Author Archives: Sarah Sommer

About Sarah Sommer

Sarah is a journalist and an artist who lives in the city. She loves movies and television. She reads early and often. Sarah also helps out over at BSCkids.com and our other sites!

A World of Ice and Fire Comes To Android

Just in time for the upcoming third season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” the George R.R Martin of Game of Thrones fame has just released the Android version of the companion iOS app, A World of Ice and Fire.

This new Android version contains updated material that will soon be added to the current iOS version as well. This includes:

New Profiles for the Men of the Night’s Watch, Brotherhood Without Banners, and the Free Folk
30 new illustrations for key places
The ability to search for characters by alias (so you can find Tyrion by searching for “The Imp”)
Further improvements to the anti-spoiler and map functionality

George R.R. Martin’s World of Ice and Fire already includes:

Anti-spoiler functionality that you can customize based on where you are in the book cycle to prevent you from seeing spoilers
540+ character profiles with detailed historical bios, family and house information, book appearances, and corresponding actor roles
380+ place profiles with descriptions for castles, towns, regions, geographical features and more
Fully interactive versions of all the official maps from the “A Song of Ice and Fire” Cycle.
Completely new text written specially for this app by Elio M. García, Jr. and Linda Antonsson of Westeros.org – the premier fan site for the A Song of Ice and Fire cycle.

You can download the Android App or The iOS App and be prepared for the upcoming season beginning March 31, 2013.

Oz the Great And Powerful Dominates Weekend box Office

This past weekend Oz The Great And Powerful effectively dominated the box office despite two films opening for the first time. The film also became the highest grossing film of 2013 with $145 million grossed domestically. It fared well in its 308 domestic IMAX screens, adding another $4 million to its IMAX total. Disney’s movie did even better internationally in its second weekend, bringing in $46.6 million ($2 million from IMAX venues) to bring its international total to $136.8 million and its worldwide total to $281.8 million after just ten days. Continue reading →

Jurassic Park 4 To Be Directed By Safety Not Guaranteed’s Colin Trevorrow

For a while it seemed like Jurassic Park 4 would never happen, however, in January it was announced that Universal Pictures was finally moving forward with the project. Taking a step forward today, they have officially announced the projects direct: Safety Not Guaranteed’s Colin Trevorrow.

Jurassic Park 4 continues the franchise that was initially based on the 1990 science fiction novel written by Michael Crichton. The novel was adapted by Steven Spielberg and later won 3 Oscars, 19 other awards, and 15 nominations. The book’s sequel, The Lost World (1995), was also adapted by Spielberg into a film in 1997. While the third film in the franchise was not directly adapted from a novel, it utilized both previous novels to create a storyline that had similar thematic elements and overall feel. The third film also used several scenes from both books that had not been adapted into the previous films.

There is no word yet on the plot of the fourth film, but with Treverrow at the helm, there is little to worry about.

The Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment production will be produced by Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley with Steven Spielberg as Executive Producer. The script was written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes).

The original 1993 Jurassic Park will see a 3D re-release on April 5 of this year, also hitting IMAX 3D theaters. Jurassic Park 4, meanwhile, is scheduled for release on June 13, 2014.

Legendary Pictures Options Soon To Be Published Novel “Brilliance”

It was recently reported by The Hollywood Reporter that Joe Roth and Palek Patel have bought the film rights to the novel, “Brilliance” by Marcus Sakey. They have bought the rights and set up the film’s development deal with Legendary Pictures.

“Brilliance” has not yet been published but is scheduled to be released this summer. This purchase continues a trend of Hollywood Studios buying unpublished novels that they believe will be a big hit – before another studio gets the chance to cash in on its popularity.

The official description of the novel is as follows:

In Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called “brilliants,” and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is among them; a federal agent, Cooper has gifts rendering him exceptional at hunting terrorists. His latest target may be the most dangerous man alive, a brilliant drenched in blood and intent on provoking civil war. But to catch him, Cooper will have to violate everything he believes in—and betray his own kind.

Patel and Roth are most known for their recent work on the recently released film, Oz The Great and Powerful. Sakey also appears to have extensive knowledge on the subject of crime. To conduct research for his plots, he has shadowed homicide detectives and gang cops, and interviewed soldiers, among other things. His debut novel, The Blade Itself, was featured as a New York Times Editor’s Pick and named one of Esquire Magazine’s 5 Best Reads of 2007.

Ben Affleck bought the film rights to The Blade Itself in 2008 for his production company. The film rights to his second and third novels, Good People and At the City’s Edge, have also been bought.

