Posts tagged with movie-adaptations
Ah, singing gang members
According to Deadline, Fox is considering remaking West Side Story. While Robert Wise's 1961 version is the highest Oscar-winning musical in history and was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress, Steven Spielberg has indicated his interest in directing a remake, and that's all it took...
Sign me up
The first full-length Guardians of the Galaxy trailer was just released, and I'm telling you: I will be there with bells on. It looks like it will focus on the stuff Marvel has done really well recently (Jokes! Violence! Aliens!), and minimize the amount of existential brooding* currently bogging down the Avengers superheroes...
Crossing my fingers
A new trailer is out for the movie adaptation of Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas. This film appears to have bypassed most theaters (there was legal controversy), but it might be available soon? Or come out on DVD? Anyway, if you're unfamiliar with the character, we reviewed Koontz's graphic novel...
Some things should not become brands.
Okay, this news makes me MEGA uncomfortable: there are apparently THREE Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl adaptations in the works, one of which is going to be animated movie(?!?), one of which is a live-action feature film, and one of which is apparently unauthorized...
Rosemary in Paris
More news about NBC's upcoming miniseries take on Rosemary's Baby: according to Deadline, actress Zoe Saldana has taken on the lead role, and the film will be set in Paris. I don't know, guys, but I'm feeling weirdly excited about this. Saldana is obviously a HUGE upgrade over Carrie Underwood...
Still so pretty...
A trailer has turned up for the upcoming Rurouni Kenshin sequel Rurouni Kenshin: the Great Kyoto Fire Arc, and while I'm not quite as excited as I was for the first film, I'm still pretty stoked. The first movie was beautifully shot and perfectly cast, but I got more than a little irritated with the sword-fighting heroine's constant bouts of utter uselessness, which forced the hero to rescue her from her own stupidity again... and again... and again...
Death comes to BBC One
Unwilling to let NBC steal all the questionably-adapted thunder, BBC One is offering up a trailer for their upcoming adaptation of P. D. James's Death Comes to Pemberley. I haven't read this book (I'm not a fan of unnecessary drama in my Austen pastiches), but...
NBC is feelin' bold
Fresh off the questionable success of their Sound of Music adaptation, NBC has ordered another update of a modern classic, according to THR: a four-hour miniseries based on author Ira Levin's 1967 horror novel Rosemary's Baby...
Vampire Academy on screen
They've released a trailer for the upcoming Vampire Academy movie, and I'm not sure what to think. While I liked the first book, the rest of the series left me cold, so my memory's a little fuzzy, but...
It's coming.
I'll just present this without additional comment: here's a link to the film trailer for Lifetime's upcoming Flowers in the Attic adaptation...
The Addams family to ride again?
According to Variety, MGM is looking to produce an animated film based on the long-running Addams Family cartoons created by Charles Addams...
A step towards awareness
I am ridiculously excited by this idea: Sweden is introducing a new rating to its movie theaters based on the famous "Bechdel test", which requires a movie (or book or TV show or whatever) to include...
Big-screen Little Women
So... they're trying to make another Little Women movie. According to Variety, the Sony Pictures project has been handed to a newbie scriptwriter named Olivia Milch. There's no word on casting or director or anything, but seeing as previous incarnations have starred...
The Giver to hit big screens
Cinema Blend recently posted an article about the Weinstein Company's upcoming film adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver, beloved by sixth-grade teachers everywhere (except for those sixth-grade teachers that think it should be burned because of its satanic agenda, of course). The movie will star...
Anne of Green Gables goes big-screen and musical
And speaking of movie adaptations, Variety informs me that they'll be making a movie out of the long-running Anne of Green Gables musical. I had no idea this even existed...
Five bucks says they try to split this into three movies.
Last week, J.K. Rowling announced that she is writing a script for a spin-off Harry Potter film based on her novella Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. (Using the name Newt Scamander, Rowling wrote the book in 2001 to benefit the charity Comic Relief. It's supposed to be a copy of one of the Hogwarts textbooks, embellished with doodles from the series' main characters...
