Christopher Walken has signed on to star in the new Jungle Book movie re-make.
The Oscar-winning actor will play the orangutan King Louie in Disney’s live action adaptation. TheaterMania reports that the movie will be released in October 2015.
As we previously reported, Iron Man director Jon Favreau will helm this project. The cast also includes Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, and Scarlett Johansson. Who would you cast as Rudyard Kipling’s orphan “man cub” character, Mowgli?
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Girls actress Allison Williams (pictured, via) has landed the titular role in the Peter Pan musical.
According to TheaterMania, this musical adaptation opened on Broadway back in 1954. Since then, several female actors have stepped into the shoes of the “boy who wouldn’t grow up” including Sandy Duncan and Cathy Rigby.
NBC plans to air the live telecast on December 04, 2014. As we reported earlier, Oscar winner Christopher Walken will play the villainous pirate, Captain Hook. Who would you cast as Wendy Darling?
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NBC plans to adapt J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan as a live musical.
Academy Award winner Christopher Walken has landed the role of villain Captain Hook. Hollywood veterans Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have signed on as producers.
Here’s more from The Hollywood Reporter: “Based on James M. Barrie’s revered book and musical, NBC’s new take, which hails from Universal Television, comes after the network in 1955 staged a live broadcast of the Broadway production of Peter Pan that opened in 1954. The show, starring Tony winners Mary Martin and Cyril Richard drew 65 million viewers — the highest rating for a single night program at the time.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has been cast as Plutarch Heavensbee in the Catching Fire movie adaptation.
In The Hunger Games film sequel, Hoffman’s character serves as Head Gamemaker; the leader who oversees the design and management of Panem’s yearly battle to the death.
Here’s more from the release: “The actor and filmmaker just wrapped a Broadway run as Willy Loman in the revival of Death of a Salesman for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. He will next be seen in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and the indie film A Late Quartet alongside Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken.”
continued…
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Fun Fact: Remember that Re-Seussification Project I posted? And how it happened to come out the day before the birthday of the good doctor himself? Total coincidence. I had no idea. At the same time The Lorax has come out in theaters. Know how I know? Because every other minute there’s an ad on my television featuring the Lorax. Seems he’ll sell anything these days. Chaps my hide. Chaps Stephen Colbert’s too, I’m happy to report.
Full credit to this next link. This compilation of Judy Blume pop culture references has earned my respect, partly because it included the two I already knew of (Sawyer reading her book on LOST and the Saturday Night Live skit). Very fun to watch.
Which, naturally, leads to this. And I suppose it isn’t workplace appropriate. But it is sweet.
That was recorded almost half a year ago. I assume they’ve met by now, yes? I mean, she is married to a Newbery winner.
I think this is applicable to our usual subject matter today. After all, I suspect that there are a few authors out there for kids that still use typewriters. I used one as recently as 2006 in conjunction with my job. Plus this is a great little piece.
Thanks to Playing By the Book for the link.
I’ve shown the video of Christopher Walken reading The Three Little Pigs before. This one, though, is new to me. We never see him who I’m not wholly convinced it’s actually him. It’s a possibility, though. A distinct possibility.
Thanks again to Playing By the Book for the link.
And finally, for our off-topic video, what can I say?
Baby otters.
Thanks to Dan McCoy for the link.
Happy National Poetry Month!
Can a headless horseman read poetry? Actor Christopher Walken once played Ichabod Crane‘s nemesis in Tim Burton‘s adaptation of Sleepy Hollow. The video embedded above features Walken reading Edgar Allan Poe‘s The Raven.
Poe fans will see the poet on the big screen in January 2012. The Raven, starring John Cusack, just finished shooting and is currently in post-production.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
The top illustration is by Arthur Rackham. It's an unfinished illustration for Sleeping Beauty. I think it's an interesting example of how he worked and how much of his work is spontaneous. He seems here to have done a loose pencil drawing and slowly be building it up and finishing it with ink. Here's what he said about his working methods: " I dash off an idea which comes to me and often very vaguely. I build on it as I go on, and the idea develops as I work.I always, however , plan before hand and I always use models."
The bottom picture is a birthday card I did for a friend's birthday yesterday.
A little while ago I asked everyone to give me some ideas for books to read and I really appreciate all the responses I got. I thought I'd publish some results for everyone to see.
Frank suggested Yankee Doodle's cousin by Anne Malcolm and Robert McCloskey. The Family Treasury Of Children's Stories edited by Pauline Rush and illustrated by Donald Sibley.
Gretel recommends The Brave little Taylor by the Dugins, Frog Belly Rat Bone by Timothy Ering Basil, The Widow's Broom by Chris VanAllsburg, Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, Moon Dog and 25 December Street both y Wayne Anderson and Helen Ward. Mary Beth suggested Enid Blyton and Edward Eager. And Mika, can you email that illustrators name, my Japanese is non existent.
So, I was working on a ''Fine'' Style and realized that things were getting boring and over drawn. The sketch looked better than the final piece was looking. How do you retain some of the immediacy of your sketch and do polished looking work? I like Arthur Rackham more than Edmund Dulac and I think it's because Rackham's stuff was always immediate while Dulac redrew his pictures quite heavily and his stuff ends up kind of stiff. So now I'm going to do a painting that has minimal underdrawing and see how that goes. The above drawing is from my sketchbook, I did it over Christmas.
