Reissued last week by New York Review Books, the 1965 J.R. Ackerley memoir MY DOG TULIP, which Truman Capote called “One of the greatest books ever written by anybody in the world,” will soon be released as an animated motion picture! An article in yesterday’s NY Times covers the films unique method of animation, which is paradoxically hand-drawn using special computers. Woah. One could think of it as a sort of “Green Animation.” Very nifty.

“In its own quirky fashion, Ackerley’s wry valentine to his beloved pet is as much a book about the difficult art of living and loving as it is a dog story.”
— Publishers Weekly

Here’s the schedule for the film’s nationwide roll-out:
Film Forum, New York City, September 1
Ritz at the Bourse, Philadelphia, October 1
Kendall Square Cinema, Boston, October 15
Embarcadero Center Cinema, San Francisco, October 15
Shattuck Cinema, Berkeley, October 15
Nuart Theatre, Los Angeles, October 22
Ken Cinema, San Diego November 5
Varsity Theatre, Seattle, November 5
E Street Cinema, Washington DC, November 5
Chez Artiste, Denver, November 12

-David

Sam Raimi, the director of “Evil Dead,” et al. has taken an interest in the movie project “Earp: Saints for Sinners” based on the graphic novel of the same name published by Radical. “Earp” reimagines its gunslinging title character (Wyatt, that is) and his brothers, along with his comrade-in-spurs Doc Holliday, in a whole new environment–the Future–where everything is ravaged and pretty much the only city left standing is Las Vegas.  (Read the full story on Hollywood Reporter.)

I’m excited to see what Raimi can do with this one. Radical is great at coming up with borderline-crazy “what if” scenarios that can easily turn into films. Another being looked at is “Oblivion,” which was actually written by “Tron Legacy” director Joseph Kosinski.

-David

Over the weekend I was chatting with a friend about a favorite Random House Children’s YA book of mine, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. Around this time last year, I blogged about the latest in the series, The Dead-Tossed Waves and how much I loved it so I recommended it to my friend who, like me, loved Hands and Teeth.

When I got home I had this link in my e-mail inbox. Guess who is rumored to be assuming the lead role? None other than Bella herself – Twilight movie alum Kristen Stewart. If this is true, she will certainly have established herself as the undead genre heroine of choice. I’m not so sure about this casting. What do you think?

If you have not yet read Carrie Ryan’s series, make sure you check it out!

-Marie

Last night, somewhere between the season finale of Glee and the NBA Finals, I saw a trailer I’d been anticipating for quite some time. The movie is called “Charlie St. Cloud,” based on The Life and Death of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood, and concerns a young man so overcome with grief from his younger brother’s death that he takes an evening job in the cemetery just to be near him. Every evening, Charlie plays catch with his brother’s ghost, and they chat. But then Charlie meets a young lady, a beautiful “sailor girl,” and he must make a choice between a promise he made to his brother and a newfound love.

The Movie-Tie-In edition of the book comes out June 22. The movie, starring Zac Efron, is slotted for October 15. Check out the preview below!

Also on the rise in the book world and in the works for an Anne Hathaway film is David Nicholls’s One Day, which was a huge hit in the UK and is getting great in-house buzz here. If you have a book club, I suggest you give it a long look. Here’s some praise it’s garnered so far:

“Big, absorbing, smart, fantastically readable . . . brilliant on the details of the last couple of decades of British cultural and political life . . . the perfect beach read for people who are normally repelled by the very idea of beach reads.” —Nick Hornby, from his blog

“A wonderful, wonderful book: wise, funny, perceptive, compassionate and often unbearably sad . . . the best British social novel since Jonathan Coe’s What a Carve Up!. . . . Nicholls’s witty prose has a transparency that brings Nick Hornby to mind: it melts as you read it so that you don’t notice all the hard work that it’s doing.” —The Times (London)

 

Two days ago, I went to see “Exit through the Gift Shop,” a brilliant, quirky documentary on “street art” all over the world. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if this little movie catches some traction, so if you’re seeing a sudden interest in street art, here are a couple books you may want to suggest to your patrons.

STICKERS: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art
Stickers (often giant ones) were the main mode, alongside stenciling, of public art in “Gift Shop.” They’re easy DIY projects, and “not always fast to fade.”
Coming in September from Rizzoli.

BAY AREA GRAFFITI by Steve Rotman
The classic medium for street art: a spray can and a wall. Here’s some of the finest in the country.
Available now from Mark Batty Publisher

THE ARTIST’S GUIDE TO PUBLIC ART: How to Find and Win Commissions
Or for anyone looking to “go legal” but still wants a public forum for their work, here’s a how-to-make-it book, written by artists, for artists.
Available now from Allworth Press

-David

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!

-David

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.

-David

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.

-David

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!

-David