Meet Bella

Read why Kristen Stewart almost didn't sign on to play Twilight's vampire-crushin' Bella in the Stephanie Meyers adaptation at Dark Horizons.

Camelot Redux

Showtime and the BBC are developing a contemporary series retelling of Camelot. The guys behind The Tudors will write and produce. I am destined to have tunes from the Lerner and Loewe musical in my head for the next 24 hours, at least.

Source: TV Week

He Knew He Was Right: Conclusion

Last night Kim and I finally got around to watching the last hour or so of Anthony Trollope's He Knew He Was Right, as envisioned by Romancing the Tome patron saint, Andrew Davies. We have to say, in terms of his past masterpieces, this one was a bit of a letdown. (Can't win ’em all.)

We enjoyed the first part of the movie, but couldn't help but wonder if the production ran out of financing two-thirds of the way in. How else to explain why they didn't bother giving us a wedding scene when there were no less than three to choose from? It seems like they raced to tie up the storylines in very anticlimactic fashion. The dramatic injustice of Aunt Stanbury refusing to let her niece marry Matthew Goode (say it ain't so!) lasted all of five minutes before the dowager had a change of heart. The demise of the deranged Louis Trevellyan seemed to happen even more quickly. There was a good "I'm gonna stab you all through the heart with this kitchen knife" moment from one of the French sisters, but even that story arc ended with a fizzle.

We attempted to watch a bad documentary about Anthony Trollope included on the DVD which featured very amateur reenactments and a lead actor sporting an appalling fake beard. Eventually, we lost interest and were lured away by red velvet cake. So in the end, our movie-watching night was still a success.

Jack Black Joins "Swift" Boat Campaign

Jack Black (whom I saw last night at a Lakers game, incidentally) will play Lemuel Gulliver in a re-imagining of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, depicting the pilgrim as a free-spirited modern day travel writer who gets an assignment in the Bermuda Triangle. This sounds cute — he's one of those guys who can crack me up without saying a word. Regardless, anything has to be better than that wretched adaptation starring Ted Danson in the late ’90s.

Clint Does Clemens

I was just earlier this week thinking about how much I love Mark Twain and how I want to go back and read his classics. Now, I find out Clint Eastwood loves him, too! His new project is a biopic of the steamboat sailor-turned-author. Clint will play Twain in part of the movie, too.

By the way, if you've never seen it, check out Ken Burns' documentary about the author...it's fantastic. I think it made me bawl, but then again, all of Ken Burns' movies do.

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What Would Dickens Do?

Today, NPR's morning edition drew parallels between our current economic angst and that of Charles Dickens' London. Listen to the story or read on a similar theme in the Telegraph.

Couldn't we all use a crazy patron like Miss Havisham right about now?

Welcome to Hell

Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to Electronic Arts' video game franchise, Dante's Inferno, based on the classic Divine Comedy. That'll be one creepy-ass film.

Source: Variety