After years of finding Gwyneth Paltrow unbearably full of herself, I'm learning to appreciate her. I still think she's insane, but insane in a fun way, you know? But while reading her GOOP newsletter is usually like getting lifestyle tips from Marie Antoinette*, she recently posted a list of recommended children's books, and it's 100% normal and appropriate and sane.
...which is kind of a letdown, really.
*Like, she'll mention something normal, like socks, but in a completely out-of-touch-with-reality way. See: $45 cashmere socks.
Somehow I missed the fact that Brendan Fraser is going to be starring in the adaption of Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. I really thought we'd seen the end of his career after the second Mummy movie, but (sadly) that is not the case. Just looking at the trailer tells me that this movie is going to going to be one of those really loose adaptations, so literary purists might want to keep that in mind. But the best part is that in select theaters you can go and watch it in 3D!
P.S. And now I'm told that there is actually going to be a third movie in the Mummy series: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
I thought I would post the latest trailer for Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (the movie adaptation of the second book in the Chronicles of Narnia series), just in case you missed it during the Super Bowl:
For once, a trend we can encourage: making movie or tv adaptations of books that we haven't read and don't give a damn about.
Example number one:
Gossip Girl
The only reason we're even remotely interested in this soaptastic TV series, based on those cheesy-looking YA books, is that it's going to be narrated by Kristen Bell, star of the late, lamented Veronica Mars. Hopefully she didn't sign on just because she needed to pay the rent....
And example number two:
The Spiderwick Chronicles
We're only on nodding terms with this fantasy series, but the movie adaptation appears to have two things going for it: A) the series it's based on is co-authored by Wordcandy author Holly Black, and B) the film stars that surprisingly non-obnoxious kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
When will British girls learn? I don't care HOW cute you are, Emma Watson, NO ONE is cute enough to carry off this kind of outfit. Those BOOTS! That SATIN! Those... dangly ribbon things!
Additional: I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night, and I am happy to report that it was great. It had different strengths than the last two HP films, but I was very impressed by this director's decision to full-out change some elements from the book, rather than, ah, selectively editing it. I know tampering with Rowling's series is risky, but some of stuff in a nearly nine-hundred-page-long book just doesn't work as well in a two-and-a-half-hour long film, and I totally applaud this director for recognizing that.
Details magazine is currently featuring an oh-so-saucy interview with Daniel Radcliffe, star of the Harry Potter movie franchise. I didn't read the whole thing (I get tired of Details' tone of contrived naughtiness real fast), but I did have an opportunity to, uh, admire some of their photoshoot:
Bwahahaha!
Is it just me, or does young Mr. Radcliffe look more and more like a hobbit-era Elijah Wood?
I have tried to ignore this story, but I can't escape it. I am sorry to report that Del Rey is going to release a manga in conjunction with the dread Avril Lavigne. You can read the press release here.
Harry Potter mega-site The Leaky Cauldron has kindly(?) archived several "frankly gorgeous" photos from Daniel Radcliffe's upcoming play Equus. If you're interested in seeing even more of young Mr. Radcliffe, click here.
Check it out--proof positive that even celebrities are forced to read depressing, melodramatic Great Works. It's a page from Britney Spears' junior high-era essay on Antigone, up for auction at Christie's:
Wow. You know, I never would have pegged her as a Sophocles fan. (I'm not, that's for damn sure.) Christie's is valuing this little treasure at 500 to 700 US dollars, and I think that's cheap at twice the price.
I had a party the night I graduated from college, and, in lieu of party favors, I celebrated my academic liberation by fobbing off all of my least favorite college textbooks onto various guests. If memory serves me, I think I sent Meg's mom (poor woman) home with a copy of Jerry Oppenheimer's unbelievably trashy Martha Stewart biography, Just Desserts. I'd bought it for an American Studies course that required me to write a paper on a popular icon, and, after reading it, I decided that there was no way that Oppenheimer could possible sink any lower...
Until I saw this:
Wow. Slate.com describes this book as "deliberately lobotomized", but I expect that's actually being kind. Jerry Oppenheimer + Paris Hilton? Yeah: that might be one of the signs of the Apocalypse.
Cute sports jacket, Harry. And what nicely combed hair you have! Did you send out those khakis for ironing, or did your loving aunt do it for you?
I'm assuming that this is the scene where Harry's off to get interrogated, and I can understand why he'd want to look respectable. I just didn't realize that he'd end up quite so... Baptist Youth Group. You can view this and other stills from the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie here.
Sony has apparently acquired the rights to make a film version of Isaac Adamson's Tokyo Suckerpunch, starring Tobey Maguire. Judging by the outline of the script floating around, it sounds like the movie won't have more than a nodding acquaintance with the book, plot-wise, but that's okay. We're (...sigh) used to it, right?
