First Official Poster For The Host Revealed

The Host, the upcoming adaptation of the 2008 novel written by Twilight author, Stephenie Meyer, has finally revealed its official poster which you can see above.

Meyer’s novel and the upcoming film is a little more sci-fi than her previous multimillion dollar franchise, Twilight. Here is an official description of the novel:

“The Host” is a riveting story about the survival of love and the human spirit in a time of war. Our world has been invaded by an unseen enemy. Humans become hosts for these invaders, their minds taken over while their bodies remain intact. Most of humanity has succumbed.

When Melanie, one of the few remaining “wild” humans, is captured, she is certain it is her end. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, was warned about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the glut of senses, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

When outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off on a dangerous and uncertain search for the man they both love.

The film is being produced by Open Road Films and is being directed by Andrew Niccol.

The Host cast, headed by Saoirse Ronan as the main character, includes:

  • Saoirse Ronan as Melanie Stryder/Wanderer
  • Max Irons as Jared Howe
  • Diane Kruger as The Seeker
  • Jake Abel as Ian O’Shea
  • Chandler Canterbury as Jamie Stryder
  • William Hurt as Jeb Stryder
  • Boyd Holbrook as Kyle O’Shea
  • Frances Fisher as Maggie Stryder
  • Scott Lawrence as Doc

The Host is expected to hit theaters on March 29th, 2013.

You can also see the trailer for the film below:

First Look at Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Serena

The Hunger Games star, Jennifer Lawrence, has begun shooting her new project Serena in Prague. The film comes from 2929 and Studiocanal Productions, and she will star opposite of Bradley Cooper. Serena is based on on Rash’s acclaimed novel of the same name, which was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

We only have one photo from the adaptation, but frankly she looks gorgeous. I love the 1920’s look and she pulls off flawlessly.

The film follows newlyweds George (Cooper) and Serena Pemberton (Lawrence) who travel from Boston to the mountains of North Carolina where they begin to build a timber empire in 1929. Serena soon shows herself to be the equal of any man: overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving a man’s life in the wilderness. Together, this king and queen rule their dominion, killing or vanquishing all who stand in the way of their ambitions. But when Serena learns that she can never bear a child, she sets out to murder the woman who bore George a son before his marriage. And when she starts to suspect that George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons’ intense, passionate marriage begins to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.

Serena is being directed by Susanne Bier with a screenplay from Christopher Kyle.

Along side Lawrence and Cooper, the film also features Toby Jones and Rhys Ifans.

We are very happy to be partnering with 2929 again,” said Olivier Courson, Chairman and CEO of Studiocanal. “Susanne Bier is a director we all greatly admire at Studiocanal, so to be able to finance and distribute her next film is a great pleasure for us. And like any filmgoer, we are very excited to see Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence together in this epic film.”

The film is produced by Ben Cosgrove, 2929 co-owners Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban, Chockstone Pictures’ Paula Mae Schwartz and Steve Schwartz, and Nick Wechsler via his Nick Wechsler Productions banner. Studiocanal co-financed the project with 2929 and is handling all foreign sales.

Discover Young Sherlock Holmes in Audio With Rebel Fire

The second installment in author Andrew Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes series, Rebel Fire, is being released in an audiobook version by Macmillan Audio. The audiobook is narrated by Daniel Weyman, who has received glowing reviews for his emotional readings such as his work on the first novel in the series. The audiobook program provides listeners with a delightful combination of emotion and action, and is a brilliant way to introduce younger fans to Sherlock Holmes and his legendary sleuthing.

Young Sherlock Holmes, a  teen series is the first ever endorsed by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Estate.

Readers follow fourteen-year-old Sherlock as he discovered that Amyus Crow, his American tutor, is hiding some dark secrets. However, he doesn’t anticipate how deeply entangled those secrets are and that Crow is omehow mixed up in the incredible reappearance of John Wilkes Booth, the notorious American assassin supposedly killed by the U.S. Army.

This second novel takes our hero across the Atlantic to The United States where  a horrendous fiend awaits and a defeated army threatens to rise again.

This teen series has received glowing reviews from all over the world.

This adventure with a 14-year old Sherlock Holmes is as fascinating as Doyle’s brilliant original stories. Stage actor Weyman is able to convey both the emotion and the action adding to the sheer pleasure of the yarn itself.” – Parade

Author Andrew Lane works for the British government but has been a fan of Sherlock Holmes since he was ten giving him to ability to infuse his writing with knowledge and passion.

Rebel Fire will be available April 24th, 2012.

