10 Things Parents Should Know About The Lightning Thief
By Doug Cornelius at Wired
Over the past few weeks I have been reading the Percy Jackson books to my son. We started with The Lightning Thief, the first book in the series. He quickly became a fan. (Okay, I like reading them to him as much as he likes hearing them.) They are a worthy reading choice for those of you who have finished with the Harry Potter books.
[Spoiler Alert: I’m only going to mention things that I think are obvious from the trailers. Sorry if I get that wrong.]
Like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson is a misunderstood youth who does not realize his powers. It turns out the Percy is a hero: half-man and half-god. The gods of Olympus are still around. You just need to take the elevator in the Empire State Building to the 600th floor. Poseidon had an affair with Percy’s mother and is Percy’s absent father.
Will my kids like it? “It was good, but a little scary and a little loud.” (The review from my young son.) When I looked around, all of the kids were enjoying the movie.
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Avatar, The Novel
by Camilo Rayo at The Celebrity Cafe
James Cameron, director of the highest grossing film of all time, Avatar, is currently working on a prequel to the movie in book form. According to the film’s producer, Jon Landau, Cameron’s debut novel will “give a foundation for the world.”
Speaking to the folks at MTV News, Landau explained the decision. “[We] won’t have time to do [these stories] in the movie, or maybe in sequels.”
Landau, who hopes the novel will be released by the end of the year, explained that the book will dive into the roots of the story of the film, explaining aspects such as the “schoolhouse and Sigourney [Weaver’s character] teaching at the schoolhouse; Jake on Earth and his Backstory and how he came here; [the death of] Tommy, Jakes Brother; and Colonel Quaritch, how he ended up there and all that.”
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Is Chris Pine Captain America?
By Robert Falconer at Cinema Spy
Yesterday afternoon, CinemaSpy received an email from a tipster claiming to be well-connected within the Paramount hierarchy, and alleging that they had info about the casting of the lead for The First Avenger: Captain America.
Now, typically when we get this sort of stuff (not that we get it a lot, mind you) and the info is as big a story as this one, our BS meters start to sound off. We’re not trying to engage in false self-deprecation here — we have some great sources, but most of them are in Hollywood North, not Hollywood Central Casting — but our first thought is, “Why are you telling anyone this?” Our second thought is, “Why are you telling us this?”
Looking at IMDB Pro, there does seem to be a window in Pine’s film schedule right now. Unstoppable is in post production, and The Art of Making Money is still in development. Star Trek and the next Jack Ryan film are merely in the scripting phase and not due till 2012, so the timing seems as though it might support this information.
An Avatar prequel sounds interesting. I finally saw Avatar (!) and when I mentioned the possibility of sequels the first thing out of my boyfriend’s mouth was “Maybe they’ll make a prequel”. So I imagine this will do very well. And Chris Pine seems busy, I had no idea he was going to be the new Jack Ryan too.
Have you seen Percy Jackson yet? What did you think? What do you think of Chris Pine as Captain America?
