Seriously, I like Anna Faris, and I would totally shell out cold hard cash to watch her in something that wasn't Yogi Bear, part of the Scary Movie franchise, or... this.
I just discovered Faris's new movie What's Your Number? is based on Karyn Bosnak's book 20 Times a Lady. (Bosnak is best known as the creator of the website SaveKaryn.com, which was one of the earliest "web panhandling" sites.) I will not be seeing this movie, because wow, it looks painful:
To give Ms. Bosnak her due, I can at least say I preferred her original title.
Just what the comics 'verse needs: more sex kittens
David Willis, author of the web comic Shortpacked! did a beautiful job of summarizing the many, many problems with DC Comics' reboot of the Teen Titans character Starfire in this strip.
If you're a Stephen King fan, io9 recently posted this video of him reading a full chapter of his upcoming book Doctor Sleep, his upcoming sequel to The Shining:
THR informs me that NBC has picked up a script based on Jacqueline Susann's soaptastic 1966 melodrama Valley of the Dolls*. The project will be written, directed, and produced by Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels, and is apparently more inspired by the 1967 film adaptation of Susann's story than the original novel. I've never seen the movie, but I have read the massively terrible book, and I don't care how good this Daniels dude is: there is nothing that can save that material.
Whoa: according to the Times, Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced plans to publish a memoir (tentatively titled Total Recall). The book, due out next fall, will cover his adventures as a bodybuilder, actor, and politician. It is unclear if he plans to go into equal detail about his inability to control his libido.
Publishers Weekly has started what appears to be a mini-series of posts devoted to weird stuff named after authors. Some of them make sense (an extinct species of large-toothed whale named after Herman Melville); some of them don't (two Michigan towns named after Rudyard Kipling, neither one of which he ever visited), but they're all entertaining.
According to Publishers Weekly, Frederick Warne has announced that it will publish The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit, written by actress Emma Thompson, in September 2012. The book is the 24th tale starring Peter Rabbit, and will be the first time Warne has published an original addition to the series of books that Beatrix Potter wrote between 1902 and 1930.
I would be more excited about this news, but I once attended a college lecture about Beatrix Potter, and the speaker cheerfully informed us that Ms. Potter had rabbits shot and stuffed so she could draw them at her convenience. It sort of took the bloom off the rose, you know?
Salonrecently posted an enthusiastic review of the 2009 movie Solomon Kane, claiming it's "far superior" to the recent Conan the Barbarian film. (Which, hello: damning with faint praise.) Conan and Solomon Kane were both created by the pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard, but the Salon reviewer claims that Solomon is a "solid sword and sorcery movie built mostly on [actor James Purefoy's] ability to be totally badassed in the title role while looking like a refugee from a Thanksgiving parade float". Apparently, Solomon Kane is only available via Netflix streaming (and only for an indefinite length of time), so the next time I have a spare evening I'm going to make myself some popcorn and give it a shot.
According to the Times, HarperCollins has commissioned Joanna Trollope to write a contemporary reworking of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Trollope's book will be the first in what is described as a "major" new series; HC is planning to ask a variety of current authors of "global literary significance" to re-imagine each of Austen's six novels in contemporary settings.
I'm a little confused by the hoopla surrounding this announcement (surely HarperCollins is aware that modern Austen adaptations are a dime a dozen?), but here's hoping the books are readable.
It took over a decade and cost millions of dollars, but a hand-lettered and hand-drawn complete edition of the Saint John's Bible has finally been completed, and pages from the finished work will be available for public viewing at the Minneapolis Institite of Arts until November 13, 2011.
The Bible was commissioned by the Benedictine monks at St. John's Abbey and St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn. It was created using quills and paints hand-ground from precious minerals and is adorned by lapis lazuli, malachite, silver, and 24-karat gold. The first words were written on Ash Wednesday 2000, and the final word ("Amen") was written on May 9, 2011.
Shakespeare's Coriolanus is one of his least-performed plays for a reason, guys. And I don't think this upcoming movie adaptation is going to change that:
THR is reporting that Sundance Selects has acquired the North American rights to Trishna, a new movie set in contemporary Rajasthan based on Thomas Hardy's classic novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Behold:
Gorgeous sets, exquisitely good-looking stars... but I know how this story ends. No thanks.