Producer Alex Kurtzman Talks Adapting Ender’s Game

We love the Ender’s Game production blog, but its sometimes-updated ways are making us anxious for more information. Apparently, MTV felt the same and recently talked with producer Alex Kurtzman about the project.

Written by Orson Scott Card, the story is set in a future utopian version of Earth. It follows a young boy who is a strategist of the genius level who becomes drafted by the International Fleet to battle and destroy to Formics. Formics are a dangerous alien race that threaten mankind. And if Ender fails, then Earth will be gone forever.

“I’m really proud of the work everybody’s done on ‘Ender’s.’ Particularly because it’s a very complicated sprawling book that a lot of people have tried for a very long time to figure out how to make,” Kurtzman said.

He also talked with them about the difficulties of taking the original book, written by Orson Scott Card, and successfully transferring it to the big screen in a way that is understandable for all audiences.

“[Director] Gavin Hood, the minute that we read his script we realized that in a miraculous way he’d managed to distill down the essence of the book and the big moves to a very understandable clear format. He had made changes that were I think totally protective of the novel, he hasn’t changed any of the plot, it’s just about not being able to put all of it in one movie. He really distills it down to its essence in a beautiful way and that was an amazing thing to see. It’s an amazing thing to see the movie come to life because it’s such a special and different movie.”

It is not just the director, Gavin Hood, getting praised by Kurtzman. He also has nothing but great things to say about the cast of the adaptation which includes Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, and Abigail Breslin.

“Asa [Butterfield] is unbelievable in it. Hailee [Steinfeld] and Abigail [Breslin] are incredible. Harrison [Ford] and Viola [Davis] are just, they’re weirdly exactly what you imagined when you read the book, or at least I did,” he admitted. “It’s really going to be a special movie. We’re about halfway through it, maybe close to halfway but it’s been a wonderful shoot so far.”

“We’re just happy to support the vision of the book,” he added. “It’s such a treasured novel and it’s very rare that you get an opportunity to work on something like that so we were very psyched.”

Kurtzman definitely seems thrilled about the way the film is turning out. It will definitely be interesting to see how the film as a whole turns out as well as how scenes set in the Battle Room come together.

Upcoming Adaptations for April 2012

Friday, April 20

The Moth Diaries

Rated: R

Rebecca (Sarah Bolger), is a young girl who, haunted by her father’s suicide, enrolls in an elite boarding school for girls. Before long, Rebecca’s friendship with the popular Lucy (Sarah Gadon) is shattered by the arrival of a dark and mysterious new student named Ernessa (Lily Cole). Lucy falls under Ernessa’s spell and becomes emotionally and physically consumed by her glamorous new friend. Rebecca, whose overtures of concern are rejected by Lucy, finds herself lost and confused. She begins to develop a crush on her handsome English teacher, Mr. Davies (Scott Speedman) and immerses herself in the Gothic vampire novel Carilla for his class. Rebecca starts to suspect that Ernessa is a vampire, but, despite the suspicious deaths that begin to occur, her fears are treated as simple girlish jealousy. As the bodies of young girls pile up and the line between reality and the supernatural starts to blur, Rebecca decides to take matters into her own hands and get rid of Ernessa.

Cast: Lily Cole, Sarah Gadon, Sarah Bolger, Scott Speedman, Judy Parfitt

Director: Mary Harron

Based on a novel by the same name by Rachel Klein.

 

Think Like a Man

Rated: PG-13

Think Like a Man follows four interconnected and diverse men whose love lives are shaken up after the ladies they are pursuing buy Harvey’s book and start taking his advice to heart. When the band of brothers realize they have been betrayed by one of their own, they conspire using the book’s insider information to turn the tables and teach the women a lesson of their own.

Cast: Steve Harvey, Gabrielle Union, Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy, Taraji P. Henson

Director: Tim Story

Based on Steve Harvey’s book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.

Friday, April 27

The Raven

Rated: R

The macabre and lurid tales of Edgar Allan Poe are vividly brought to life – and death – in this stylish, gothic thriller starring John Cusack as the infamous author. When a madman begins committing horrific murders inspired by Poe’s darkest works, a young Baltimore detective (Luke Evans) joins forces with Poe in a quest to get inside the killer’s mind in order to stop him from making every one of Poe’s brutal stories a blood chilling reality. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, which escalates when Poe’s love (Alice Eve, She’s Out of My League) becomes the next target. Intrepid Pictures’ The Raven also stars Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Faster).

