Andrew, this one is for you.
Lionsgate has closed a deal with Mike White to direct Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the adaptation of the Seth Grahame-Smith novel that spices up Jane Austen's time-tested 1813 literary classic with a smattering of flesh-eating walking corpses. David O. Russell stepped out but left behind a script that had filmmakers salivating for the job. White got theformal offer on November 5. Lionsgate can now get busy on casting Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, and the other characters in the Austen tale. Russell originally had Natalie Portman interested in playing the female lead, but she left the project some time ago as actress, though she is producing through her handsomecharlie banner with Annette Savich, and Darko Entertainment. When she left, Russell wanted Scarlett Johansson and Bradley Cooper. Unclear if they'll stay, particularly as Johansson was in contention for several other high profile films that were casting up before landing the female lead opposite Matt Damon in the Cameron Crowe-directed We Bought A Zoo.
http://www.deadline.com/new-york/
http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/mike-white-gets-pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-offer/
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Oh My Godfather
This month's book club just proved once again that you should never ever assume. Anything! Who new how easily a seemingly simple topic from which to choose a book club book could be so easily misinterpreted!?
Abby's topic was "an enduring novel", Sam and I thought we'd be reading Pride and Prejudice or War Of The Worlds or some other such classic literary masterpiece, but what did we get when we let Abby loose in Borders with those three little words? We got "Going To Extremes: Mud, Sweat and Frozen Tears"
Classic Abdul!
When Abby sent over his choice i had a quiet giggle to myself but didn't hesitate to update the book list for the year. I mean this sounds pretty interesting and interpretation is what book club is all about!
In Going to Extremes, Nick Middleton, a travel writer with a penchant for some of the more bizarre outposts of human habitation, ventures to the hottest, driest, coldest, and wettest inhabited places on Earth. He wants to know not only how people manage to live in these places, but also why they settled there in the first place. And, most intriguing of all—why they stay
I was overruled by the majority though, and Abby had to re-choose his book. The comedy didn't end there though, the book Abby chose was The Godfather. Excellent choice for that topic, but i think it might have been chosen before Abby saw how bloody thick it was. This is the man who calculates the number of pages which must be read each night in order to be finished within the month, and he has chosen the longest book of the year. Again, classic Abby, and it's why we love him.
I honestly thought i'd struggle to finish the Godfather, it's about 20 books long and is what i would classify as a 'boy drama', meaning a reasonable story line but written by a boy for boys and something i'm not going to really give a shit about or relate to at all... i was wrong. The Godfather rocked, and that's not just my opinion either, everyone seemed to get it and enjoy it. It's a miracle!
Some topics which were covered?
What did you think of how the women were written and described? - (see Brett's comments below.) This actually started quite the conversation... Ellen thought they were all written pretty poorly which sparked the discussion about whether they were written poorly on purpose in order to illustrate the secondary role of women at this time, or whether Mario Puzo just couldn't write women... I think Andrew summed it up though - "it was the author, the time the book was written and the story")
Would you protect your family the way they do? - Abby would, brett was quiet...
Was it really Michael's story? - pretty much, but more so in the film
Don Corleone/Marlon Brando - Brett was impressed with his acting chops, the girls were impressed with his hottness
The Film versus the Book - very very mixed, I was disappointed Marlon Brando wasn't in the second or third movie, Brett struggled to remember the films, Sam thinks it's worth struggling through the second movie to get to the third one which is a masterpiece. (I'm not sure i'm willing to wait out three hours of boring film to get to number three though)
There were a few good calls of the night, Brett's comment that "yeah this was written in the 40's, it was ok to knock women around back then, it was way better" was up there, plus Abby's explanation that "the word 'mafia' has been misinterpreted and really it was just a family who protect each other" was... well... interesting.
And then when Andrew asked us all what we thought the themes of the book were, and Jenny asked "you mean like 'don't fuck with the Mafia??' to my (very funny) response, 'i don't really think that's a theme, it's a key learning...' But i think Andrew abusing Ellen with "You fucking wrecked Gone With The Wind" was probably call of the night. (don't worry Ellen, as long as you loved the book then it was a worthwhile sacrifice)
Even though this book was pretty epic in that is spanned almost a generation of one family there were still some sub-plots which we would been keen to know a little more about. Kay's family stood out as being a total miss match to the Corleone's and it would be fascinating to know more about what they thought of this other family, and how they felt about their very proper and sweet daughter marrying the next Don. I would have been pissed!
Luca was another character that we felt wasn't really fleshed out, but when we thought about all the freaky shit he did, we kinda didn't want to know any more. Who would do that to a baby!?)
So what were the themes? Power, love, loyalty and the loophole that exist in society which allow this sub-community to flourish. Big hugs to the Deniz's for their Italian mama hospitality. All together an awesome book and an even more awesome bookclub!
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