Paulo Coelho Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Not ten minutes, not twelve ... but eleven. That's how long sex lasts, apparently. Just over a year ago, I posted that the Paulo Coelho novel Eleven Minutes was finally getting its shot at the big screen after a few years in development. Marcos Bernstein had been hired to adapt the novel. Now Variety reports that Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now) will direct the film, and is also going to rewrite the script.

What I find particularly interesting about all of this is the description Variety uses for the Eleven Minutes; the write-up makes no mention of one of the key aspects of the film. I wonder if that was just the writer's choice, or if the film is getting away from the previous description? As I mentioned last year, the book starts off with: "Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria." The description attached to this news piece, however, says that the film will revolve "around Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village who is swept off to Geneva in an affair with a Swiss businessman. The book's title refers to the average duration of a sexual encounter, and much of Maria's discoveries occur between the sheets."

I'm going to assume it was an oversight, but it would be a nice change of pace to have a movie decide against the prostitute focus for once. Currently, there's no word on when this adaptation will head into production. Maybe next year, since the progress has been slow and easy so far.

For once, I'm happy to say that "death" teamed with the name Sarah Michelle Gellar does not mean that she's taking on another crappy horror remake. Variety reports that she's in final negotiations to star in the indie drama Veronika Decides to Die. Yes, this means she is taking over for Kate Bosworth who was attached to the film last September. One petite blonde out, and another sometimes-blonde in.

Adapted from Paulo Coelho's book by Larry Gross and Roberta Hanley, Veronika Decides to Die focuses on a depressed woman who gets reinvigorated by life after a suicide attempt. However, she won't have long to enjoy it because her attempt irreparably damaged her heart. But, oh so heart-tuggingly, dramatically, and romantically apt -- her damaged heart finds love and a new desire to live.

I'm teasing the plot because, well, it has the possibility of terrible cliche. At the same time, however, I'm happy to see Gellar go back to drama, and in something that came remind us why she was so huge on Buffy. Now if Alyson Hannigan could only find some sort of meaty role to tackle...

Well, this is interesting: Laurence Fishburne will write, direct and star in a film version of The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho's much-loved "inspirational fable." Fishburne has reportedly been trying to get this film made since the book was published, but he just recently signed a deal with Warner Brothers to bring it to fruition.

Fishburne has limited directoral experience, having only helmed 2000's Once in the Life which he also wrote in and starred in (and which no one saw). Clearly, the man is passionate enough about this project to undertake any challenges associated with it, but the greatest one will probably be not the writing or directing, but the acting: see, the story's main character is a child, and Fishburne is, well, not. Granted, he may be a young 44, but it's going to take a lot more than a youthful outlook to pull this one off.