Cast: John Cusack, Luke Evans, Brendan Gleeson, Alice Eve, Oliver Jackson-Cohen

Director: James McTeigue

Based on the stories written by Edgar Allen Poe

 

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Rated: PG

Accompanied by his ragtag crew, an enthusiastic pirate captain (Hugh Grant) sails the high seas and dreams of besting his bitter rivals, Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek), in a quest to win the coveted title of Pirate of the Year. The captain’s quest takes him and his comrades from the exotic shores of Blood Island to Victorian London’s foggy streets. Along the way, they battle an evil queen (Imelda Staunton) and join forces with a young scientist (David Tennant).

Cast: Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton

Director: Peter Lord

The film is based on the first two books from Gideon Defoe’s The Pirates! series, The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! in an Adventure with Whaling.

6th Annual BSC Book Tournament Winner Revealed!

Congratulations to author Sara Grant who’s novel, Dark Parties has come out on top as the winner for the 6th Annual BSC Book Tournament!

We started the contest out with 32 entries into the March Madness style competition. We called this years tournament “A Taste of the Hunger Games” given that all the novels were ones that fans of the Hunger Games trilogy would enjoy.  Each novel in the tournament took a look at dystopian futures.

After weeks of voting by our readers, Dark Parties has come out as the winner of it all.

Dark Parties follows Sixteen-year-old Neva who has been trapped since birth. She was born and raised under the Protectosphere, in an isolated nation ruled by fear, lies, and xenophobia. A shield “protects” them from the outside world, but also locks the citizens inside. But according to the government, there’s nothing left on the outside, ever since the world collapsed from violent warfare. Neva and her best friend Sanna believe the government is lying and stage a “dark party” to recruit members for their underground rebellion. But as Neva begins to uncover the truth, she realizes she must question everything she’s ever known, including the people she loves the most.

Grant’s dystopian novel has caught the attention and love of readers all over the world making it this year’s winner!

I would also like to thank everyone who participated in the tournament this year as well. They were truly all fabulous books. You can see the list of novels included in this years tournament here.

Mark Wahlberg In Talks For Grisham’s The Partner

Famed author John Grisham is finding that one of his most popular novels is getting new life on the big screen through New Regency. Currently, actor Mark Wahlberg is in talks with the studio to star in and producer the adaptation. He would be producing the film with Stephen Levinson.

John Lee Hancock was previously attached to write and direct at one point, but as of now he is no longer involved. Who the new writer and director has yet to be determined.

The 1997 novel follows a disillusioned lawyer who steals $90 million from his law firm. He then stages his own death and successfully is able to disappear for several years. But this seemingly brilliant white-collar crime gets complicated by a murder charge.

According to the official website the plot summary is as follows:

They watched Danilo Silva for days before they finally grabbed him. He was living alone, a quiet life on a shady street in Brazil; a simple life in a modest home, certainly not one of luxury. Certainly no evidence of the fortune they thought he had stolen. He was much thinner and his face had been altered. He spoke a different language, and spoke it very well.But Danilo had a past with many chapters. Four years earlier he had been Patrick Lanigan, a young partner in a prominent Biloxi law firm. He had a pretty wife, a new daughter, and a bright future. Then one cold winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car and died a horrible death. When he was buried his casket held nothing more than his ashes.From a short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial. Then he fled. Six weeks later, a fortune was stolen from his ex-law firm’s offshore account. And Patrick fled some more.But they found him.”

New Regency’s Arnon Milchan previously brought a few of Grisham’s novels to the big screen such as  “A Time to Kill,” “The Client” and “Runaway Jury.”

There is no word yet on who will play any of the roles, but I think it is safe to say that if Wahlberg gets the part, this will definitely be a huge release for New Regency.

The best part of this is that we get to see a television spot for the book from when it was released in 1997. You can watch it below in all of its 90’s glory:

Allan Quatermain the Inspiration for Indiana Jones is Set for TV

MIPTV has announced a new development deal.  If all things go according to plan, Allan Quatermain will grace television screens in a new 10 part series.  For those of you not familiar with adventures of Quatermain, he’s the 1880s literary character that inspired Indiana Jones; the creation of, not mentor.  The series is currently clocked at $30 million in order for this action-adventure to be produced in a team up between Sonar Entertainment and Ecosse Films.

When’s the last time you might have heard of this character?  Back in 2003 when Sean Connery played the crotchety, bearded adventurer in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Created by H. Rider Haggard in 1885; on a bet; Allan Quatermain is the action hero of King Solomon’s Mines and the subsequent prequels and sequels.  Yeah, this was written on a bet between brothers, namely whether or not Haggard could write a novel half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, released in 1883.  What resulted was a book that became the year’s best seller.

