This summer looks to be the summer of beloved childrens books being turned into good movies. With Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, and now Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox set for cinematic release one can only speculate what will be next. Personally, I’d like to see Willard Price’s Adventure series get a turn. Anyway, here is the trailer for Fantastic Mr. Fox, starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and directed by Wes Anderson.
Tag: Movies Page 4 of 5
Did you know that Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak books are being made into movies? I didn’t, although I may have known and since forgotten. In any case, it is, although it seems to be the first three books – Cirque du Freak, The Vampire’s Assistant, and Tunnels of Blood – that provide the film’s plot. There’s an interesting article about it here, along with a bunch of photos and an interview with the actor playing Larten Crepsley.
Fans of the Avatar DVDs will be very pleased to hear about the movie The Last Airbender, directed by M Night Shyamalan (who sees dead people, for example, in The Sixth Sense). The cast has many interesting people, for example Dev Patel (Skins, Slumdog Millionnaire), Jackson Rathbone (he of the pained-looking Jasper in Twilight), and the great Cliff Curtis. The official site is here, the IMDB page here, and then here’s the trailer:
Speaking of Twilight, as with Twilight and Twilight, there’s going to be a new New Moon book cover to tie in with the Twilight: New Moon movie. It’ll make Team Jacob happy – here’s a link.
More on Cassandra Clare and web2.0-ness: her publisher is promoting City of Glass with the aid of a widget that you can grab from their site (here) and stick on your blog and share for example (from thebookseller.com).
Shaun Tan fan? Have a look at this interview in the School Library Journal. [Shaun Tan and Pixar? I thought. Well, he was a concept artist on Wall-E. Fun.]
Twitterature is hot; but who needs 140 characters when you can do it in 17 syllables? (I feel a competition coming on.)
It’s less than a month to Harry Potter number 6. Then, finally, Coraline on the 6th of August, in glorious 3D.
Right now I am looking at a pile of new DVDs. After I am finished looking at them they will be in amongst the YA collection ready for you to look at them.
Learn To Play The Brazilian Way is a soccer skills DVD. It shows you how to do all sorts of fancy tricks like The Ronaldinho and The Rivaldo. I made my indoor soccer team watch it before our final… we lost, but we looked good doing it.
Warbirds Over Wanaka collects together highlights of three of the internationally acclaimed airshows. The 1998, 2000 and 2002 shows are boxed together for maximum airplane trickery watchery.
The Longshots stars Ice Cube as a down on his luck former football star who coaches a kids American Football team and when his 11 year old niece tries out for quarterback heart-warming hilarity ensues.
Kickin’ It Old School is a dance movie with a twist; our hero has been in a coma since 1986 and must breakdance his way out of financial strife and win back his old girlfriend.
Maddigan’s Quest is a locally produced TV series written by Margaret Mahy. There is a post-apocalyptic setting, magical powers, time travel, and, umm, circus performers. All 13 episodes are included.
The Jules Verne classic Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has been given a filmic update starring Brendan Fraser. A T-Rex pops up at some stage and you can watch it in 3D if you have the correct eyewear.
If there’s something I always enjoy it’s a coming of age movie. Newcastle is such a film, set in the coastal Australian town, it’s full of surfing, love and tragedy.
As someone pointed out, I neglected to mention the MTV Movie Awards yesterday. Well, the movie awards with the cool categories like Best Movie Villain and and Best Fight (and Best Kiss) happened over the weekend and Twilight was the biggest winner, being awarded the Best Movie, Best Female Performance, Breakthrough Performance Male (I guess that’s the we didn’t know who you are but now we do award), Best Fight and Best Kiss.
You can see all the acceptance speeches and kisses here, but you probably already knew that.
In other interesting news, the MTV Movie Awards site also has a trailer for New Moon, so you get a sneak peek at Jacob on four legs.
The library now has Twilight on DVD. If the book’s popularity is anything to go by, the reservation queue for the DVD will quickly become huge. Here are some links to the catalogue entries; the YA copy is 50c for a YA cardholder, but the adult copy is the full $4 charge. There will also be ‘Select‘ copies, which cost $4, are issued for 3 days, but are available directly from the shelf (when not taken) as they can’t be reserved.
Twilight DVD – YA Copies
Twilight DVD – Adult Copies
We will be getting more copies soon. The film is rated M for supernatural themes and violence. The official trailer is after the Read more …
Some of you may have had My Little Ponies when you were growing up – but they probably didn’t look like the ones in this new collection! The new range, designed by Mari Kasurinen to resemble characters from movies, are selling for £330 each, so start saving I guess. My favourite is the Joker one, miss u sooo bad Heath. I wonder if the Care Bears are in line for a similar makeover?
In theatres October 16 is where. Nearly everyones favourite picture book Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is getting a big screen adaptation and somebody just emailed me this link where you can watch a very cool trailer. I know I’ll be off to see it when it comes out!
Due either to popular demand, or just the fact that I like playing with iMovie, here is the second ad for The Almost Amazing Race. This one gives away a few more details (possibly about locations) and once again stars Adrienne who is such a good sport for running everywhere I told her to on a very hot day.
Registrations will be opening very soon. We’ll let you know when on this blog and if you become our fan on facebook, we’ll let you know even sooner.
The Superbowl is the championship game for the NFL, which means it’s a bit like the U.S. version of the Rugby World Cup. But with American football, not rugby. It is screened on the telly and about two-thirds of all Americans watch it; it is incredibly popular. Which means that advertisement time is sold at a premium, and many new films show their movie trailers for the first time.
We’re not as interested in the Superbowl (sorry) as we are in the film trailers that premiered on Monday, during Superbowl XLIII. While we can’t embed any of them – they’re not officially on Youtube (I did try!) – they are all available from Quicktime, and include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G. I. Joe, Land of the Lost, Star Trek, and The Fast and the Furious 4, among others. Enjoy.
Can’t wait for G. I. Joe, as it has ninjas. <3
Other film trailers to look out for are Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Astroboy, and Dragonball Z: Evolution (in French, but it’s official!)
The film Coraline is due out next month in April (for NZ), and if you’ve read the book or the graphic novel you will probably love the movie. (You will love the movie if you haven’t read the book, and you may very well love the book as well.)
Coraline author Neil Gaiman’s latest award-winning book, The Graveyard Book, is also going to be made into a film. Watch an interview about it!
Here’s the trailer for Coraline – check for buttons.
We have four new DVDs to issue, watch and enjoy. Here they are …
First up is Speed Racer, which is about a young man who races speedily. Based on the catroon of the same name (remember that? It had a top theme tune) Speed Racer is a high-octane, turbo-charged joyride. It really revs my engine, ok, I’ll stop with the punning.
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is based on the books by Louise Rennison and is directed by Gurinder Chadha, who also did Bend It Like Beckham. File under coming-of-age chick flick comedy.
In Hellboy II: Golden Army our hero is once again charged with saving the world by shooting, punching, looking tough etc. Will he and his band of misfits save the day? Probably until the next sequel at least.
Lastly we have a new David Attenborough doco titled The First Eden. It examines the Mediterranean in the pleasing style we have come to expect from David and the BBC. <3 Edutainment <3
If you want to re-live your movie experience in music, but you’re not sure if you want to buy the CD then reserve the library copy of the Twilight Soundtrack and try before you buy for free (on a YA card, that is). There are some interesting artists on here, including Iron and Wine (we like Iron and Wine) and Muse and that, so it’s bound to be good.
Or listen to it now! Legally!
Okay, here’s a link to an entertaining article about the Twilight movie from the December issue of Vanity Fair (we’ve also got the magazine in the library).
Roger Ebert, film reviewer extraordinaire, had this to say about the movie. Note he’s about as far away from a 16 year old girl as a person can get, but I thought his review was a good read (“Why do girls always prefer the distant, aloof, handsome, dangerous dudes instead of cheerful chaps like me?”).
For more photos from the VF photo session session check out the outtakes.
Here are ten twelve popular books that are being turned into movies, which you may or may not know about. Let me know if you know of any others.
- The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne. I’m not as excited as other people, but that’s okay. Here’s the trailer (YouTube).
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Rachel Cohn & David Levithan. Two teens meet at a punk rock club and fall in love. This is coming out in February next year. Plenty of time to read the book, if you haven’t already (we’re getting more copies and a reliable source has told me that it’s good).
- Inkheart, Cornelia Funke. The story of a girl whose father brings book characters to life by reading out loud. Visit YouTube to see the official trailer, and IMDB. It’s supposed to be around in February next year.
Coraline, Neil Gaiman. Some very cool graphics in here (including buttons). You can check out teasers and featurettes on his website.
- House of Night, P C Cast. Because vampires are so hot right now they’re turning this series by P C Cast into a movie and riding the wave.
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 2009). It will have been ages since the last one by that time. Meanwhile, you can amuse yourselves by viewing Robert Pattinson smoulder in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and check for any sparkling skin.
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine. More Hugh Jackman.
- New Moon, Stephenie Meyer. They say that this is definitely going ahead (2010) because Twilight has opened so well.
Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl. Cool, eh? George Clooney is Mr Fox and Cate Blanchett is Mrs Fox. This should be around at the end of next year.
- The Book Thief, Markus Zusak. This is supposed to be coming out in 2010 but it’s quite hard to find some actual information about it (and it’s also quite hard to imagine how they can turn this into a movie!).
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley. They’ve had a couple of goes at this as a TV series. Trivia: apparently the 1980 version was nominated for a couple of primetime Emmys. IMDB tells me I need to have IMDBPro if I want to find out anything about it. Huh!
Wonder Woman. Children of the eighties will be particularly excited (she was the coolest thing on TV). An estimated release date for this is 2011.
So there you go.
The trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince has been released. Interestingly, Harry doesn’t make much of an appearance, though if you’ve read the book you will understand why. It will be released in early December. You can watch it here, or check it out – and the official plot summary – below.
(Since we’re talking about teen novels that have been turned into films, you may want to check out Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, which is due for release on the 18th of September.)
The Neon Genesis Evangelion series is considered one of the greatest anime of all time, although the television series (available here) did end somewhat confusingly and isn’t too accessible for the casual viewer. In 2006 it was revealed that four Neon Genesis Evangalion films were to be made; the first three are a ‘reboot‘ of the original series, with new scenes, characters, and effects added, and the final film will present a new ending to the story.
The first of these films – Evangelion : 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone – is part of the imminent Wellington Film Festival, and tickets will (probably) go quite quickly.
Another cool anime at the festivals is Vexille, which is from the people behind the recent Appleseed film.
Yet again, more new YA DVDs and CDs are available. Since they’re so new and so popular you may need to reserve them, which you can do online – just click on the title to go to the catalogue entry for each item.
The CDs are:
- Tha 411 2 – Various
- Now That’s What I Call Music 26 – Various musos
- Pretty Old – Panic at the Disco
- Wait For Me – The Pidgeon Detectives
- Hip Hop : The Collection. The Classics – Various
- Rocked 07 – Various
- A Guide to Love, Loss, & Desperation – The Wombats
- We’ll Live and Die in These Towns – The Enemy
- Medicine Man – dDub
- Straight Answer Machine – Samuel F. Scott and the B.O.P.
- Discipline – Janet Jackson
- The Mash Up Mix 2008 – Ministry of Sound
- Unbreakable : The Greatest Hits 2008 NZ Tour Edition +DVD – Westlife
- These Streets – Paolo Nutini
If you think that’s a lot, check out all the DVDs that have arrived:
- Beowulf – an animated retelling of the Old English saga
- Ocean’s Thirteen – the second sequel to a remake!
- Bro’ Town Series 4
- Rush Hour 3 – in which our heroes go to Paris
- Irish Jam – one review says that this is better than you’d think
- Metal : A Headbanger’s Journey – award-winning documentary about metal music
- Hip Hop V – recent and classic hip hop videos
- The Nanny Diaries – an ‘intelligent comedy’
- Rising Son : The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi – doco
- December Boys – starring Daniel Radcliffe, in his first major non-Harry Potter film
- Keeping up with the Steins – a ‘heartwarming coming-of-age comedy’
- Power Rangers Volumes 1 – 5 – five DVDs of Power Ranger goodness!
Before Lara Croft and all the Tomb Raider stuff there was Indiana Jones. Way smarter and, well, cooler than Lara, Indy liberated ancient artifacts and restored them to their rightful resting places (museums, according to him (but that’s debatable)) in three movies in the 1980s. We haven’t seen him since The Last Crusade in 1989, so the news that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will be making its way to a theatre near you on the 22nd of May is worth a mention.
TV3, conveniently, is playing all three movies to date on Saturday nights, beginning this week with the iconic Raiders of the Lost Ark, so you’ve got the perfect opportunity to become an Indiana Jones expert and check out the moves that action heroes have been imitating for the last 20+ years.
And if you think Harrison Ford is too old to be hot, go see The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for Shia LaBeouf because, you know, he’s such a great actor.
There are several big films due to come out that are based on books. Books that we have in the library! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Chronicles of Narnia : Prince Caspian , and Iron Man, for example, are all due out this year. But we do have plenty of DVDs already available that are based on books. Some aren’t very good, but some are great. And here are the ten greatest!
- Clueless – This is Jane Austen’s Emma, brilliantly transposed to modern (well, mid-90s) LA. Hilaaaarious.
Howl’s Moving Castle – based on the Diana Wynne Jones book of the same name.
- To Kill a Mockingbird – based on Lee Harper’s classic book. It is also the 25th best movie ever.
- The Colour Purple – based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer-prize winning book. You will need a box of tissues.
- Hellboy – based on the excellent Hellboy comics. Hellboy II is due out this year! I can’t wait.
- Sleepy Hollow – based loosely on Washington Irving’s 1820 tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It stars Johnny Depp and the fabulous Miranda Richardson.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – this is one of the better Harry Potter films yet, I think; it’s darker, more exciting, and if you had not seen any other of the series you’d still enjoy it.
- Lord of the Flies – based on the novel, this – the 1963 version – is better than the 1990 version. There, I said it!
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy – of course.
- I, Robot – not a particularly good film, but the book that it’s based on is.