There is no word yet on when this project will start production or a projected release date.

Divergent Adaptation Adds Three New Actors To Cast List

You may remember the novel, “Divergent” from our BSC Book Tournament last year and now it is getting its own big screen adaptation. It was announced a few weeks ago that Shailene Woodley had been cast in the lead role but her costars have finally been revealed. Ansel Elgort (Carrie), Zoe Kravitz (X-Men: First Class) and Maggie Q (Live Free or Die Hard) have joined the cast of Neil Burger’s adaptation, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Q will play Tori, a tattoo artist that befriends Tris while Kravitz plays another of Tris’ allies, Christina. Elgort, meanwhile, will play Tris’ twin brother, Caleb.

Here is the synopsis of the dystopian project:

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the YA scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing via their Red Wagon Entertainment banner along with Pouya Shahbazian. The novel was written by Veronica Roth and was released in 2012.

Divergent is planned to hit theaters on March 21, 2014.

Joss Whedon’s “Much Ado About Nothing” Releases Official Trailer

Could we love Joss Whedon anymore? No, I don’t think so. Whedon, who most recently is known for his work on Marvel’s The Avengers, has released the official trailer for his independent film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. The film, based on the classic comedy by William Shakespeare was both adapted and directed by Whedon and starred many of his actor friends from past projects.

The project was filmed in just 12 days entirely on location in exotic Santa Monica. The cast included actors who are already well know, some who are veteran Shakespeare performers and some that are completely brand new. It was shot in black and white by Jay Hunter. The cast features Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof as Beatrice and Benedick, the world’s least likely lovers headed for their inevitable tumble into love .The supporting cast includes Nathan Fillion as Dogberry, Clark Gregg as Leonato, Fran Kranz as Claudio and Reed Diamond as Don Pedro.

Kranz said regarding the secret project,

He shot that while he was on vacation,” says Kranz. “I remember he said he was going to go to Italy with his wife and kids, then all of a sudden he started to shoot a movie, which is crazy… He does a lot of readings at his house, he’s a great host. He always has people over, but he likes to have something to do, something specific. Sometimes he’ll read plays. One night we all read ‘A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream’. He called me one day and said he was thinking about doing ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, but filming it this time. That struck me as doing something handheld, with a Flipcam or something. Not something big with grip trucks, all of this equipment and stuff. But that’s what it turned into.”

Kranz also went on to explain how Whedon wanted the project to be different and natural between all the performers.

He turned his home into a movie set,” Kranz continues. “He had extras and all of that. We had no idea. But I think that’s what he wanted. He wanted us to go into it with a casual feel and to do Shakespeare like you’re not used to seeing. He didn’t want big production value or it to be over-rehearsed. I think he wanted it to be natural. It might be a bizarre benefit to it that we didn’t master the language. The other actors all came from different places so it was an eclectic group. It’s Shakespeare, the language is rich and dense… I think it could be this wonderful blessing that it feels intimate, alive and casual and fun. I hope that bleeds off the screen and will be refreshing for audiences. I haven’t seen it yet, but I trust Joss always and I think it’s going to be awesome.”

As Whedon says,

“The text is to me a deconstruction of the idea of love, which is ironic, since the entire production is a love letter – to the text, to the cast, even to the house it’s shot in.”

The film opens in North America on June 7 and in the UK and Ireland on June 14. You can see the trailer below:

“So Cold the River” To Be Adapted By Ben Coccio

New Regency recently announced that they would be working on adapting Michael Koryta’s “So Cold the River,” for the big screen. Now, they have hired Ben Coccio, one of the writers behind this month’s The Place Beyond the Pines, to pen the upcoming adaptation.

“So Cold The River” was published in 2010 and follows the tale of a beautiful woman and a challenge.

As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old millionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job even though there are few clues to the man’s story—just the name of his hometown and an antique water bottle he’s kept his entire life.

In Bradford’s hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary history—a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once mingled, and mineral springs whose miraculous waters were reputed to cure everything from insomnia to malaria. Neglected for years, the resort has been restored to its former grandeur just in time for Eric’s stay.

Just hours after his arrival, Eric experiences a frighteningly vivid vision. As the days pass, the frequency and intensity of his hallucinations increase and draw Eric deeper into the area’s dark history. He discovers that something besides the historic resort town has been restored—a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. Brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, So Cold the River is a tale of irresistible suspense with a racing, unstoppable current.

The project has not yet hired a director and there is no word yet on who is expected to star in the film. However, both Kevin Misher and Scott Silver have signed on to produce.

