I may be young, male, semi-nerdy, and therefore biased, but this movie, The Losers looks really good. I’m not 100% sure I have this right, but it’s based on THE LOSERS by Andy Diggle from DC Comics’s Vertigo imprint, which, I think, is based on a movie of the same name that came out in 1968. (Someone please correct me in the comments if I have this wrong.)
The movie is written by “Friday Night Lights” scribe Peter Berg and stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan (P.S. I Love You, Watchmen, “Supernatural”) and Avatar’s Zoe Saldana. Here’s the great-looking preview. Be sure to have the graphic novel on the shelves when the movie hits!
There are a couple of very exciting films coming out next month based on Random House books–the first of which I get to see a screening of next week! That’s right, it’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. The trailer isn’t dubbed in English however, so pay attention to the subtitles.
And some of you may remember a little book called IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY, a National Book Award finalist in 2006. This will be coming out under a different title, “Green Zone,” and will star Mr. Matt Damon and Mr. Greg Kinnear.
This one snuck up on us! While I admit that I’d heard of this movie, “The Last Station,” based on a Jay Parini novel of the same name, I had no idea it was coming out so soon. Just Friday, the movie released in select locations in New York and LA so that it could be Oscar-eligible. I can see why; it has quite the ensemble. Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, James McAvoy. Not bad. The movie-tie-in edition comes out just before the full-platform release of the film on January 12, 2010. Put your orders in now!
The book it’s based on is a fictional account of Leo Tolstoy’s final year of life, and was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book when it first published. You can watch the preview below.
I keep returning to the Film section of the New York Times today to see if they’ve posted a review of “Up in the Air” yet. No luck so far. BUT, many other publications have posted their reviews. RottenTomatoes.com’s Top Critics sect is currently posting a 92% positive rating, which is pretty incredible. The film, in case you hadn’t heard, is based on Walter Kirn’s comic novel of the same name.
I’m very excited to see it. And luckily, I’ve got the day off tomorrow, so I’m thinking of moseying over to see a matinee. Anyone else off to the movies this weekend?
I don’t know if I’ve ever looked forward so much to something so bleak and horrifying. On November 6, a movie called “Precious” comes out, based on a novel we publish called PUSH by Sapphire. (For the movie-tie-in editon, they’ve changed the title to fit the movie)
The film, according to the article in The NYTimes Magazine, received a 15-minute standing ovation at the Cannes film festival, and it also won a Grand Jury prize at Sundance several months ago. The piece in the magazine is an interesting read, and features a cool interview with the director about who has inspired him over the years. Share it with your friends and patrons to generate interest!
I just watched a new teaser trailer this morning for a movie I’d been completely unaware of called “Up in the Air,” based on a book of the same name by Walter Kirn.
It’s not easy to tell exactly what the movie’s about, but it’s entirely Clooney-narrated, and therefore automatically cool. The movie debuted at Telluride last Saturday and has been raking in some great reviews. Like this one:
“Let’s make it clear right now: Oscar nominations are likely assured for best picture, director, screenplay, actor for Clooney and supporting actress for either Anna Kendrick as the young know-it-all who threatens Clooney’s job security or Vera Farmiga as a one-night stand who keeps on giving. Perhaps both will get nods. This is one of the smartest adult comedies in some time.”
-The Los Angeles Times
If you find yourself curious about other movies coming out that are based on books, you can always visit our Movie Tie-Ins page, which has recently been updated.
Two long-awaited trailers appeared on the Internet this week. (At least I was waiting for them, since I’m responsible for keeping track of that sort of stuff.) The good news is that they both look interesting!
There’s been a lot of buzz lately about “Precious,” a film based on the 1997 novel PUSH by Sapphire, because it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance this year. (And because Mariah Carey is in it.) The trailer looks absolutely brutal, and according to my boss Marcia, the book is even more brutal.
And if “Precious” is brutal, “The Road” is bleak. I posted about the book/movie a few days ago, but here is the trailer. There’s more Charlize than I thought. which is probably a marketing ploy.
You can always find more trailers at our Movie Tie In page! Happy viewing.
