Unwatchable
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 ...
A bigger mistake than Terminator 3?
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 bodybuil...
The James Fenimore Cooper rest stop
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 ...
Peter Rabbit continues
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 ...
Pulp fiction on the small screen
Salon recently 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...
At least it's not a monster mash-up
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 descr...
At long last
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 ...
Now with even less visible humor...
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:
A modern (but still undoubtedly depressing) Tess
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....
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 ...
There's a "corny" pun I'm going to skip here.
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 ha...
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 Riord...
Jumping the gun
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 ...
Thank you, Korean cinema gods
The teaser trailer (with iffy English subs) is up for the Korean Tramps Like Us movie adaptation, and I am so stoked. This looks ridiculously cute.Unlike the poster.
Living in denial
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 parti...
Eggs in one basket
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 S...
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...
Patience (but not much of it) required
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 m...
This could have been so much better.
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 p...
Gone but not forgotten
Rather oddly, there will be two big-name book releases for children coming out next month written by long-dead authors:
Shel Silverstein's Every Thing On It will be released on September 20th. T...
But can I really buy an twisted antihero named Pinkie?
Speaking of violent, gloomy movies, if you can't wait until March, last year's film adaptation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock is finally popping up in various arthouse theaters:
I was under...
A little look-see
And here we have the actual Hunger Games footage, dear readers. 90% of it is a pleasant walk in the woods, 8% is devoted to fireballs and arrows, and and 2% (maybe) is devoted to actual plot:
Enjoy (or not)
If you're really, really patient, MTV will be airing the first video footage from the upcoming Hunger Games movie adaptation during this Sunday's VMAs. For the rest of us, I'd recommend waiting ...
Picking over the remains
Last weekend, while hunting for a particular book for my brother's birthday, I ventured into a Borders store. I usually avoid stores that are closing (they make me feel like a vulture), but I'd a...
Living up to the hype
The Wall Street Journal has posted an article about the marketing hoopla surrounding never-before-published author Erin Morgenstern's upcoming novel The Night Circus. Once again, everyone involv...
How-to throughout the ages
The fine people at AbeBooks have put together a list entitled "Courting to Dueling: Antiquated Etiquette Guides". The books are worth checking out for the covers alone, but some of the titles are...
New and improved
The new cover art has been released for the upcoming collectors' edition of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games. The new edition will cost $30, goes on sale in November, and features (inexplicably...
Vampires plus!
If you're a fan of Vampire Academy author Richelle Mead, you can get a jump-start on tomorrow's release of the first novel in her new spin-off series Bloodlines. EntertainmentWeekly.com is offeri...
A loose adaptation, clearly.
Okay, this is allegedly based on The Count of Monte Cristo, and I think I might have to watch it: