Recently in Films/TV Category

An the next Tintin is...

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Four major film adaptations of children's books ("Hugo," "Twilight: Breaking Dawn [Part I]," "Tintin" and "War Horse") have hit theaters in the past two months; throw in "Harry Potter" 7.2, released this summer, and you've got a pretty spectacular year for young-adult stories in Hollywood. The trend looks set to continue through next spring, with the release of the first "Hunger Games" movie in March.

[Salon] asked a number of authors -- most of whom write specifically for young adults -- to share their thoughts on the best and worst teen-book-to-movie adaptations, and to name the titles they'd like to see hit the big screen in the coming years.

Hugo - Scorsese

Adapted by screenwriter John Logan (Scorsese's "The Aviator") from Brian Selznick's popular, richly illustrated children's book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," Scorsese's new movie is a Dickensian drama about a lonely boy's quest for happiness. The film also brings to life some of the Oscar-winning director's longtime obsessions: the history of cinema and film preservation. "Hugo" simultaneously stands on its own as a drama while also being a love letter to the creation of the medium.

release date mid-July 2011

Chicken House Books has announced that award-winning British feature film company, Warp Films, have acquired Rachel Ward's novel NUMBERS.

NUMBERS, the story of a girl who can see the date of a person's death in their eyes, has been published in over 20 countries to date, with two sequels completing the bestselling YA trilogy.

The book will be adapted for the screen by Paul Fraser (A Room for Romeo Brass, Heartlands, Somerstown).

Shaun Tan Oscar

The Lost Thing, co-directed by Tan and based on his book of the same name, won this year's Oscar for Best Short Film (Animated).

War Horse Given Christmas Holiday Release

DreamWorks has announced, via Deadline, that Spielberg's new film War Horse will be released December 28 2011, just five days after his motion-capture film The Adventures of Tin Tin hits theaters. The studio said that after screening War Horse, the story of a boy who enlists in World War I to track down his beloved horse, it felt "like a holiday movie."

Zack Snyder, Film Director, Intrerviewed

... the director of 300 and Watchmen has taken a step into the family friendly genre of animation with his latest film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. The film is based on the children's books of the same name that were written by Kathryn Lasky. Not only is he stepping into new territory by doing a family film, but Legend of the Guardians also marks his first encounter with 3D.

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Flipped - Movie Review

The movie mostly fails to gain traction due to the lack of solid direction by Reiner. For one, the film is set in the '50s/'60s for no discernible reason other than nostalgia, which doesn't play that big of a part in the plot anyway. Also, aside from half of the voiceovers not really working, the back-and-forth between the two main characters is just not compelling. Even when you know where things are headed, there needs to be that certain something that keeps the audience wanting more, and Reiner never infuses the story with that extra oomph.

A popular children's book (albeit one that's nine years old), Flipped should have no problem drawing a decent number of moviegoers. But with a flawed structure and so-so overall storyline, the film is just more evidence that Reiner ain't what he used to be.

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AS Byatt on Alice In Wonderland

In the week Tim Burton's film is released, AS Byatt takes another trip down the rabbit hole to celebrate classics she first enjoyed as a child

Norwich author Alex Scarrow says, "It's a sort of teen book about time travel. The teenagers are plucked from the very last seconds of their lives in a way that doesn't make a difference to history to become time travellers and work for a covert agency.

"For example, one of them is called Liam and is a steward on the Titanic, and he is taken just as the ship is sinking, so it doesn't make a difference to history as he would have died anyway.

"They are based in New York and their job is to stop others changing the course of history. So in this book, Neo Nazis have gone back in time to make Hitler win, and the kids see New York transformed into a Nazified version of the city. They have to work out what has happened and go back in time and stop the future being changed."

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The movie PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF is out on February 12th.

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:

Movie poster:

Desperately Seeking Sendak

Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers relive the cold winter's day when they went to visit famously prickly writer Maurice Sendak, to talk about filming Where the Wild Things Are...

The 90 minuteTV dramatisation of Frank Cottrell Boyce's Framed is now showing tomorrow night (Monday 31st August) on BBC1 at 8.30pm, not tonight as previously announced.

Frank Cottrell Boyce TV Drama