I read a lot of movie reviews, and one of my favorite critics is A.O. Scott of the New York Times. One of his lesser reviews, I thought, was 2007’s annihilation of The Da Vinci Code. I noticed that the normally even-handed Scott had devoted an entire paragraph to bashing Dan Brown’s sentence structure:
It seems you can’t open a movie these days without provoking some kind of culture war skirmish, at least in the conflict-hungry media. Recent history — “The Passion of the Christ,” “The Chronicles of Narnia” — suggests that such controversy, especially if religion is involved, can be very good business. “The Da Vinci Code,” Ron Howard’s adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-selling primer on how not to write an English sentence, arrives trailing more than its share of theological and historical disputation…
…To their credit the director and his screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman (who collaborated with Mr. Howard on “Cinderella Man” and “A Beautiful Mind”), have streamlined Mr. Brown’s story and refrained from trying to capture his, um, prose style. “Almost inconceivably, the gun into which she was now staring was clutched in the pale hand of an enormous albino with long white hair.” Such language — note the exquisite “almost” and the fastidious tucking of the “which” after the preposition — can live only on the page.
Wow, I thought. This guy is jealous. This is elementary-playground-type bashing. He’s reviewing a movie, and he took time out to criticize the prose of the book? Grow up.
I’ve always thought of “envy” as a feeling of wanting what someone else has, be it fame, success, a promotion, or a romantic interest. “Jealousy” comes in when you want and feel like you deserve what someone else has, and therefore develop a certain malice toward him or her. Scott obviously feels he is a better writer than Dan Brown and was, at the time, probably shaking his head at how Dan Brown had become perhaps the most famous contemporary author in the country.
I’m not saying A.O. is wrong. I think he’s a better writer too. But, really, YOU’RE REVIEWING A MOVIE, NOT A BOOK. I was disappointed. I was watching Superman throw a tantrum on his mother’s kitchen floor.
We come, now, to yesterday, when the NYT review for “Angels & Demons” came out. A.O. Scott again took the assignment, and once again, could not focus on what he was reviewing.
Since “Angels & Demons” takes place mainly in the Vatican, and is festooned with the rites and ornaments of Roman Catholicism, I might as well begin with a confession. I have not read the novel by Dan Brown on which this film (directed, like its predecessor, “The Da Vinci Code,” by Ron Howard) is based. I have come to believe that to do so would be a sin against my faith, not in the Church of Rome but in the English language, a noble and beleaguered institution against which Mr. Brown practices vile and unspeakable blasphemy.
The blast this year is slightly more applicable to the review; it is appropriate to mention that he’s reviewing the movie independent of reading the book. But he still insists, in the film review, on disparaging the novel’s language, which is kind of like writing a book review and criticizing the font or writing an art-exhibit review and criticizing the cab ride there.
I would love to weigh in at the NYT website, but they don’t have a real “comments” section. So I’ve taken it out on you librarians. Hope you don’t mind.
When I first heard that they were making a movie from Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning, Oprah-selected post-apocolyptic novel, The Road, I thought: That’s going to be a terrible movie. I mean, it was a great book, but it was pretty much father and son walk along the road, almost starve to death, find food, hide from cannibals, walk some more, almost starve to death again, find food, etc. There’s not much happening plot-wise. Still, there was early buzz, and Viggo Mortensen was to star, so I was sort of anxious to see it–at least a trailer.
However, it was supposed to come out in Fall 2008, and needless to say, it never made it. No one’s really sure why, but now, according to The Movie Blog, the film has been officially given a release date of October 16th. I like that date, because the Oscar-contenders usually drop at around that time, and I want this movie to be good. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. Either way, be sure to have some extra on your shelves come October.
Last night I saw the trailer for the new Julie & Julia movie, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. We’d previously posted about a movie tie-in edition of Julia Child’s My Life in France that will be released to coincide with the movie release. Also, be sure you have other Julia Child books in stock as the movie will most likely spawn a new generation of “Julies”. I must say this movie looks like a delight! See for yourself by watching the trailer!
-Marie
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