The mind boggles.
Deadline is reporting that 13-year-old Mad Men actress Kiernan Shipka has signed on for the lead role in Lifetime's upcoming Flowers in the Attic adaptation. I guess this answers my question as to whether or not people think this movie is going to be a Crazy Big Deal...
Drama!
I recently caught the preview for the upcoming movie Seventh Son. The trailer claimed the film was based on an "acclaimed series", but that's where things got confusing: there is a fantasy novel called Seventh Son (written by Orson Scott Card), but this movie is based on Joseph Delaney's book The Spook's Apprentice (U.K. title)/The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch (American version). In addition to...
I think not.
To my utter disgust, the reviews have been coming out for the second Percy Jackson movie, and they actually seem mildly positive. Not, y'know, good, but full of lines like this one...
Not sure if it's going to be a period piece, though.
In much-less-distressing movie news, a few weeks ago IndieWire announced that director Whit Stillman has begun casting for his next movie, an adaptation of Jane Austen's little-known novella Lady Susan. I'm not a big fan of most of Austen's juvenilia, but...
I cannot believe this is a thing.
I am seriously skeeved out by the idea of a Flowers in the Attic movie. I mean, I understand what they're hoping for: "It was shocking... titillating... the Fifty Shades of its day!" But is this really the kind of thing people feel nostalgic about? Want to actually watch? I remember the books being available at supermarket checkout stands...
Could the movie deliver on the HOLY ALIEN HOTNESS?
The covers for this series crack me up, but obviously someone takes them seriously, because THR says that Sierra Pictures has signed up to produce a film adaptation of Jennifer Armentrout's Obsidian. The book is a YA romance about a 17-year-old girl who discovers that her neighbor is actually a "hot alien" (note: that's from the official publisher's description) with...
Dear Mr. Watterson on the big screen
The movie trailer is out for Dear Mr. Watterson, director Joel Allen Schroeder's tribute to Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin and Hobbes remains one of the world's most beloved comic strips, despite ending in 1995...
I would visit this place, but not in costume.
We still have a lot of Jane Austen-related news to get through this week, but nothing as amazing as yesterday's item. Today we're posting a link to the newly-released trailer for the upcoming film Austenland. It looks super embarrassing (Austen fans = Beliebers?), but...
I'm depressed about this.
THR informs me that Julianne Moore is being courted to play the role of District 13 leader Alma Coin in the two-part adaptation of Suzanne Collins's Mockingjay. That's fine (I don't care about the casting; I've had a DVD of The Hunger Games sitting, unwatched, next to my TV for more than three months now), but...
Ironic casting?
I can't stand Kenneth Branagh, but THR informs me that Helena Bonham Carter is going to play the fairy godmother in his upcoming adaptation of Cinderella, which I am now obliged to see. The movie will also feature Lily James in the title role (no one cares) and Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother. I like Blanchett, but I find the idea of Bonham Carter...
The Superman movie is almost here!
The final trailer is out for the upcoming Superman movie, and it's really working for me. I've been a lot more interested in Superman stories since reviewing Larry Tye's Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero last December...
Unexpected best-sellers
According to THR, Scandinavian production companies Zentropa and Nordisk Film are working together on a film version of Frans G. Bengtsson's 1941 novel The Long Ships. I was surprised there was much of a demand for a cinematic adaptation of 1940s adventure story set in 10th century Sweden (particularly one with such a pulp fiction-y cover)...
Ugh.
The first trailer is out for the film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game, but any appeal the movie might have held for me is trumped by Card's long history of being a jackass...
Adults behaving badly
I had no idea that anyone wanted to make a modern-day film adaptation of Henry James's grim 1897 novel What Maisie Knew, but apparently someone did, and it should hit theaters tomorrow. I will never understand how movies based on stories like this (depressing, melodramatic, and stocked with hopelessly unappealing characters) get made, and yet no one will give me a Georgette Heyer adaptation...