P.S. I'm listening to the radio and Joachim's Violin Concerto # 2 in D minor is on, the violinist is Rachel Barton Pine and it's made me rethink the question : Is illustration/drawing a composition only or is it also a performance?
This is another scrap paper picture. I based her on a Rackham picture. It's mostly watercolour and ink, with some touches of gouache. I like the restrained colouring, my work lately has been very intensely coloured and I prefer this subtler type of colouring. I think I'll try and return to some subtler colouring. I find that when I put less emphasis on the colours, the drawing comes out more.
Happy New Year Eric... interesting questions :) I find that immediacy of the sketch is a hard one to capture as i am a bit of a "worrier" with the paintbrush and find it can deaden the work. I think that some element that is a little out of your control keeps that unpredictable element in the work - for me this has been the wanderings of watercolour as against oils or the outcome from a printing press.
I agree about preferring Rackham too :)
Best wishes for a happy and busy 2008 :)
I like the style and looseness of the sketch Eric.
Real fresh looking.
I'd say that it has to be part performance and that would be where style comes into play. How the same composition, done in a different style, or by another artist changes the outcome. Like a cover tune.
Does that make sense?
It's a tough balance to strike...but I always thought you did it so well! The new pirate paintings to me are a perfect example. I haven't mastered that yet either...
I think illustration and drawing are both things. Putting your ideas together well, and thrilling people with the way you choose to execute them.
See you soon!!! :)
Thanks Rima! Watercolour does tend to keep things loose, but I use gouache which can get too tight sometimes, I'd really like to retain some of the freshness of a sketch.
That makes total sense, Frank. I've thought of it in those terms as well. Thanks for your thoughts.
Thanks Ambera! I'd say you're pretty close to doing that, especially in the last few months.
Hi Eric,
Yes I agree with you.. it is very hard to retain de wonderful quality of the sketch in a final drawing. Don't know why that is.. maybe the line is more alive when is connected to the thought that is bringing it to life, you know?
I prefert to use a lightbox to transfer my drawings rather than the other transfer method of rubbing pencil. I am starting to use my underline sketch in the lightbox as a guide and trying to draw it again rather that trace. Think is working better for me.. although it is not as great as the initial sketch.
I love your sketch by the way, the boy has a wonderful expression...
I think illustration is a performance where composition plays an important role. It can have rythm and movement like in music and can transport you to places far beyond your imagination.. ahh.. I truly love doing it :o)
Thanks Alicia! I've never used a light box, I've always used the tissue-transfer method. I think I'll look into it.
I love that you say it's a perfomance with an important element of composition, I think you're on to something.
I see a sketch as tool on the way to a painting - I used to worry about how 'nice' my sketches looked, but now I am too interested in getting things right to worry about what it looks like! For me, it's just getting the idea down, sorting out the light/shade before getting the painting done. Once I get into the actual artwork I can relax, becasue I know where everything is going.
Thanks, Gretel! So your sketch serves more as a map to the final piece? It's interesting how varied the purposes for sketching are. 'To draw does not simply mean to reproduce contours; the drawing does not simply consist in the idea: the drawing is even the expression, the interior form, the plan, the model.Look what remains after that! The drawing is three fourths and a half of what constitutes painting. If I had to put a sign over my door [to the atelier], I would write: School of drawing, and I’m certain that I would create painters.' - Ingres,
Yes, I would say that the sketch is a preparation, (or map, if you will) and if it ends up looking halfway decent, that is a bonus! Once I have the sketch nailed, then I know the painting, as yer man Ingres says, is more than half way there.
I also avoid taking notice of other proclamations of what one should or should not be doing art-wise, as I have found that the best way is to find one's own path. (But then I am a bit of an anarchist!)
HA! I know-I'm obsessed with everyone elses thoughts. One thing is I like to be suprised by the final painting, so I don't want everything in the drawing. That's the problem. Do you transfer your sketches?
I am a Cancerian and I don't like surprises, especially in my paintings! :) I usually scan my sketches into Photoshop and bang them up to size, and print out the result - then I quite often do some last minute alterations (in biro, very un-artistic) or add something - and then use a lightbox to draw it lightly out onto the watercolour paper. I think because I am confident with my paints, and do lots of light, loose washes, I don't end up with over laboured work, but I have a tight style anyway, so it doesn't necessarily matter. My God Eric, you are actually making me think about what I do, I don't know if this is good or bad...
Um....Sorry? Your work is lovely Gretel, as long as you keep making art it doesn't matter what you think about.
Frazetta would do very rough sketches and color layouts, and then after minimal preparation would begin work on the painting...he said that the key was not to waste all his energy on the prep work. I think perhaps focusing on the basic composition in sketches, and then saving the rest for working on the final product is the key.
Congrats on the contract with Raincoast by the way...it makes me feel wonderful that your amazing talent is being recognized in such a way.
Thanks Bruce! That's a good point about Frazetta, working on the composition.