Bookish (Movie) Fun: Young Adult, Snow White and Paradise Lost

I posted a little while ago about how I was cautiously excited about Diablo Cody's upcoming flick Young Adult, because it sounded like an interesting comedy about a YA author, plus it had an awesome poster. Well, the trailer has been released, and I have to say I'm no longer excited at all. I think I'll give this one a miss. It doesn't even look craptastic - it just looks crap.

One movie that I am getting increasingly excited about is Snow White, starring Lily Collins and Armie Hammer. There's no trailer yet, but there is a bunch of pretty stills:

In other (kinda old, but new to me) movie news, I was surprised to find out that John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost is being adapted for the big screen. As an action movie. In 3D. Starring The Hangover's Bradley Cooper as Lucifer, unknown Benjamin Walker as Michael, Ben's little brother, Casey Affleck, as Gabriel, I Am Number Four's Callan McAuliffe as Uriel, Pretty Little Liars' Diego Boneta as Adam and... wait for it... the girl Joe Jonas dumped Taylor Swift for, Camilla Belle, as Eve. I don't know how I feel about this. I'm curious, that's for sure. I guess angels really are the new vampires, huh?

Pash, Pick or Pass: The Gatsby Edition

Time to play Pash, Pick or Pass - a game where we pick from a random book trio and say who we'd pash (and dash), who we'd pick for a relationship and who we'd pass on all together.

The Contenders
When I heard the news yesterday that Baz Luhrmann's upcoming adaptation of The Great Gatsby would be released at Christmas, I got excited. Until I realised it was Christmas 2012. I can't wait that long! Of course, I'll have to... So to ease the pain of waiting, I decided to play Pash, Pick or Pass with the Gatsby boys this week. Although I'm excited for the movie, the cast aren't exactly who I pictured when I read it, so these are my ideas of the boys...

Nick Carraway

Jay Gatsby

Tom Buchanan

My Choices

Pash: Gatsby, of course. Handsome, rich, fun... but way too messed up for anything permanent.

Pick: Nick. Yeah, he's kinda boring, but he's also kind, smart and stable - the natural choice out of the three for a lifelong commitment. I can always have Gatsby on the side, right? Not that I agree with that kind of thing. But this is Fitzgerald's world, not the real world, so what the hey.

Pass: Tom. He's one hell of a man, really. Emphasis on hell. He's such a brute. He and Daisy deserve each other.

Who would you pash/pick/pass?

Related: Review of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mag Monday: Swooning Over Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer

I have a massive girl crush on Felicity Jones. I loved her in Northanger Abbey, thought she was brilliant in Chalet Girl, and just watching her performance in the trailer for Like Crazy makes me tear up. I'm so freaking excited for this movie (but also kinda dreading it, coz I know it will break my heart):

The release of the movie means Felicity is doing the promo rounds, which makes me super happy because she's appearing in some gorgeous photo shoots, like this one in US Elle:

On the guy side of my crush list, Armie Hammer is showing off his pretty in Prestige this month. Bonus points to the mag for using the headline "It's Hammer time" (cheesy puns FTW).

Mag Monday: Snow White And Prince Charming

I am a bit obsessed with Lily Collins right now. She is so beautiful! I'm actually going to see Abduction tonight and I have high hopes. But I really can't wait to see her in Snow White and City of Bones. In the meantime I'm so happy to see her popping up in a few magazines - like Teen Vogue. Love.

Meanwhile, Lily's Prince Charming, Armie Hammer, appears on the cover of this month's Details. Looking rather dirtier than a prince should, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Bookish Fun: Battle of the Snow Whites

It seems that the powers that be in Hollywood have decided vampires are, like, so 2010 and have moved on... to fairy tales. We've already seen new versions of Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast (in the Vanessa Hudgens vehicle Beastly), but it looks as though Snow White is really where it's at. Because they're making not one but TWO versions of it at the moment - and they both look kind of awesome.

Sorry, Snowie, you're old news.

Film 1: The Brothers Grimm: Snow White (working title). According to the studio Relativity Media, it will be "a spectacular reimagining of the classic fairy tale - an evil queen steals control of a kingdom, and an exiled princess enlists the help of seven resourceful rebels to win back her birthright in a spirited adventure comedy filled with jealousy, romance, and betrayal that will capture the imagination of audiences the world over." There's even a love triangle - between the evil queen, the innocent princess and, of course, the handsome prince.
The date: Release is currently set at March 16, 2012.
The stars: Lily Collins (Phil's daughter) will play Snow White, while the prince who captures her heart will be played by none other than my Gatsby, Armie Hammer - who you might recognise as the Winklevii from The Social Network. Julia Roberts, meanwhile, will get to use her grin for the greater evil as the queen, and Sean Bean will be her king.
The sneak peek: So far, only a shot of Lily as Snow White has been released. She looks very pretty, and very much the fairy tale princess.

