, Nightrise, and a plan to assassinate the next president of the USA.

The book includes time travel, some very bloody battle scenes, a prison breakout, a torture scene, several monsters and a re-appearance by a villain from the last book. Matt and Richard also appear and, as you know, I introduce my first heroinea girl called Scar.

By the end of this week, as Ive done before, Ill have hidden the first chapter somewhere on the website. If you find it, let me know what you think!

And now news about the film of Stormbreaker.

The premiere in Leicester Square was completely insane. I’d expected about 500 people to turn up but in fact there were more than 2000. Most of them had come to see Alex Pettyfer, of course not me. But Im not complaining. It was a boiling hot evening and going up the red carpet felt like a bit of Hollywood in London. There were dozens of photographers and TV cameras. I even got my picture in OK magazine!

Then, five days later, the film was released all over the UK. I tried not to read any of the reviews because film critics can be a pretty miserable bunch and anyway who really cares what they think? But from what Im told, most of them liked it, some of them loved it and there was only really one who really hated it (someone who clearly had his head so far up his own bottom Im surprised he was able to see the film at all).

Since then, its been a pretty nerve-wracking business. You probably dont know this I certainly didnt but when a big movie opens, the producers and the money people track seat sales every day of every week and know exactly how well the film is doing all the time. In other words, when you buy a ticket, they know!

So far Stormbreaker has done very well although the competition from Superman and Pirates 2 has been strong. The hot weather has also kept some people away from the cinema. The last time I saw the producer, in fact, he was sacrificing chickens in the hope of rain. But people are still going and the film is still showing on screens all over the UK. The summer has six more weeks to run. And most important of all, word of mouth has been really great.

Which is to say that most of you seem to have liked it! I have to say, thats a huge relief. And if you did like it, can you recommend it your friends, family, neighbours, passing strangers, paramedics, tourists etc? I really hope were going to make Point Blanc next year but it all depends on the box office.

Stormbreaker starts to open across Europe next month and then comes the big one the New York premiere on October 3rd. These days, a film has to succeed in America if its going to succeed worldwide. Im going to be travelling around the USA with Alex Pettyfer throughout September doing publicity and stuff. Keep an eye on my calendar

Thats it for now. Were making lots of changes to this website and I hope you approve. Thanks to Xero in Ireland who never rests. And HHQ in London. And everyone who has been to see the film

At twelve oclock on a cold night in September, I was on the back lot at Pinewood watching the last shot in the principal photography of Stormbreaker.

It was the scene where Alex sneaks out of Sayle Enterprises and spies on Yassen Gregorovich when the R5 cannisters arrive. Pages 129-133 in the Walker edition of the book.

This is what I saw

In the background, there was a vast yacht. Arc welders were at work and the sparks were flying in the night. Two searchlights, very high up, swung over the complex, picking up a helicopter and three submarines. Suddenly there was a roar of engines and a whole convoy of black jeeps arrived followed by a huge truck with mounted machine guns. About fifty guards with dogs and machine guns hurried to meet it.

Alex (Alex Pettyfer) was spying on all this from behind some oil drums. He watched as Darrius Sayle (Micky Rourke) arrived in a black Hummer and met with Yassen (Damian Lewis). A guard in a fork-lift truck dropped one of the R-5 cannisters and without even looking round, Yassen took out his gun and shot him. The glass shattered. Immediately, more guards ran forward, pulled out the dead man and replaced him.

Geoff Sax, the director, yelled Cut! and that was it. Twelve weeks of shooting over and the whole film (apart from a couple of days extra shooting later this month) in the can.

Id spent the last twelve hours on the set and the whole day had been a massive scramble to get everything done. The first shot just before lunch was the smashing of the jelly fish tank and the death of Nadia Vole. Believe it or not, they actually used Semtex to blow out the specially toughened glass and the noise was deafening. I dont know how many hundreds of gallons poured out but it really was an incredible flood and tore whole sections of the set apart.

Then they did a shot of Nadia (Missi Pyle) reacting in shock as she was drenched and then a stuntwoman took over to show the result of what had happened. This was a great shot. They stuck her on her back with her legs quivering in the air. She was covered in slime and water. And there was a huge jellyfish smothering her, its tentacles wrapped around her. Ive never seen anything like it.

They also did a whole series of pick-ups. A few shots in the fight between Nadia Vole and Jack Starbright (Alicia Silverstonebut she wasnt there so they used a double). A shot of Alex speeding down a secret railway line on his way into MI6. A few shots of Alex being crushed in the car. Alex in the Stormbreaker virtual reality computer, being spun slowly round in a huge, subterranean chamber.

And then, at exactly one minute to twelve it was all over

until a few days later when I visited Hyde Park in London. This was whats caked a pick-up day and it was another huge sequence involving the entire Household Guards on horseback chasing Alex and Sabina, also on a horse. There were cameras and cranes everywhere. One whole section of the park was locked off. Im told the cost of the days shooting was around a quarter of a million pounds.

And luckily it didnt rain.

There are still a few shots that have to be slotted in like missing pieces in a jigsaw. Ewan McGregor still hasnt appeared as Ian Rider. There are about 100 computer effects. Then comes the editing process, music and finally test screenings (when they show the film to an American audience and see what people say). The film will finally open next summer and thats when youll be able to judge it for yourself.

Meanwhile, the producers are so confident that theyve asked me to start work on the screenplay of Point Blanc. We could be producing it as early as next Christmasit needs snow, obviously. Lots of snowboarding in Switzerland! So weve no sooner stopped than Im starting again.

Stormbreaker has been enormous fun. Its going to be a hard act to follow. Last night, the producer gave me a Stormbreaker computer as an end-of-shoot present.

I just hope it isnt the one with the deadly virus.