‘Hunger Games’ Movie Moves Forward And We Get A ‘Mockingjay’ Sneak Peek

I was among the crowd of grown-up, professional but unabashed fans of the young-adult novel “The Hunger Games” gathered for cocktails at Scholastic headquarters on Wednesday night. And as excited as I was to meet author Suzanne Collins and congratulate her on being named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, I’d sort of gotten my hopes up that an advance copy of the third book, “Mockingjay,” would be slipped into my gift bag too. Ha. Scholastic publishes “Harry Potter” — they’re like the Capital with their secrets. I may just have to wait until August 24 like the rest of you.

I got another special treat that I can actually share with the rest of you: I spoke to two producers from Lionsgate who are making the “Hunger Games” movie. They said Suzanne had given them her draft of the script, which is now being revised by another screenwriter. They hope to be able to announce a director this summer, and go into production in January to release the film later in 2011. Can’t. Freaking. Wait.

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The science fiction roles of Dennis Hopper

Source io9.com

The great Dennis Hopper died today in Venice, California after battling cancer. Hopper was incredibly prolific and starred in numerous scifi films. Even if a film was flawed, Hopper’s mere presence made it memorable. Here are Hopper’s forays into scifi.

As neo-Nazi Peter Vollmer in The Twilight Zone (1963, “He’s Alive”).

MOVIE REVIEW: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Epic but Ephemeral!

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a movie filled with running, jumping, fighting [with fists, words, knives, snakes and darts – among other things]. Like Thief of Baghdad on acid, it is filled with visual wonders and feats of derring-do. It is, in fact, a swashbuckler that, CG aside, owes far more to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Errol Flynn than the videogame on which it is allegedly based. Spoiler: if you’re expecting War and Peace, stay home!

Prince Dastan [Jake Gyllenhaal] us the grown version of a street urchin who defended an equally young thief from the king’s soldiers – a feat that impressed the king so much that he adopted the urchin and treated him as he treated his two natural sons, Tus [Richard Coyle] and Garsiv [Tony Kebbell].

Now, the king’s brother and most trusted adviser, Nizam [Ben Kinglsey] claims to have found proof that the rulers of the Holy City of Alamut are making weapons and selling them to Persia’s enemy. He sends his army to discover the truth, but Garsiv persuades Tus to order a full-scale invasion – against Dastan’s counsel. In order to save lives, Dastan finds a way to get into the city and make it easy for the army to take over without [too] much bloodshed.

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FROM PAGE TO SCREEN: DAEMON (2012)

Ten years ago Daniel Saurez’s novel Daemon would have been classified sci-fi. Today it would probably be called a “techno thriller a la Tom Clancy” instead . . .

In first-time novelist Saurez’s debut novel a malicious virus – called a daemon in the book – designed by a mega-rich game designer in the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs income bracket named Matthew Sobol is spread over the Internet. The “virus” goes about killing two employees of Sobol’s company. One employee is killed by the virus requesting a work order over the Internet to span a steel cable in the path of his regular commute by motorbike. Sneaky.

But the virus has bigger digital fish to fry than company employees who must be silenced.

Paramount acquired the rights to Saurez’s novel upon its publication last year and it is set for a 2012 release date. No director or stars have been announced as yet. The book is followed up by a sequel titled Freedom that is set to be published in April 2010. This is rather unfortunate. Having read too many part ones in various science fiction / fantasy trilogies lately we were kind of hoping for a standalone novel for a change when we picked up Daemon at our local bookstore.

Read more HERE

What did you think about today’s movie news? Are you excited about the update on ‘The Hunger Games’ movie? Were you a fan of Dennis Hopper, which was your favorite movie of his? Have you seen Prince of Persia, what did you think of it? Lastly, have you read Daemon, will the movie be good?

‘Twilight Zone’ Episodes That Should Be Made Into Movies

via starpulse

This weekend Cameron Diaz and James Marsden star in the suspense thriller “The Box,” but what not many people know is that the movie is based on an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” It was originally taken from a short story written by Richard Matheson, and the movie might follow the TV episode or the original Matheson script; you’ll just have to see the movie to find out. Still, it started us thinking on “The Twilight Zone” and how some of the most memorable episodes could surely be lengthened into full length features. The stories are scary, sad, odd, fantastical, and tragic; just the kind of scripts Hollywood is looking for! Here’s a look at episodes from “The Twilight Zone” that should be made into movies.

Read more here…

Mandalay Adapting Online Sci-Fi Thriller Novel Machine Man

via firstshowing.net

While this is yet another announcement of a project involving an adaptation of a novel, the circumstances surrounding the novel in question are quite intriguing.

As part of an interactive literary experiment in which suggestions from readers are integrated into the plot as the story continues to unfold, author Max Barry has been writing the thriller Machine Man by posting one page of the novel online each day. Now Variety reports that Mandalay Pictures wants to build a movie around the pseudo-choose-your-own-adventure novel about a tech engineer who replaces parts of his body with titanium upgrades of his own design. Sounds cool.

Read more here…

There are many Twilight episodes that would be perfect for a feature film, such as  ”The Eye of the Beholder” (1962) Season 2, Episode 42, whereby Janet Tyler has undergone her eleventh treatment in an attempt to look like everybody else. The details of the treatment are not given, but Tyler is first shown with her head completely bandaged, so her face cannot be seen. She is described as being “not normal” by the nurses and doctor, whose own faces are always in shadows or off-camera.

If you have never had the opportunity to watch this episode, you should check it out.

As far as a Machine Man adaptation for film…it fits right in with all the other ‘superhero’ movies as of late, so I can see it fairing well at the box office.

What Twilight Zone episode do you think would be perfect for film adaptation? How do feel about Machine Man as a movie?  Do you think superhero flicks have worn out their welcome?

The twilight Zone is still going strong:

(AssociatedPress)

On a Friday night in October 1959, Americans began slipping into a dimension of imagination as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. They’ve really never returned.

“The Twilight Zone” has resonated with viewers since — with memorable stories carrying universal messages about society’s ills and the human condition. The show’s popularity endures in many facets of American pop culture.

Like the time-space warps that anchored so many Twilight Zone plots, Rod Serling’s veiled commentary remains as soul-baring today as it did in 1959. Anniversary observances are planned this week in New York in Serling’s hometown of Binghamton and at Ithaca College, where he taught.

Source

I still hear friends and family mention episodes of The Twilight Zone. It’s a cult hit.

Do you like the Twilight Zone? What about it makes you continue to like it years later?

L.J. Smith, author of Vampire Diaries responds to a question from the fans:

“When you’re writing a book and making up characters, do you feel like you become that character, as well as that character becomes a part of you?”

(simonlittlegreen.com)

Oh, absolutely! I hope they don’t take me away in a straitjacket for answering this, but when I have a particularly dramatic scene and I’m really into the book, I act it out, playing all the various parts. (I only do this when there’s nobody else in the house.) That’s how I get some of my best lines from both heroines and villains. At the time of creating the scene I am the heroine or villain. And the books I consider my better books come to me as if I were listening to them, not writing them.

More here

I love it when authors respond to questions from fans. And I have wondered the same thing….do authors put a little of themselves in a character? or family and friends?

Do you wonder about characters in books? What do you think of LJ Smith’s answer?