Recently in At the movies Category

I'm thinking this might be a best-seller for Christmas.

Author Maurice Sendak has always had a rough relationship with his book "Where the Wild Things Are" which has sold more than 10 million copies since its release in 1963.

The author and illustrator felt the story of a mischevious boy named Max overshadowed the work he did afterward.

Read the Associated Press interview with Sendak about the film adaptation, which will be released on Friday.

A review from reader Nancy Duncan:

When I finished "The Reader," I wasn't that impressed with it. Then I went to Book Club.

I love cookbooks. That isn't to say I like to cook, I'm more of a baker than a cook. But I love looking at cookbooks, especially ones with glossy photographs. My favorite section to hang out in at libraries and bookstores is the cookbook area.

Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" is a great read with themes that are at once ancient and timely.

The story, set in 1980 in Texas near the Mexican border, is about a law-abiding citizen named Llewelyn Moss who comes upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad and shootout. Moss finds a case full of money and, in a decision that would set his fate in motion, takes it.

Meanwhile, a sociopath named Anton Chigurh has broken out of a holding cell, killing a deputy. Chigurh begins his trek to recover the money, and no one will stand in his way.

From the Associated Press:

The French novel that inspired "The Class," one of last year's most acclaimed films, is coming out in English.

Francois Begaudeau's book, which literally translates to "Between the Walls" but will be titled "The Class," is a fictionalized account of the author's time as a high school teacher in France. Begadeau stars as himself in the film, directed by Laurent Cantet, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes and a strong candidate among foreign releases for an Academy Award nomination.

Seven Stories Press will publish the book in the United States in April.

This just in from the Associated Press:

Taylor Lautner will be back to morph into the monstrous Jacob Black in the "Twilight" sequel "New Moon."

I'm almost finished reading Twilight and I couldn't help comparing it to another vampire series called "The Vampire Diaries" by L.J. Smith.

There are a lot of similarities. "Diaries"
came before "Twilight" but I like the "Twilight" series better. The central female character is blonde and beautiful, while in "Twilight" the central female character is described as a beauty but a unique one and very intelligent, you won't get that from Elena in "Diaries." Elena is depicted as the typical popular girl in high school and of course the only guy who is not seemingly interested is the brooding outsider, Stefan....

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away, but I would definitely recommend reading both the "Vampire Diaries" and "Twilight" and then come to your own conclusion.

FOR A SNEAK PEEK at my page design for the movie "Twilight" click here.

So, I keep checking IMDb for news on the movie adaptations of "The Hobbit," but there hasn't been a whole lot new lately.

They're still writing the scripts at this point. From what director Guillermo del Toro has been saying, it sounds like the first movie will encompass a lot of "The Hobbit" and the second will finish up what's in the book and then provide some sort of bridge to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I can't help but think about who I'd like to see cast in some of the key roles.

Aside from the obvious need to re-cast Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum and Hugo Weaving as Elrond (and Viggo Mortensen in the second film if they decide to bring in Aragorn for the "bridging" of Hobbit/LOTR), here are some thoughts.

Fans of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight' series won't have to wait much longer to see their favorite novel on the big screen.

"Twilight," the film adaptation of Meyer's best-seller, will now open Nov. 21.

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke ("Lords of Dogtown"), the big screen "Twilight" will introduce Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), a 17-year-old girl who falls in love with the utterly dreamy Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). She's a mortal. He's a
vampire. Swooning ensues.

I've now completed the triumvirate of films adapted from Richard Matheson's masterpiece "I Am Legend."

I read the book, which I highly recommend to anyone (it's much more than a sci-fi vampire book), before I saw any of the three movies it spawned.

The premise of the book is that an apocalyptic plague has turned the entire human race into vampires, and Robert Neville is last known living human. His past is revealed throughout as he struggles to cope with his singular status and fight off the vampires, who taunt him each night from outside his home-turned-stronghold. It leads to a startling revelation that I won't reveal in case you want to read it for yourself.

Here's what I think of the adaptations:

Over the weekend during a conversation, I revisited a terrible time in my life when "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" ruined my life.

I was in second grade and it was my first experience of reading a book ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl) then seeing a movie and being utterly disappointed.

You can read more here on the FlipSide Blog.

What books were made into terrible movies and which didn't do too bad?

Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" is the 1927 novel that the recent Oscar-winning film "There Will Be Blood" is loosely based upon.

Probably the most obvious difference is that, in "Oil!", the main character is "Bunny," the son of the book's central oil man, J. Arnold Ross.

My book Club is doing something different this month. We’re watching a movie! Now, being a book club, we also read the book, so don’t think we’re getting away with not reading this month.

On Friday night, I finally got to watch "The Kite Runner" on DVD.

I loved Khaled Hosseini's book when I read it several years ago, so I was anxious to see how the movie would turn out.

The verdict: the book was far more moving.

Updated 4/24/08: The Associated Press has reported that New Line Cinema officially announced that Guillermo del Toro is, indeed, directing the two "Hobbit" movies. The report says they'll be made "back-to-back," but doesn't go into specifics. Also, it says he'll be directing "The Hobbit" and "its sequel." I'm not sure what to make of that, as New Line originally said the two movies would be "The Hobbit" split in half...

To follow up on an earlier post, it appears that Guillermo del Toro has agreed — barring major setbacks, which now seem unlikely — to direct the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit."

So in the land of splitting a book into two movies — see "The Hobbit" — the producers of "Harry Potter" are apparently the latest to go that route.

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that the seventh and final installment of the boy wizard's adventures, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," will be two films.

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.

Tolkien fans rejoice.

At long last, New Line has confirmed that “The Hobbit” will come to the big screen. Peter Jackson is on board, but he’s not directing, he’s producing. And, the book will apparently be split in half and made into two films.

There is much happiness in the land of Philip Pullman fans!

The movie of "The Golden Compass," the first book in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy opens Dec. 7.

So there's plenty of time to visit the movie Web site at www.goldencompassmovie.com and discover your daemon. Answer a few questions and voila! Your daemon is revealed. (Mine is a snow leopard; how cool.).

You can also watch a really neat movie trailer.

And there's still plenty of time to re-read "The Golden Compass" before Dec. 7.

See you in line at the movie!

So, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

So, which comes first, reading the book or seeing the movie? Rereading the book or reading about the film’s director and its young star?

I read the paperback edition of “Into the Wild” in 1997, a year after the hardback’s publication and about three years after author Jon Krakauer’s article on Chris McCandless in “Outside” magazine.

That young man — reborn as Alexander Supertramp — hiked into the wilds of Alaska in 1992, an innocent abroad.

Now, in 2007, with the movie already in some theaters and I hope soon coming to the York area, I thought it time to reread the book, to see if it still holds up a decade on.