The Lovely Bones Tagged Articles at Cinematical
New Images from 'Jennifer's Body', 'Lovely Bones' and More
Filed under: Fandom », Images »
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I went back and forth for about a half hour as to whether or not I was going to post about this, but in the end I figured I owed it to the three people out there who enjoy looking at new images of Megan Fox from Jennifer's Body. Luckily, though, there's more for the lot of you as MTV has just revealed their big fall preview full of new images from a ton of upcoming films, like The Lovely Bones, Ninja Assassin, Sherlock Holmes, Amelia, A Christmas Carol, Whip It, A Serious Man and many more.
In Jennifer's Body (which, mind you, I've been hearing good things about), Megan Fox stars as a hottie cheerleader who turns all demonic and begins to off the boys at her school in the most horrific ways. Amanda Seyfried stars as her best friend, who eventually has enough of it all and attempts to stop her devilish gal pal before the end credits begin to roll. Juno scribe Diablo Cody wrote the script, and it's due out in theaters on September 18.
Also, in related news, Megan Fox will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, which I hope will include at least one sketch about lame internet bloggers who constantly write flattering things about the girl because she looks good in a tight skirt but has very little talent.
Check out a larger version of the above image below, and the rest over at MTV.
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Release Date Shuffle: Scorsese Out, Zombies In, Mr. Fox Takes It Slow
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Horror », Thrillers », Awards », Mystery & Suspense », Paramount », Sony », RumorMonger », Distribution », Fox Searchlight », Dreamworks », Peter Jackson », George Clooney », Harry Potter »
So in the midst of all the Avatar hullabaloo, we haven't yet addressed the major move on Friday of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island from this October 2nd to next February. Considering the negative connotations that tend to come with most films pushed back, many were quick to defend the move as a savvy business strategy for a pulpy-looking film that wasn't a primary contender all along.Fair enough. Plenty of studios made major shuffles to deal with post-strike gaps (Harry Potter, anyone?), and now they're concerned about being more fiscally responsible with what's to come. As THR's Steven Zeitchik pointed out, Paramount/Dreamworks already has two front-runners to work with between Up in the Air and The Lovely Bones, and somewhere between the reportedly sharp comedy and the prestige-heavy drama, a distinctly genre work like a Leonardo DiCaprio thriller does seem a bit like the odd man out.
In the wake of the move, two comedies -- Zombieland and Whip It -- have moved up their own October release dates to fill the void, and if there's any justice, we'll see Woody Harrelson accept a blood-splattered Oscar in DiCaprio's stead. And if Coming Soon and Box Office Mojo are to be believed, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox will now get a limited release on November 13th before going wide on the 25th, where I suspect it will still get crushed by the likes of Old Dogs across the Thanksgiving stretch. Pity.
Trailer Park: The Lovely, The Blind and The Complicated
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Horror », Trailer Trash », Family Films »
The Lovely Bones
In this new film from Peter Jackson a young girl is murdered and watches from the afterlife as her family struggles to come to terms with her death and to find her killer. Based on a bestselling book and starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon, this one hits theaters on December 11.
The Boys Are Back
Clive Owen plays a man whose wife dies suddenly and he finds himself the single father of a young boy and a teenager from a previous marriage. This one gets a limited release on September 25.
The Blind Side
Sandra Bullock stars in this film based on a true story about a well to do white family that takes in an African-American teenage boy and helps him reach his potential as a football player. Watch for this one on November 20.
Trailer for Peter Jackson's 'Lovely Bones' Looks Lovely Indeed
Filed under: Drama », Awards », Mystery & Suspense », Dreamworks », Steven Spielberg », Peter Jackson », Oscar Watch », Trailers and Clips »
Okay, so I might've just knocked Sandra Bullock for going after the Oscar gold, but here's The Lovely Bones, with a story I can get behind (Alice Sebold's best-selling tale of a young girl murdered and the aftermath she observes from the afterlife), a filmmaker I can get behind (Peter Jackson, scaling things back post-Lord of the Rings), an ensemble* I can get behind (Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, and the critically-cast Saoirse Ronan), and now a trailer I can get behind.Reading the novel earlier this year, I was struck by the simplest moments that captures almost too precisely how grief can change loved ones most unexpectedly, and while it seems that Jackson has certainly created a visually luscious realm for Ronan's character to inhabit and has retained the thrust of a somewhat supernatural murder mystery, part of what won me over was how Sebold's mystery took years to unfold, as the whole family comes to terms with the closure (or lack thereof) in their own personal ways.
