MirrorMask Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Although hearing isn't the sense that moves quickest and deepest into our emotional memory, a favorite movie soundtrack can definitely dash almost as quickly to the center of your brain as a smell when it comes to recalling a certain scene, the memory of listening to it driving in the car, or smooching in the theater. A lot of the time, these are actual compilations of songs - Pump Up the Volume and Pretty in Pink are the first that spring to mind for me - but sometimes they're scores from an iconic composer.

David Lynch movies like Blue Velvet or Wild at Heart would still, for better or for worse, be David Lynch movies without Angelo Badalamenti's scores, but they'd be absolutely lacking, whether we knew it or not. Ennio Morricone is another unmistakable composer, most famously perhaps for his work on Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns - who doesn't feel like they're about to do battle in a gun duel to the death when they hear the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly? And I'm proud to say I was a bridesmaid at a wedding where the newlyweds entered to the Imperial March.

One of my absolute favorite scores to listen to while I work is the soundtrack to Amélie by Yann Tiersen. I spent about a month churning out 50,000+ words for National Novel Writing Month listening to the dancey accordions in "La Valse d'Amélie" and "La Valse Des Monstres," the old-timey songs with record static like "Guilty" and "Si tu n'étais pas là," the gypsy-flavored "Le Banquet," the purely joyous "La Redecouverte" and all the rest that made me feel like drinking espressos with a perfect, tiny spoon. (Which I probably was, since I had to write an entire novel in a month.) I don't know why I picked up the CD, but I'm so glad I did. It just makes me happy. I also really enjoy the score to MirrorMask by Iain Ballamy.

Do you enjoy listening to movie scores? Who are your favorites?

I'm a little surprised by the opening box office of Stardust, which only made $9 million over the weekend. The movie was certainly advertised plenty, it features fantasy and pirates and other popular elements and it has received pretty good reviews. Maybe it will do well in the long run thanks to word of mouth, but if it doesn't, I hope its lack of success doesn't affect other Neil Gaiman adaptations. One of these adaptations is Neverwhere, which Gaiman actually wrote a script for back in 2000. In our own Comic-Con interview with Gaiman, the writer revealed some new developments happening with the project and mentioned that a director was very interested in finally bringing it to the big screen. Unfortunately he wouldn't tell us the director's name. But MTV Movies Blog's Jennifer Vineyard was apparently able to get it out of him. According to her, the director of Neverwhere will be David Slade, who made the excellent Sundance sensation Hard Candy and the upcoming vampire pic 30 Days of Night.

Other names mentioned in Vineyard's report include Harvey Weinstein, who may be looking to distribute via The Weinstein Co., and Lisa Henson, who was involved with Gaiman's Mirrormask, which pretty much ruined my love for Jim Henson Productions by utitlizing CG instead of Muppets. Gaiman will do a rewrite of his earlier draft, which is based on a 1996 mini-series he wrote for the BBC. He also wrote a very popular novelization of the series in 1997, and since then, there has also been a Vertigo comic book and a stage production. The story follows a bumbling businessman named Richard Mayhew, who ends up in an alternate dimension world called London Below. While there he must help a girl named Door, who is looking for answers regarding the murder of her family members. Gaiman has a number of other adaptations in development or soon to be in development, including the upcoming animated film Coraline, Interworld, Death: The High Cost of Living, Sandman and hopefully one day Good Omens.

The eagerly anticipated fantasy film from director Guillermo del Toro will open just before the end of the year, making it eligible to compete in the Oscar awards to be held early next year. Picturehouse, which acquired the film at the Sundance Film Festival, will release the film in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Chicago on December 29 before expanding to more markets on January 12.

Pan's Labyrinth received a standing ovation at both the Cannes and Toronto film festivals this year, with del Toro and fantasy fans alike anxiously awaiting its release. The film is a dark fantasy that follows a main character who lives in an imaginary world of her own creation, which helps her deal with the horrors of real life after the Spanish civil war. Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman who wrote last year's dark and whimsical MirrorMask, which features a similar main character, was treated to a personal screening by Guillermo, and loved the film.

This is still a film that is flying under the radar for most American audiences, and hopefully it will reach the audience it deserves.

I was introduced to Neil Gaiman only recently, and I must say I haven't delved into his work all that much, save for his children's books The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish, both illustrated by his longtime collaborator Dave McKean. Comic Book Resources recently spoke with both men about the upcoming Mirrormask, which McKean is directing. The two reveal a few things about the making of the movie, but what I found most interesting was Gaiman's assessment that children are better able to deal with the concept of good and evil than adults because they see the two concepts as very separate. This, according to Gaiman, is why kids can accept things like the witch in Hansel and Gretel being cooked alive. I think it also explains why Roald Dahl, as well as contemporary authors like Gaiman and Lemony Snicket, are so alluring to younger readers.