A Million Little Pieces Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Frey's 'A Million Little Pieces' Finally Gets the Movie Treatment
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy », DIY/Filmmaking », Home Entertainment »
Okay, for this story I need you to try to remember something that happened, like, two years ago. Can you do that for me? Can you take your brain back that far, or do we need to call in McFly and the Doc? Anyway, remember all the hoopla surrounding James Frey's very popular book A Million Little Pieces? How Oprah used the so-called "memoir" to re-launch her book club, and how it turned into this huge success -- so much so that Warner Bros. desperately wanted to make a film out of it -- and how it later came out that Frey made up a good portion of the book ... and then Oprah smacked him around on TV ... and then the film went bye bye. Remember?
Well, that's what happened -- and now, two years after the fact, comes a film called A Million Little Pieces, based on the book by James Frey and directed by Nigel Tomm. And no, it's not being developed -- it's actually done ... in the can ... and available on DVD. Who's in it, you ask? Well, unlike the previous in-development adaptation, you're not going to see stars like Jake Gyllenhaal, Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett or Ryan Gosling (all of whom were interested in starring in the other flick). Nope, this one, according to its tagline, is -- wait for it -- "70 minutes and 41 seconds of pure turquoise screen. Nothing more, nothing less." On a budget of $345. Ahem. Confused?
Keep reading ...
Another Lying Author Torpedoes the Movie
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Romance », Deals », Warner Brothers », Newsstand », Dreamworks »
Yet another plagiarism scandal is screwing up a
studio's movie plan. Last time, it was James Frey's largely made up "memoir" A Million Little
Pieces, the film adaptation of which is being "reevaluated" (studio speak
for "has been drawn and quarter with much malice, and is now rotting in the basement") by Warner Brothers,
and now it's DreamWorks that has been screwed over by a writer to whom they gave a lot of money.The writer in question is Harvard sophomore (Yes, she's disgustingly accomplished. Or least she was.) Kaavya Viswanathan who didn't copy anything, exactly, she just "read Megan McCafferty's books [so] voraciously in high school" that she "unintentionally mimicked them" in her debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, which features dozens of passage that are virtually identical to those found in McCafferty's works. (Don't you hate when that happens? While trying to write posts, I often find myself accidentally typing exact passages from Middlemarch -- it's just so hard to control these things.)
Despite that whole "it was an accident!" thing, Viswanathan's book has been pulled from stores, and DreamWorks, which has already received the first draft of the film version's screenplay, has reportedly decided to cut their loses and bury the project.
No more Million Little Pieces film?
Filed under: Warner Brothers », Celebrities and Controversy », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand »
Poor James Frey. Seriously,
I really do feel bad for the guy. I've never in my life seen someone so afraid of Oprah. After watching her tear him to
shreds, I couldn't help but be reminded of that Simpson's episode in which Bart's crush literally rips his
heart out and flings it against the tree-house wall.
With controversy building faster than a Trump anything, it was only a matter of time before someone asked, "So, what about that Million Little Pieces movie?" Well, Warner Bros. President Alan Thorn claims the studio is now "reevaluating our position on what to do." Oh, but surely that can't be because of Oprah, right? Thorn continues, "Obviously, we watch Oprah and, like everybody else, we're aware of the change in authenticity of this piece. At some point in the near future, we'll meet and decide what, if anything, to do about it."
Personally, I see that translating into, "If we can find a way to tie this whole scandal in before Lifetime shovels out My Life Is Ruined: The James Frey Story, then you bet your ass there'll be a movie, biotch!" Do you think there could ever be a successful film based on this book, or should they scrap the book and attack the scandal?
A million little kissing fools
Filed under: Comedy », Celebrities and Controversy »
OK, so everyone has had it up to here (place hand near forehead) with all this talk about James Frey and the
discussion on whether or not his book is true, fiction, or a little of both. But allow me just this one additional
item, something that is being forgotten in all this talk (and yes, it does have something to do with
films).
When did all of this drug addiction/rehab, etc stuff take place? The reason I ask is, what about the movie Frey wrote, Kissing A Fool, a sub-par romantic comedy with Friends star David Schwimmer, Bonnie Hunt, and My Name Is Earl's Jason Lee? That came out in 1998. Did he write it while going through things described in the book (that would explain a lot) or was it after, or what?
[via Bookslut]
A Million Little Pieces is a rather large lie
Filed under: Action », Drama », Warner Brothers », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Newsstand »
A
Million Little Pieces, James Frey's scandalous, outrageous
memoir of life as a Criminal (his capitalization) has been all over the place since it was published a few years ago.
The hardback edition didn't sell much, but when Oprah made it the first non-fiction work featured by her book club,
millions of Midwestern women (and, you know, others) started reading and raving about prison, vomit, and drug-free root
canals. He was interviewed countless times, and everyone marveled at the badass-turned-writer. The movie rights were
snatched up by Warner Brothers and the picture, which will be directed by The
Libertine's Laurence Dunmore, is currently in development.Unfortunately, the "memoir" is a work of fiction. Oh, and Frey's never been in prison. Ever. Extensive investigation by The Smoking Gun has revealed that Frey's book (his debut work) was rejected 17 times when it was presented as a fictional story so he just changed himself into an ass-kicking criminal and turned the book into a "memoir." So, basically, he's (based on reviews) not a very good writer and a liar with giant balls.
No word on if this little revelation will have any effect on how Warner approaches and/or sells the film.
[via MeFi]
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