Bond girl Eva Green has been cast as Serafina Pekula and Nicole Kidman has been cast as Ms. Coulter in the upcoming Golden Compass movie adaptation; Helena Bonham Carter has been cast as Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. (Seriously, even setting aside her E.M. Forster roles, that woman has been in a lot of Wordcandy-basedmovies.)
<---Apparently, this is the Wordcandy pin-up girl. Who knew?
While Ruth Rendell's books consistently give me the heebie-jeebies, P.D. James has also been known to scale pretty high on the give-Julia-the-creeps-o-meter, and her novel The Children of Men has just been made into a movie. (Check out the trailer here.) I'm too much of a coward to watch the Rendell adaptation, but I might check the James movie out....
...that the Warner Bros. people don't monitor their young stars' lives too closely: Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe is set to star in a West End play that will require him to appear in the nude.
Our first thought? EW! EWWWW!!!!!!
Our second thought? If the play in question is desperate enough to cast Radcliffe (who's a pretty mediocre actor, in our opinion) just for the inevitable "See Harry naked!" publicity... well, then we'd bet money it's an astoundingly crappy play.
Juicy tidbits regarding Wordcandy-approved books are drifting in left and right…
1. The Eragon movie Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of this series. It was okay, but I don't think that it would have been published--certainly not without some hardcore editing--if it weren't for the author's unusual age. Still, it was entertaining enough, and the movie version is apparently coming out on December 15. I'll probably see it. I'm weak, and (judging by the movie homepage) it looks fun--imagine The Lord of the Rings, edited down for a made-for-TV-movie, aimed at twelve-year-old girls. Doesn't the hero look like a WB star? (And doesn't that girl's leather bustier thingie look uncomfortable?) But why that particular camera angle--does the straight-up-the-nostril angle have some special significance?[Source]
2. More Stardust movie news More and more images are leaking from the set of Neil Gaiman's Stardust. This picture features the Dread Sienna Miller, all dressed up as the Barbie-esque coquette Victoria. Seems like a role that will suit her, actually. I'll definitely see this one, but I fully intend to hiss when she comes onscreen.[Source]
3. (Best of all) A boatload of Fables info! There will be a new, limited-run Fables comic called 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which will take place before the events of the main series. It's an Arabian Nights-style story, with Snow in the role of Scheherazade. (And Charles Vess is gonna paint the set-up story!) The next storyline in Fables is going to be a four-part series called "Sons of Empire", which will continue the story of the Empire's plans for war, as well as featuring mini-stories devoted to some of the minor Fables. And the January 2007 issue of Fables, called "Burning Questions", is going to be devoted to answering some of the dangling plot threads that might have bothered readers.[Source]
Okay. At first, I was pretty excited about the upcoming film version of Neil Gaiman's novel Stardust. He wasn't going to direct it (good), it's one of my favorite Gaiman novels (good), and it was inspired by Lud-in-the-Mist, which I just read for the first time, thereby making me feel like a smartypants (excellent). But there's always a rub, isn't there? And this movie's rub is that it has Claire Danes and Sienna freakin' Miller in it. I'm not much of a Claire Danes fan (eat a sandwich, honey--angular is not your look), and (as longtime readers of the blog know) I can't STAND Sienna Miller, damn it.
So, here's what the Imdb had to say about the new The Golden Compass film adaptation:
-Writer Philip Pullman wants Nicole Kidman to play Mrs. Coulter and has indicated that he would like Jason Isaacs to portray Lord Asriel. He has also indicated that he would like the part of Lee Scorsby to be played by Samuel L. Jackson
-Anand Tucker was announced to be the director of this film in August 2005. He started pre-production work on the film and filming was set to start later in 2006. However in May 2006 he suddenly pulled out citing differences with the studio and American Pie (1999) director Chris Weitz was announced as his replacement
-Screenwriter Tom Stoppard wrote various drafts of the screenplay adaptation of this film. When director Chris Weitz became involved he also assumed the role of screenwriter
Nicole Kidman? Awesome! Jason Isaacs? Also awesome! Samuel L. Jackson? Even awesomer! But Chris Weitz? Chris Weitz?
Excuse me. I'll be weeping in the corner. [Source]
Somehow I never got around to reading this book, although I'm not sure why--it seems like the kind of thing that would be right up my alley. Anyway, while the majority of movie-goers will be watching the new Superman this weekend, I will be checking this movie out, and if I'm really motivated I'll pick up the book while I'm at it...
After years of finding Gwyneth Paltrow unbearably full of herself, I'm learning to appreciate her. I still think she's insane, but insane in a fun way, you know? But while reading her GOOP newsletter is usually like getting lifestyle tips from Marie Antoinette*, she recently posted a list of recommended children's books, and it's 100% normal and appropriate and sane. 
