In watching the three Bourne movies in close succession over the past week, Richard and I spotted a neat thing we had missed when viewing them at the theater: the final scene of the second movie, The Bourne Supremacy, is also the climax of the third movie, The Bourne Ultimatum, with a completely different dramatic purpose. I asked Elizabeth if she could think of any books-in-series that worked this way, and she came up with two related but inexact examples: that it wasn't until Lloyd Alexander had submitted The High King to his editor Ann Durrell that she told him he had missed a book and sent him off to write Taran Wanderer; and that Jan Karon was forced after the fact by fans to plug a plot hole in her Mitford series. Any others?
How the heck do you wring two movies out of The Hobbit?
Pursuant to my recent post about sequels, I see from A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy that not only are Ellen Emerson White's old books about The President's Daughter being republished, she's rewriting them to bring them in line with the most recent book, Long May She Reign, which is set in the present day but picks up the action from the end of the last book, Long Live the Queen.
Phew. If only they could do this with the old Magic Attic books, which apparently invite readers to join a fan club by calling an 800 number which time and fate have transformed into a phone sex line. And I wonder what's happened to 537-3331, Amy's phone number in I Am the Cheese. If you figured out the area code you could find yourself talking to "Amy's father," aka Robert Cormier. Or so I was told.
Monica Edinger has been hosting a lively discussion stemming from Jonathan Hunt's Horn Book article, "Epic Fantasy Meets Sequel Prejudice." Sequels sure do pose questions to reviewers: can you fairly evaluate volume one of something when volume two is meant to finish the job? What if you've skipped volume one, only to find that volume two has made it worthwhile? Or one was terrific, but two doesn't do it any favors?
I once had to review a volume three of something where two had not been published (in this country). And there's the recent example of Ellen Emerson White's new Long May She Reign, sequel to an out-of-print series whose most recent entry was published in 1989 . . . .
Inkspell
Author: Cornelia Funke
Publisher: The Chicken House
ISBN-10: 0439554004
ISBN-13: 978-0439554008
Imagine a world within the pages of a book. Imagine blue fairies, a world with men made of glass, a world where women have no rights. Imagine a man who can make flowers out of fire, who can speak to the fire and command it. Imagine that words come to life, stories become real, that someone with a powerful voice saying the right words can talk you right into that world and that world is very real.
Cornelia Funke first introduced the Inkworld in her very popular Inkheart (Scholastic, 2003) and I like so many booklovers who read it, fell completely in love. Inkspell is the unplanned sequel in what is now to be a trilogy and I for one am thrilled.
Inkspell is the story of Meggie, daughter to Mo the bookbinder (also known as Silvertongue) and Resa who was trapped in Inkheart. Meggie is fascinated by her mute mother’s written tales of the Inkworld and of the characters therein. Mo is frightened for his daughter and tries to discourage her from being so fascinated by it. But there’s no stopping Meggie when she wants something and she is determined to keep her dreams of the Inkworld.
Then there’s Dustfinger and Farid. Dustfinger is the fire-eater, the man who can command the fire to become flowers. Farid is a boy who was read out of yet another book. They are both trapped in Meggie’s modern world. Dustfinger has been trapped ten years and is dying to go home. He’s finally found someone with the power to read him back and even though Farid thinks it’s dangerous, he gets this person, Orpheus to read him back and it works. Dustfinger is suddenly home!
But Orpheus has ulterior motives and brings danger to Meggie’s family’s door. The evil witch Mortola and the equally evil Basta are back and they have horrible things planned for Meggie and Silvertongue.
A lot going on? Wait, it gets even better. Meggie is determined to go visit the Inkworld and Farid is equally determined to find Dustfinger. Between them they find a way and soon they too are magically transported to the Inkworld and set off in search of Dustfinger and Fenoglio, the writer of Inkheart. Meanwhile, Mo’s heart is broken because he’s lost his daughter, the family is in danger, Dustfinger encounters his own set of problems and the story is taking on a life of its own – out of Fenoglio’s control.
Inkspell is wonderful! The characters, the names, the worlds, the stories within stories, everything about it is fantastic. There are names like Cheeseface, Clouddancer, Her Ugliness… There’s fire honey that gives Dustfinger his ability to talk to fire, the glass men sharpen quills, there is an illuminator and descriptions of his art. Oh this is a book after any book lover’s heart. Highly recommended and in breathless anticipation of the sequel.
As Silvertongue says, "Stories never really end, Meggie, even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page."
I was wondering the same thing. It's not that long a book, and I don't think it's that complex that would require stretching to two movies...
It won't be two films from the same book. It's going to be 'The Hobbit' and (oh dear) 'A sequel'. I take that to mean PJ and co. will be writing some more jolly adventures for Bilbo and his spiffing magic ring...
>> How the heck...
There: Part I of The Hobbit Saga
Back Again: Part II of the Hobbit Saga
how do you make a two-part HOBBIT ? the same way you make a book/game construct to exploit the already-hooked POTTER readers with something "just as good" - that is, having a commercial instinct
The Hobbit! The book may be as short as its namesake, but it is chockablock loaded. From the vaults of sixth grade memory come tumbling, in rough order of appearance, Gandalf, dwarves, trolls, mountains, goblins, Gollum, the Ring, and so on, and that’s not halfway through the book. I could go on. I couldn’t tell you what I read last night, but I can do chapter and verse of the Hobbit. Anyway, two movies, easy. Which must have lead New Line to the natural question, why settle for one cash cow, when you can have two? I’m only surprised there won’t be three.
How about:
First Movie:
What Ever Happened to Lyra, Roger, Billy, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel and Bilbo?
Second Movie:
The Wrath of Gollum
How the heck do you do any less?
Most movies made from novels are sad, truncated affairs: who hasn't had the experience of seeing a film made from a favorite book and missing the excised secondary characters and plotlines?
The very best adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, for example, isn't any of the theatrical film versions but the 6-part BBC miniseries. There was enough time in that format to do the novel something like justice.
By contrast, John Huston's The Dead has all the time in the world to explore its material, a short story.
I've long thought short stories made better bases for film because you could get through the plot and still leave time for all the visual exploration film does best.
So I say hooray to this news, especially if it's Peter Jackson at the helm. I didn't agree with all of his LOTR choices but in terms of filming the otherwise unfilmable he did an amazing job.
Another obvious example of the short-story source material leaving the director ample room to explore: Brokeback Mountain.
Sorry for the double-post, but couldn't leave that one out...