Nice movie poster, right? Wouldn’t look too shabby in your local cineplex. Well, don’t get too excited quite yet. It seems that Sean Astin (a.k.a. Sam from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) is raising money to start production on this film, to be shot in Denmark. Lowry reports on the process, though she is understandably leery since she saw what happened with The Giver film. Which is to say, not much. Thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.
There’s nothing like going viral to sell a book or two. Though The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy came out a good three years ago, thanks to the 90-Second Newbery film of A Wrinkle in Time it caught the attention of Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing. And I like to write reviews, but I feel true green-eyed review envy when I read someone write a descriptive sentence like, “An epic novel of exotic pie, Götterdämmerung, mutants, evil, crime, and musical theater, Odd-Fish is a truly odd fish, as mannered and crazy as an eel in a tuxedo dropped down your trousers during a performance of The Ring Cycle.” Geez, Cory. Make it hard for the rest of us, why doncha? In any case, you Chicago folks might want to attend Mr. Kennedy’s Odd-Fish Art Show to be held in a creepy old mansion. He says of one room, “full of antique printing presses, priceless art, unclassifiable knickknacks, and so much garbage it’s like the trash compactor scene from Star Wars.” He ain’t wrong either.
- For some reason I feel inclined to keep a close eye on children’s book apps these days. I don’t know exactly why this is. I just have a feeling they’re going to be more important than we initially expect later on down the road. It’s hard to figure out what’s actually important and what’s just self-promoting dribble, though. I mean, I’m pretty sure the new Kirkus App Discovery Engine is important, but it’s hard to say. Monica Edinger, therefore, did me a bit of a favor when she presented her recent round-up of app news on her Huffington Post blog. Makes for good reading.
- Recently Mr. Mo Willems had his picture taken. It was not the first time. It was not even the first time he’d been to that particular photographer. But it was the first time I’d been made aware of the photographer Marty Umans. Mr. Umans happens to have photographed quite a few children’s literary folks, including Mr. Mo, Harry Bliss, Raul Colon, Randall de Seve, and more. You can see a whole host of them here. Thanks to Mr. Mo for the link.
- In case you missed it, Travis Jonker does 7 Comments on Fusenews: Time to class the joint up, last added: 3/1/2011
Hey, thanks for the mention, Betsy! When I first saw the Boing Boing review I dashed upstairs from the basement, laptop in my trembling hands, before I could even read it, to show it to my wife so we could read it together. It was, dare I say, like that classic scene in “That Thing You Do!” when everyone in the band is ecstatically running around town while their song is actually playing on the radio . . .
And now that I’ve revealed myself to be a complete dork, I will quietly withdraw.
That Number the Stars news is very interesting and exciting. Sounds like Sean Astin is very committed to the story.
Interesting about a possible Number the Stars movie – that is such a perfectly crafted book, wonder what the movie will be like.
And thanks so much for the shoutout for our Elevensies book giveaway.
Thanks for the mention, but I believe the correct order is Mac Barnett/Eli Horowitz/Scott Teplin/Adam Rex. If I had drawn all those complicated interiors I’d want top billing over the guy who just did a bunch of little portraits, though Scott’s a peach and would probably never mention it.
I LOVE Turkish Delight! The first sample I ever tasted was chocolate-covered rose-flavored Turkish Delight, and I could easily be captured by the White Witch with it as bait! I have since had non-chocolate-covered and different flavors and still love it. My husband would buy packages any time he had a trip to England, which was quite frequently back in those days. When we saw the first Narnia movie, we smuggled some Turkish Delight into the theater!
James Kennedy, you made me really bizarrely happy with that comment. Just so you know.
I have always thought that Turkish Delight was the same as Turkish taffy (which I love), just that the first was the British name and the second, American.