Rules of Civility Adaptation Heading To The Big Screen

Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber has officially signed on to double team the screenwriting duties for the upcoming film adaptation of Armor Towles’ period novel, Rules of Civility, for Lionsgate.

The novel, which was published in 2011, is officially described as follows:

Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year-old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.

The story opens on New Year’s Eve in a Greenwich Village jazz bar, where Katey and her boardinghouse roommate Eve happen to meet Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a ready smile. This chance encounter and its startling consequences cast Katey off her current course, but end up providing her unexpected access to the rarified offices of Conde Nast and a glittering new social circle. Befriended in turn by a shy, principled multimillionaire, an Upper East Side ne’er-do-well, and a single-minded widow who is ahead of her times, Katey has the chance to experience first hand the poise secured by wealth and station, but also the aspirations, envy, disloyalty, and desires that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her orbit, she will learn how individual choices become the means by which life crystallizes loss.

The duo recently finished their other adaptation, The Spectacular Now, with the film version set to hit theaters on August 2. There is no word yet on who is expected to star in the film or a projected release date for the project.

Robert Kirkman Developing New Television Series

With the incredible success of “The Walking Dead” on AMC, it is no surprise that the author, Robert Kirkman is now working on adapting a third television project.

The Fox International Channels is working with Kirkman’s Skybound imprint at Image Comics and Circle of Confusion to develop a script based on Kirkman’s upcoming comic book series that is reportedly set in the world of exorcism.

Told through the Kirkman prism, the series follows a young man, Kyle Barnes, who has been plagued by possession since he was a child. Now an adult, he embarks on a spiritual journey to find answers but what he uncovers could mean the end of life on Earth as we know it.

Kirkman will work alongside “The Walking Dead” executive producer David Alpert of Circle of Confusion to produce the new series.

“Sharon Tal Yguado and the entire team at FOX International Channels have been instrumental in making The Walking Dead the worldwide success that it has become. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to continue working with this forward-thinking and extremely talented group,” said Kirkman.

Sharon Tal Yguado, EVP Global Scripted Programming and Original Development at FIC, said,

“Exorcism has captivated movie audiences all over the world but has never been explored on television. Robert Kirkman, who forever changed the scope of Cable TV with The Walking Dead, possesses an unparalleled talent of telling big concept stories in a smart and incredibly genuine way. We couldn’t be more excited to be working with him on this project, which we see as a reinvention of the genre.”

Kirkman is currently serving as executive producer on “The Walking Dead” while developing “Thief of Thieves” for AMC.

“Admission” Exclusive Movie and Book Prize Pack – Giveaway

Optionated is excited to offer our readers a chance to win a great prize pack in honor of the upcoming theater release of the film Admission. The film stars Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Michael Sheen, Wallace Shawn, Gloria Reuben, Nat Wolff, Traveris Spears and Lily Tomlin.

Admission from Focus Features arrives in theaters March 22, 2013.

About Admission:

Studio: Focus Features

Starring: Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Michael Sheen, Wallace Shawn, Gloria Reuben, Nat Wolff, Traveris Spears, Lily Tomlin

Directed By: Paul Weitz (“About a Boy,” “Being Flynn,” “In Good Company”)

Written By: Karen Croner (“One True Thing”); Based on the novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Synopsis:

Tina Fey (Date Night, 30 Rock) and Paul Rudd (I Love You Man, Knocked Up) star in Admission, the new film directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz (About a Boy), about the surprising detours we encounter on the road to happiness.

Straight-laced Princeton University admissions officer Portia Nathan (Fey) is caught off-guard when she makes a recruiting visit to an alternative high school overseen by her former college classmate, the free-wheeling John Pressman (Rudd). Pressman has surmised that Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), his gifted yet very unconventional student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption many years ago. Soon, Portia finds herself bending the rules for Jeremiah, putting at risk the life she thought she always wanted — but in the process finding her way to a surprising and exhilarating life and romance she never dreamed of having.

What You Get:

One (1) winner will receive:

Folder, Notepad, Pen, Drawstring Bag, Toothbrush
Admission (movie tie-in book)
Bossypants by Tina Fey

How To Enter:

Send an email with your name and shipping information to contest@bsckids.com. Please make the title Admission so we know which contest you are entering. If you follow us on Twitter (@Optionated_) or Facebook you get two chances to win, just make sure you include the name you follow us under in the entry email. We will be announcing winners on March 18th! Good Luck!

You can watch the trailer for Admission Below:

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Visit the official website

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Prize pack valued at $50

Prizing provided by Focus Features