Film 2: Snow White and the Huntsman, which IMDb says is "a twist to the fairy tale - the huntsman ordered to take Snow White into the woods to be killed winds up becoming her protector and mentor in a quest to vanquish the evil queen."
The date: US release is set for June 1, 2012.
The stars: Kristen Stewart tackles this version of Snow White, while the titular huntsman will be played by Aussie spunk and Thor star Chris Hemsworth. Charlize Theron will play the evil queen, and Sam Clafin of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides fame will represent the prince - looking decidedly more creepy than handsome here.
The sneak peek: Here's a glimpse of all the key players, which suggests that despite being based on the same story, this will be a very different film to the Collins version.

I'm excited for both films - they both seem to have great casts and unique takes on the tale. The fact that I'm not a fan of Kristen's acting makes me lean towards the first version, but then I also dislike Julia Roberts. But judging from the tidbits of the stories that have been released, the latter film does intrigue me a little more. What do you think?

Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Wow. That was unexpected.

I don't know how I got through life up until this point without reading or watching The Great Gatsby, or even knowing the story. Usually with the classics, even without ever personally encountering them, you generally get to know the whole plot via cultural references/magical osmosis. But somehow, that hadn't happened for me with The Great Gatsby. I knew it was set in the roaring '20s and featured lots of parties, plus a bit of love and drama. I knew it featured characters named Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway and Daisy. But that was all. I decided last year that it was about time that changed - so I tried to read it. Twice. I didn't get further than the first chapter either time.

While it was beautifully written, I just couldn't get into it. The narrator, Nick, seemed like a boring type of fellow, and while he visited his cousin Daisy, her nasty husband Tom and their friend Jordan, and mentioned briefly his neighbour Jay Gatsby, I wondered what the point of it all was. The plot was plodding, the events and characters seemed insignificant and I didn't know who to care about, or if I did at all. I didn't exactly mean to give up on it - I just got distracted by books that excited me so much more. Then, when I picked it up again to keep reading it, I couldn't remember what had happened. It was so dull that it had completely drifted from my mind. So I had to start again. And I got distracted again. And had to start all over again.

This time, I was determined to finish it. It's only 188 pages, after all! And wow, am I glad I did. Because I freaking loved it. Sure, the first couple of chapters are slow - I was impatient for Gatsby to show up - but when he appears, it's well worth the wait. Things finally get going and everything starts to make sense; what seemed so insignificant before is actually revealed to be quite the opposite and when it all clicks into place, it's wonderful. I don't really want to say any more because I don't want to give away the plot for those who, like me, haven't encountered it before. Because it was fantastic to read a book without knowing ANYTHING that was going to happen. I totally didn't expect the story to go in the direction it did, and when it did, I was floored. I already want to reread it - somehow, I don't think I'll find it quite so dull next time!

Rating: 4/5

 

Talking points (and possible spoilers)

• The language was just lovely. There were so many sentences that jumped off the page - my faves include, "Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead" and "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness". Then there was one of the closing paragraphs: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretchout our arms farther... And one morning -" What a paragraph! So sad, so beautiful.
• I loved Gatsby's devotion to Daisy and the awe that she inspired in him - especially evident when he was showing off his house. I didn't quite get the shirt scene though, when she's crying over how beautiful Gatsby's clothes are. I understand that she was probably feeling just a tad emotional, but I was confused about why the shirts specifically set her off. Was it because it showed just how far he'd come? Or was she literally crying over how beautiful they were, to show how shallow she was? That seems unlikely. Anyway, I was confused.
• There were a few racist remarks throughout that made me a bit uncomfortable, but they mostly came from Tom, who wasn't exactly a positive character. The majority of his words and actions were quite disgusting.
• I now want to hunt down every The Great Gatsby adaptation out there. The Robert Redford/Mia Farrow is a must - I can totally see Mia as Daisy - plus I also just discovered there's a TV version from 2000, starring Toby Stephens, Paul Rudd (!) and, er, Mira Sorvino. I have a sneaking suspicion it will be very bad, but I love Toby Stephens and Paul Rudd. Meanwhile, I'm a bit worried about Baz Luhrmann's upcoming adaptation - I love Baz, but he's filming this very American story in Australia, and in 3D. THREE. DEE. Ugh.

Eye candy

So, despite the many adaptations, I managed to come up with my own cast for this one. Well, almost. The exception was Carey Mulligan, who's playing Daisy in the upcoming film and was also Daisy in my head. What can I say - I adore her:

Baz has cast Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway, and I think he'll be OK, but as soon as I started reading Nick's narration, Ryan Gosling's voice came into my head. It was a nice voice to stay with for 188 pages. And a nice face:

To go with Tobey's Nick, his mate Leonardo Dicaprio has been cast as Gatsby. But he's too bloated for my liking these days. My Gatsby looked more like Armie Hammer, who you might know as the Winklevii from The Social Network:

 

Jordan to me looked a lot like Leighton Meester. For no other reason than I think she's super-pretty:

As for who I think would be the perfect brutish, masculine Tom? Why, Tom Hardy, of course:

And only one person came to mind when the sexy, sassy, full-of-vitality Myrtle was described:

Related

This NES-style The Great Gatsby game is super-fun: greatgatsbygame.com