james frey Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Even Michael Bay needs a break from explosions, robots, and Megan Fox. As Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was demolishing the box office, DreamWorks and Bay bought up the rights to James Frey's I Am Number 4. Variety now reports that they've secured the rights, and have now set Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to work on penning the script. Bay is attached as producer, but is still dancing around the idea of directing the film for DreamWorks.

I Am Number 4 is the first book in a series of six. It's centered around a group of nine aliens who flee their destroyed planet, and crash on Earth. They disguise themselves as teenagers (of course -- why would you be a supermodel or a sports star when you could go back to high school?), and Number 4 realizes they are still being hunted by those who destroyed their homeworld. There's some dashes of the television show Roswell there, and probably a few dozen other sci-fi teen tales.

The teen-out-of-water story of Number 4 is familiar territory for Millar and Gough, who are probably best known for their stint on Smallville, though they also had a hand in Spider-Man 2. What I find the most remarkable about is the continued success of Frey. Who says lying about your memoirs will damage your writing career and option prospects? This is America, baby!

Oprah Winfrey might be one of the most powerful women in the world, but one thing's for sure: the gal has no talent for spotting literary scams. Variety has reported that Herman Rosenblat's Oprah-endorsed Holocaust memoir, Angel at the Fence, has been pulled from publication by Berkley Books just weeks before the book was scheduled to hit the shelves. But that's not all -- plans for a $25 million film based on the book have been compromised following allegations by scholars, friends and family members that Rosenblat's tale was fabricated (New Republic has the whole story over at their website).

According to Rosenblat's tale, his family was forced into the Schlieben Labor Camp in Germany, where he supposedly met his "angel" -- a young Jewish girl who lived outside of the camp and met Rosenblat at the fence to give him apples and bread, and he never learned her name. After the war, he relocated to New York and on a double date finally met the young girl who had kept him alive during his time at the labor camp. The two eventually fell in love, and it was that love story that earned them the spot the Oprah show (twice!) where she referred to their tale as "the single greatest love story" she had encountered in her 22 years on the show. Oprah has since declined to comment on the current controversy.

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 ...

Memoirist J.T. Leroy, an HIV-positive ex-hustler who survived an indescribably awful childhood to become a best-selling author, was outed recently as a completely fictional creation dreamed up by a real writer named Laura Albert. (Neither of whom should be confused with author James Frey, who also lied about his life but stopped short of making himself up.) One of "Leroy's" books (really written by Albert), The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, was turned into a movie in the wake of the frenzied, fawning reaction that greeted its publication; starring and directed by Asia Argento, the film is set to open in the US next week. In an effort to embrace the hoax that is making them look like fools, Palm Pictures changed the film's tagline to "Behind the greatest hoax of our time is the heartbreaking story that started it all." Oh, the clever.

Following that release (for which I assume Albert is getting paid - she's completely cleaning up here), The Weinstein Company has announced its intention to make a film about Leroy (him/her)self. Written by Captain Mauzner, the man who penned Factory Girl, the film will be based on Warren St. John's New York Times articles that exposed Leroy as a fake, so it'll be less a biopic than an expose. Thought Heart sounds humiliating to watch (A wrenching bio about the writer's horrible upbring that's entirely made up? No thanks.), there's a lot of potential in a fact-based Leroy project. If nothing else, it'll give Mauzner a great opportunity to frolic in a little bit of literary cloak-and-dagger and, if he does his job well, it'll be a great ride for viewers, as well.

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?

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, 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]