If Jackson and company can balance the sprawling drama with the inherent whodunit (whydunit?) come December 11th, then The Lovely Bones could be lingering above all of the other contenders this coming awards season.
*I must confess a certain gratitude that Wahlberg replaced Ryan Gosling here. It's enough of an age difference to matter, let alone general temperament.
Comic-Con: An Evening with Peter Jackson
Read on beyond the jump for the full writeup of the event (which we were sadly not allowed to videotape), and to get all the goods. He also showed us four and a half minutes of footage from The Lovely Bones, which looks incredible. The trailer for that will be on iTunes on August 6th, and then will be playing in theaters in front of Julie & Julia. Jump through for all things Peter Jackson, including an update on all of his projects, and a rundown of his hobbies.
'The Lovely Bones' Has a Blank Poster
Filed under: Drama », Mystery & Suspense », Paramount », RumorMonger », Newsstand », Dreamworks », Peter Jackson », Movie Marketing », Religious », Images », Posters »
A bland teaser poster for The Lovely Bones has appeared on Film1 and, well, it's just not that exciting. No worries, though, this was only used to tease the film during an international trade show (CinemaExpo to be exact) -- hence the 2010 release date (it arrives stateside on December 11, 2009). But with the film due out this winter it's surprising that there's still so very little to go on.
Bones has been dogged by bad rumors from day one. Mark Wahlberg replaced Ryan Gosling in very short order, and Susan Sarandon had issues with her role as Grandma Lynn. Flicks.co.nz reported that production shut down as Peter Jackson and art director disagreed over how to best portray Heaven, a story that was later denied by DreamWorks and Paramount. The rumor machine really went into overdrive when the release date of the film was delayed by six months, but the studio also brushed off any concerns, assuring the world they had always intended to release the film December 11, 2009 ... just in time for awards consideration.
But hey, now you have a poster to go with those initial images, and it's the kind of marketing you can project all your wishes onto. You can read its blankness as a sign of a disorganized production that doesn't have its poster art sorted. You can read it as a sign that they're keeping it under wraps because it's something very special. Maybe you see your own version of heaven there. (Mine is a really good film.) It's all things to all people. Really!
[via Dread Central]
Bones has been dogged by bad rumors from day one. Mark Wahlberg replaced Ryan Gosling in very short order, and Susan Sarandon had issues with her role as Grandma Lynn. Flicks.co.nz reported that production shut down as Peter Jackson and art director disagreed over how to best portray Heaven, a story that was later denied by DreamWorks and Paramount. The rumor machine really went into overdrive when the release date of the film was delayed by six months, but the studio also brushed off any concerns, assuring the world they had always intended to release the film December 11, 2009 ... just in time for awards consideration.
But hey, now you have a poster to go with those initial images, and it's the kind of marketing you can project all your wishes onto. You can read its blankness as a sign of a disorganized production that doesn't have its poster art sorted. You can read it as a sign that they're keeping it under wraps because it's something very special. Maybe you see your own version of heaven there. (Mine is a really good film.) It's all things to all people. Really!
[via Dread Central]
'Lovely Bones' Pic Reveals Heaven ... and Magazine Logo
Filed under: Drama », Dreamworks », Peter Jackson », Movie Marketing », Images »
How do you imagine heaven? Peter Jackson's vision of the place may not be the same, based on an advance look published by Empire Magazine, and that's probably a good thing. The director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy has revealed a glimpse of his concept of the heavenly realm, from his upcoming movie The Lovely Bones, and it looks a lot like ... the Empire Magazine logo (if you click through to their site and enlarge the image; see part of it above). Yup, the Brit zine promises many more pictures in their upcoming issue, but for now all we have is one shot that makes heaven look like a studio with some clouds in the background.
If you haven't read the book, it's an absolutely devastating read, written by Alice Sebold from the point of view of a 14-year-old girl. Susie Salmon (played in the movie by Saoirse Ronan) narrates the tale from her own personal heaven: she was brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor / serial killer and has to come to terms with her own death while watching her family and friends deal with extreme emotional trauma. Susie's heaven is not like Warren Beatty and Buck Henry's Heaven Can Wait or, really, like most other heavens depicted in film, so this initial image is promising.
