nora ephron Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Movies with food-related themes at their core have always appealed to me: I like eating, I like watching movies, why not combine the two? Julie & Julia does so quite deftly, resulting in a lighthearted comedy that's very easy to like. And these days, a movie with intelligent humor and masterful comic performances is hard to find, so that should be enough to satisfy me. And it very nearly was, although I didn't feel quite appeased afterwards.

Nora Ephron directed the comedy, adapting two stories and squashing them together: Julie Powell cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 2002 as detailed on her blog and in her book Julie and Julia; and Julia Child going from bored housewife in Paris to cookbook co-author, as detailed in the book My Life in France.

Sometimes being a journalist is a pretty sweet gig -- literally. Bear in mind that before the folks at Sony filled the bellies of a handful of film and foodie writers, I had already written about Julie and Julia for another publication in anticipation of a strong movie written and directed by one of Hollywood's funniest and smartest rom-com directors, Nora Ephron, starring two formidable talents, Amy Adams and Meryl Streep.

Julie and Julia is two parallel stories about blogger-turned-memoirist Julie Powell and her hero Julia Child. Powell, an NYC writer fed up with her day job and yearning for a way to get back to her creative writing roots, starts The Julie/Julia Project, a blog chronicling her adventures cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's classic cook book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Streep transmogrifies into Julia Child for her half of the story, which follows her transformation from a French foodie in Paris to chef and author as detailed in her bio My Life in France, which she co-wrote with Alex Prud'homme.

The event I attended included cooking demos by chefs from Le Cordon Bleu and Julie Powell, juicy details from food stylist Susan Bode, and a roundtable with Ephron and Powell. And food. Let's not forget the food. Questions and answers from Nora and Julie, plus an exclusive photo from the movie, after the jump.

Let me make this clear: when I say that I'm compiling a list of the most contrived rom-com scenarios, I'm not saying that they're automatically the worst -- although a glance at the titles doesn't exactly stray far from that correlation. Tomorrow's The Proposal finds Sandra Bullock forcing Ryan Reynolds into marriage for the sake of holding off immigration authorities and keeping her/their jobs (I guess it's not too soon to remake Green Card and Picture Perfect after all), so we're talking about seven plot points along those lines of high-concept, close-quarters thinking, with some (dis)honorable mentions along the way...

Anyone who has seen Big Night knows Stanley Tucci is great in films about food. Sure, that movie was actually about grander things than the culinary arts, but it is best remembered for its timpano and other traditional Italian treats. Now, Tucci will co-star in another foodie movie, and just as in Big Night, he'll be leaving the cooking to his partner. According to Variety, the actor has been cast as Julia Child's husband, Paul, in Julie & Julia. Obviously this rules out the original theory that the famous cookbook author and cooking show host would merely show up in the movie as an apparition. The trade reports that the movie, based on Julie Powell's food blog and her book "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen", will have an additional focus on Julia Child's years in Paris during the '40s and '50s. Following her service in the OSS (precursor to the CIA) during WWII, Julia met and married wealthy diplomat Paul Cushing Child, who introduced her to fine cuisine and financially supported her ventures as a chef.

As we've previously learned, 14-time-Oscar-nominee Meryl Streep will be playing Julia. The addition of Tucci should be interesting to fans of The Devil Wears Prada, as the actor played Streep's co-worker in that film. The other title character in Julie & Julia will be played by ever-rising star Amy Adams, who is currently charming audiences in Enchanted (for which she's also guaranteed a slot in the Golden Globe nominations, to be announced this week). The movie follows Julie, a "frustrated temp secretary who embarks on a yearlong culinary quest to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." She chronicles her trials and tribulations in a blog that catches on with the food crowd." The screenplay was written by chick-flick master Nora Ephron, who is also directing.

It's the first day of November and time to start thinking about Thanksgiving. But more importantly it's time to be thinking about food. And cooking. And Julia Child, of course. So, what better time for news that a Julia Child movie is on it's way? According to Variety, Columbia Pictures is adapting Julie Powell's book Julia and Julie: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, about the author's year-long attempt to cook all the recipes in Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and detail it in her food blog (and then book). In the movie, which will simply be titled Julia and Julie, Powell will be portrayed by Amy Adams and Child will be played by Meryl Streep. Chick-flick queen Nora Ephron, who needs a comeback following Lucky Numbers and Bewitched, is writing the script and will direct.

Now, Powell never met Child, so the latter character will have to be some kind of apparition for the former. Like a culinary guide. This makes sense, because it just wouldn't be cinecomatic to show Powell simply reading a cook book and then making dishes. But will it still just be a bunch of cooking scenes in a tiny apartment with Amy Adams and a distinctly accented Meryl Streep chatting in the little kitchen? Even with Streep overdoing the part -- a la Dan Aykroyd -- that can't be too interesting. Then again, between Waitress and Ratatouille this year, and movies like Big Night in the past, I do get excited about films showcasing great food. Amazon.com describes the book as being a "masterful medley of Bridget Jones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate," so if that sounds good to you, look for Julia and Julie sometime in late 2008 or early 2009.

Already contracted to adapt Wendelin Van Draanen's Flipped for the big screen, Nora Ephron -- who is writing the screenplay with her sister Delia -- is now in talks to the direct the film for indie production company, East of Doheny. The film, based on one of those ubiquitous young-adult novels, is about "the relationship of two kids who lock horns at age 7 and share their first kiss at 13." While Variety's tepid description of the book's plot makes it sounds sort of like a more elaborate My Girl, expect without the bees, the reviews at Amazon suggest that it's actually pretty wonderful. For example, Juli Baker (the girl half of the almost-couple) "devoutly believes in three things: The sanctity of trees ... , the wholesomeness of the eggs she collects from her backyard flock of chickens, and that someday she will kiss Bryce Loski." Call me crazy, but a seven-year-old that set in her ways is someone I want to get to know. The distinct, likable voices of the kids are apparently key to the book's success, so the test for the Ephrons will be to successfully transfer them to the screenplay. (Of course, the fact that Nora specializes in sap is not very encouraging, but there's always hope, right? I mean, she and Delia did write Bewitched.)