In fact, due to the success of King Solomon’s Mines, a new genre of storytelling was created called the, “Lost World.”  This was the Twilight of its time, and soon writers were coming out of the woodwork with their own teeny romance equivalent.  Okay, maybe Jules Verne was responsible for the genre back in 1863 with Journey to the Center of the Earth, but Haggard must have had a better publicist.  The Lost World genre stuck and soon other books appeared which were compared to Haggard’s works.  Such works included Edgar Rice Burroughs’s The Land That Time Forgot, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.

Haggard couldn’t stop there though.  Soon the sequels and prequels were cranked out.  Allan Quatermain would appear as the protagonist of stories ranging from his younger days at the age of 18, to his older and experienced years at 68.  50 years is a lot of grist for a television series to work with.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that they did the same with the Indiana Jones franchise.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a television series that went on from 1992 to 1993.  The official synopsis seems similar to what the Allan Quatermain storytelling went though.

“The now legendary, almost mythical character of Indiana Jones once had a childhood. Every episode starts out with the elderly man that he is in the 1990’s getting into a specific situation where he has to tell a story from his past. The stories go back to when he was ten years old and on a world tour with his father, and to his late-teens when he fought in World War I.”

This can only be explained through the magic of public domain stories and characters.  The only good thing that came from that show was a young Sean Patrick Flannery, who would grow up and kill criminals as a Boondock Saint.

Stewart Till, the CEO of Sonar Entertainment told The Hollywood Reporter, “It’s an incredible character from a range of best-selling books.  I read all the books as a child and it is something that many Brits have grown up with. It’s also the kind of high-concept adventure that broadcasters are looking for.”

Though no talent has signed on yet, Till says he has some actors in mind. “There are many British male actors in their early 30s who could play this rugged adventurer.” The only problem I see is how the world may perceive the story and it’s hero.  Who’s going to take the chance that they’ll be typecast as an imitation Indiana Jones?  Not that it’s true, but it’s all a matter of perception.

Till expects that scripts will be ready in the next few months, while the projected budget for each one hour episode is roughly $3 million dollars.  Already there are plans to shoot in Africa. “It is in exotic settings with lost tribes and treasures and African superstitions and big adventures, so its got everything,” said Till.   

 

The Hunger Games, Gossip Girl Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011

Every year disgruntled parents and guardians, and even teachers, argue over new books and old books that teachers should not allow students to read in the classroom. It literally happens every year, so the American Library Association (ALA) released the The Top Ten List of Most Frequently Challenged Books, and they just released the list for 2011.

This year’s most anticipated blockbuster, The Hunger Games, sees its source material on the list, The Hunger Games trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. Some do not find this surprising as the book does feature young children and teens killing each other in a brutal reality television setting.

Also on the list is the book series, Gossip Girl, which inspired the CW television series.

It is no surprise that 2011 saw several attempts at book banning. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) received 326 reports regarding attempts to remove or restrict materials from being taught in school curriculums as well as attempts to remove them from library bookshelves. According to the ALA a challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness.

You can see the full list of The Top Ten List of Most Frequently Challenged Books for 2011 below:

1) ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

2) The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

3) The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violence

4) My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

5) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

6) Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

7) Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit

8) What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

9) Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

10) To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Offensive language; racism

Ender’s Game Release Date Delayed To November

 

Summit Entertainment has moved Ender’s Game way back from March 15th 2013 to November 1, 2013. They haven’t said why the massive move happened despite the fact that the film was without competition on both release dates, and filming has already begun. However, November 2013 already has some big name films premiering such as Singularity, Marvel’s Thor 2 and the already highly anticipated The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire all arriving within weeks of Ender’s Game. 

Written by Orson Scott Card, the story is set in a future utopian version of Earth. It follows a young boy who is a strategist of the genius level who becomes drafted by the International Fleet to battle and destroy to Formics. Formics are a dangerous alien race that threaten mankind. And if Ender fails, then Earth will be gone forever.

The cast, which includes several award winners, is as follows:

  • Asa Butterfield – Ender Wiggin
  • Harrison Ford – Colonel Hyrum Graff
  • Abigail Breslin – Valentine Wiggin
  • Hailee Steinfeld – Petra
  • Aramis Knight – Bean
  • Moises Arias – Bonzo
  • Jimmy Pinchak – Peter Wiggin
  • Suraj Parthasarathy – Alai
  • Conor Carroll – Bernard
  • Khylin Rhambo – Dink
  • Brandon Soo Hoo – Fly Molo
  • Ben Kingsley – Mazer Rackham
  • Viola Davis – Major Anderson
  • Caleb J. Thaggard – Stilson
  • Stevie Ray Dallimore – John Wiggin
  • Andrea Powell – Theresa Wiggin
  • Nonso Anozie – Sergeant Dap