It's also in line with what Jackson told USA Today: "It is quite like the world of dream, using the magic of metaphor to convey Susie's psychological and emotional life." USA Today also has a different, exclusive image (see above), which shows a shadowy Stanley Tucci as the neighboring serial killer. Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, and Michael Imperioli also star. The Lovely Bones is due in theaters on December 11.
From Page to Screen: 'The Lovely Bones'
Filed under: Drama », Casting », Scripts », Peter Jackson », From Page to Screen »
First things first: "From Page to Screen" is a new column I'm trying here at Cinematical. Each week I'll discuss in detail a book that serves as the source material for either an upcoming or a past film adaptation. In the case of forthcoming films, I'll talk about the prospects for the adaptation: the challenges of bringing the particular book to the screen, the casting, the plot, the literary intangibles that so often wind up missing from the resulting movies. In the case of past films, I'll discuss the adaptation's approach to its source: what changed, what stayed the same, what worked and what didn't. Oh, and I'll actually have read the books.
I never tire of repeating my simple philosophy when it comes to adaptations: books are not movies. What works on the page won't always work on the screen. To demand total faithfulness to the book is folly, and will usually lead to a crappy movie. (This is also the case, by the way, for "true stories" and biopics -- people's lives, no matter how interesting, don't always, or even often, make for good films.) But that, I think, makes my task here more interesting rather than less. What does it take for an adaptation to work -- as a film in its own right, or as a translation of the source material?
The idea for this came from a number of discussions I've had here on the site. People are passionate about the books they love, and protective of them. The adaptation process is fun to talk about -- and even more fun when you've read the book and can have an informed conversation. I hope you'll join me, and I plan to be active in the comment threads.
Peter Jackson's 'The Lovely Bones' Delayed; Production Hurting?
Filed under: Drama », Mystery & Suspense », RumorMonger », Celebrities and Controversy », Peter Jackson », Religious »
Say it ain't so! I want this to be nothing more than hyperbole and ugly rumor mongering. But let's look at it anyway: According to Flicks.Co.NZ, there are troubling stories surrounding the set of Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. The first is a bit of a yawner. Reportedly, Jackson is having creative differences with his art director over the best way to portray Heaven -- a pretty key location in the book, if you remember. Things even reached a point where the production had to take a break as the disagreement was sorted out, according to reports.
But then came word (today) from The Bad and Ugly that the film has now been delayed, and instead of a March 13, 2009 release date, it's been pushed to Fall, 2009. No word on whether this was due to production issues or if they'd rather hold the film for a potential Oscar push.
Additionally, Susan Sarandon seemed like she was pretty iffy on the film and especially her performance while speaking to press at the London premiere of Speed Racer: "I play the comic relief, an alcoholic grandmother – my first grandma – but she doesn't really seem like a real grandmother because she has a lot of hair and jewelery and nails and liquor. I don't think I ever talk without a cigarette and a drink in my hand. Peter Jackson is really a nice guy and very interesting. It was really a very different way of working. We had a good time, I'm really curious to see what it's like because he kept pushing me to be more and more extreme and sometimes that's when you make your big mistakes so I'm not sure how it will come off -- it will be interesting to see it from the point of view of the audience."
Discuss: What Books Do You Want to See Made into Movies?
Filed under: Casting », Fandom », Scripts »
Not a whole lot going on in the way of movie news today (well, aside from that little New Line announcement ...), so I thought I'd write about books instead. I just finished reading Magnus Mills's The Restraint of Beasts, which supposedly has already been filmed by Pawel Pawlikowski but is apparently stuck in some kind of post-production limbo. The book is weirdly hilarious, enough so that I now want to read more by Mills. I'm now reading Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, which is hard to imagine as a movie, but I suppose it could be done if it was by the right director. Peter Jackson's upcoming adaptation of The Lovely Bones still looks promising, perhaps even more so now that Saiorse Ronan, who he wisely cast as Susie Salmon, is now an Oscar-nominated actress for her performance in Atonement, but we're going to have to wait until 2009 to see that one.
What books have you read of late that you think would make great films? Who would you want to see direct the adaptations and star in the main roles? Discuss away ...
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