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Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Has a movie ever made you want to read the book?
The trailer for Peter Jackson’s next movie, The Lovely Bones, has just come out, and it looks fantastic:
The movie is based on the 2002 novel by Alice Sebold, about a young girl who is murdered and watches from the beyond as her family tries to cope - and she watches her killer, too. Saoirse Ronan, who was Oscar-nominated for her work in Atonement, stars as the girl; Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Mark Wahlberg co-star. Jackson has made the film with much of the same team that brought The Lord of the Rings to the big screen. The movie comes out Dec. 11.
I’ve always thought it was inherently unfair (albeit inevitable) that movies are constantly compared to the books on which they are based. That’s why I typically do NOT read a novel I know is going to be made into a movie, especially shortly before the release. It would NOT do to sit there constantly thinking “This line was different,” “They changed that scene” or “That wasn’t in the book.” I don’t feel I could judge the film fairly with those distractions.
However, I think going in the opposite direction is potentially interesting. I’d really like to see how The Lovely Bones plays out on the page - but not until after I’ve seen the movie.
So let me ask you: Has a movie ever made you think “I’d like to read that book?” Or consider this: Has any movie ever made you think “That would make a good book?”
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Martin Scorsese - popcorn filmmaker?
While screening Julie & Julia last night, I saw something that struck me as very odd:
The movie Shutter Island was being advertised on popcorn bags.
Wow. That might be a first for Martin Scorsese. Then again, I almost never get popcorn at the movies (I refuse to pay the exorbitant price on principle), so maybe I missed the Gangs of New York, The Aviator or The Departed popcorn bags. (At this point, I can only ruefully wonder what the Age of Innocence or Kundun popcorn bags would have looked like).
It makes me wonder how Paramount views the film. Do they see Shutter Island as “just” a thriller? Scorsese movies automatically raise the specter of Oscar, even though he finally won his, for The Departed. But then again, when The Departed was about to come out, the buzz was that it was “just” a police thriller …
Looking back on Scorsese’s work, I think the only film of his that can truly be called a popcorn picture is Cape Fear - and even that cuts a little deeper than most popcorn movies.
Odd. Very odd.
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