Ioan Gets Distributed!

"Amazing Grace, the drama about British parliamentarian William Wilberforce (portrayed by Ioan Gruffudd) and his campaign to abolish the slave trade, has scored a distribution deal on the eve of its world premiere."

Related from the Archives: Save Horatio Hornblower, Rumor Has It, Great Expectations and Then Some, Whereabouts: Ioan Gruffud, A "Period" Pause, Ioan Learns Yiddish & Shows Some Skin. "Hot!"

--Kim

Bloom Avoids Jumping Shark

Orlando Bloom has turned-down David Hasselhoff's request that he play his son in the 2008 film version of Knight Rider. Good boy, Orlando! (although me thinks the camp factor of a KF movie could be exquisite...) From Digital Spy.

Apparently, "The Hoff" ran into Bloom in Hollywood and asked him if he'd take on the part....AWKWARD!!!! I am happy to hear that Bloom is not too erudite to enjoy a bit of ’80s primetime cheese, however. He admits to liking Knight Rider as a kid, along with his favorites: The Fall Guy and The A-Team. -- Amy

Casting Couch: I Saw This Thing on ITV the Other Week

We previously reported that ITV is adapting three! Austen novels for their upcoming season. Here's the who's who: Doctor Who's Billie Piper will play Mansfield Park's Fannie Price, Sally Hawkins is Anne Elliot in Persuasion, and Felicity Jones will be the excitable Catherine Morland in the Andrew Davies' adapted faux-gothic Northanger Abbey.

PLUS:
Lee Evans will play the lead in a t.v. adaptation of HG Wells The History of Mr. Polly says Digital Spy.

The fantastic Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream) will star in a film adaptation of Margaret Laurence's novel The Stone Angel.

Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe will portray Rudyard Kipling's son in ITV's My Boy Jack.

--Kim

Robin Hood, Ransomed?

Apparently, tapes from the highly anticipated BBC series, Robin Hood, were stolen recently. Actually, I think Robin Hood would have approved, as long as the tapes were forwarded to the poor (people like me who don't subscribe to the pricey cable package that includes BBC America.) I rather like the looks of this series by the way. Robin (played by newcomer Jonas Armstrong) and Maid Marian (Lucy Griffiths) are both young and good-looking. I'm picturing the O.C. meets Sherwood Forest. -- Amy

Love from The Happy Booker

The Happy Booker's Wendi Kaufman lists Romancing the Tome as one of her top 5 recommended blogs in an interview with Bloggasm. Thanks, Wendi! --Kim

Famous Firsts

The Guardian has an essay today about famous first lines in novels. It reminds me of a book I was recently given: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night — The Best (?) from the Bulwer-Lytton Contest, which compiles the most ridiculous opening sentences from the worst novels never written (compiled by Scott Rice and dating back to 1984, strangely.)

I will share a smattering of my favorites:

You name it, I've seen it — the depths, the pits, the bottom; Vic Steele's the name, and proctology's my game. -- William J. O'Malley, S.J.

"Aw, hell," groaned the contessa, who, up to that point had shown no interest in the conversation. -- T. Manning Powers

I was a fifty-four year old male virgin, but I'm all right now. -- Arden Ohl

Dick Straith may have been captain of the football team but why, he thought, should that stop him from wearing his sister's tube top. -- Scott Davis Jones

The rain splattered down on the tables of the cafe like raisins dropped by uncaring gods. -- Patricia A. Folkerth

For more on the Bulwer-Lytton contest for atrocious opening sentences (and the winners from this year), click here. -- Amy

My Summertime Gripe...

Regular readers of Romancing the Tome who are also fans of PBS's Masterpiece Theater may have noted the glaring absence of coverage of the recent Masterpiece Theater offerings. The reason, plain and simple, is because their "Mystery!" series bores the living crap out of me. Now granted, maybe if I actually would take the time to watch any of these Miss Marple/Inspector Morse (et al) features, I might actually enjoy them. But I've never much liked reading mysteries, so my thought is always, "eh. I'll skip it." (There are exceptions to the rule, of course. I enjoyed watching Rupert Everett play Sherlock Holmes earlier in the year, but that had the added bonus of being period-y enough to capture my interest.)

So here is my plea: If I am totally off-base here and have been missing loads of riveting television by not tuning into MT all summer, would someone please give me a head's up? Only a testimonial from a RomTome reader would convince me it's worth watching. Mind you, as we previously reported, I do applaud the series' use of Edward Gorey art in the opening credits. -- Amy