A gelled mop of hair = movie shorthand for deep emotional scars
I've finally seen the trailer for The Amazing Spiderman movie, and while I cannot get behind Andrew Garfield's Robert-Pattinson-style tousled hair, I must say it looks fairly entertaining:
I would have preferred to see more actual human interaction and less swinging through the city (although I accept that naked pandering to 3-D aficionados is par for the course with current action movies), but I found the mysterious briefcase and the fate of Peter's parents sufficiently tantalizing to leave me looking forward to July 3rd, 2012.
Wow... just yesterday, I was complaining that cool book-related events rarely happen near my house, and then Megan called last night to inform me that the always-entertaining Rutledge Corn Maze has chosen to feature an image from the Breaking Dawn movie this year. Sadly, this isn't a book I care about (like, at all), but I think it still qualifies as a cool book-related event. That's two in one week!
Poseidon's Fish Market: Rick Riordan is coming to Olympia!
When I hear about really, seriously, insanely cool book-related events, they always seem to be happening thousands of miles away. But not today, dear readers. Today I am informed that Rick Riordan—one of my very favorite YA authors—is coming to my hometown for an incredible-sounding event that is free, open to the public, totally awesome, and within walking distance of my house. If I was the kind of person who bought lottery tickets, I'd be heading out to the store right now, because clearly my luck is in.
Rebecca Serle's upcoming Romeo and Juliet spin-off When You Were Mine isn't out until next May, but Vulture informs me there's already a film adaptation in the works. (The novel is a revisionist take on Shakespeare's story focused on Rosaline, Romeo's immediately-prior-to-Juliet love interest.) It's a little mind-boggling to consider that Hollywood is so gung-ho over a a debut novel, but apparently they're confident enough to get the ball rolling early: the production crew is already in place, Kiera Knightley is rumored to star, and the film may well be done before the novel is released.
There's an article in PW about the effect the death of Borders has had on Barnes and Noble. According to their CFO, B&N estimates it has picked up $18 million in business in the last quarter from former Borders customers, and they're anticipating a great holiday sales season.
If, like me, you've been pleasantly surprised by the live-action version of Bisco Hatori's Ouran High School Host Club, you'll be pleased to hear they're planning a movie tie-in, too. I was particularly happy to hear this, because thus far I think the heroine (the ever-placid Haruhi) has more chemistry with the secondary love interest (calm, calculating Kyoya) than she does with the official OTP (the adorable-but-ridiculous Tamaki), and if they're going to stretch this sucker out that much further I can probably enjoy the rest of the drama without having my hopes* for a Haruhi/Kyoya romance totally dashed.
The Times has posted an article about Scott Snyder, the writer chosen to reboot two key titles in the DC Comics franchise—Swamp Thing and Batman. There are more details on the Batman front than Swamp Thing (although we are promised some Biblical-style plagues), but readers can pick up some big hints on what they can expect from both series: gore, angst... and then more gore and angst.
Why so many geek-culture shoutouts, Williams-Sonoma?
These Spiderman Comic Book Cookie Cutters are the kind of thing I stare at longingly for five full minutes in the store, trying to convince myself that of course I'd actually use them. But sanity eventually wins out, and I hang on to my $19.95 to waste another day.
I love this idea: Abe's Peanut is a literary and art publication aimed at seven to eleven-year-olds. The publishers print original children's stories on artist-designed postcards. The cards are mailed out to their subscribers on a weekly basis, each one telling a portion of a four-part serialized story. The examples I've read seem a little flimsy, story-wise, but I'm pretty sure the joy of receiving something so cool in the mail on a weekly basis would make up for any half-baked writing.
Hmm. I'm still totally excited about the upcoming Korean movie adaptation of Yayoi Ogawa's Tramps Like Us (one of my all-time favorite manga; review available here), but I don't know about this poster:
I'm assuming they were aiming for sexy, but that actress just looks uncomfortable.
