Karen Moncrieff to Direct "The Year of Fog"

Karen Moncrieff will direct San Francisco author Michelle Richmond's page-turning New York Times bestseller The Year of Fog. Get more details on Michelle Richmond's blog. I absolutely can't wait to read Michelle's new book No One You Know. I'll be picking up my copy at the book launch party tomorrow night at 6:30 in Books Inc. --Kim

More upcoming Bay Area dates on Michelle's book tour:

July 9, Kepler’s, reading and signing
1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA

July 15, The Booksmith, reading & signing
1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA

July 16, The Depot, reading & signing
87 Throckmornton Ave, Mill Valley, CA

July 17, Rakestraw Books, reading & signing
409 Railroad Ave, Danville, CA

New "Lear" Won't Have New Look

It's official: Anthony Hopkins will play King Lear and his daughters will be played by Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, and Keira Knightley. Director Joshua Michael Stern says there's more inspired casting to come, but he assures The Guardian he won't do a modern twist on the Bard's original telling, preferring to keep it "Pre-Roman, Celtic, and very raw."

The Duchess of Langeais

Jacques Rivette's adaptation of Balzac's novel The Duchess of Langeais opens today. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune has this review. He calls it "odd," "idiosyncratic," and "dark." It stars Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu. I'm intrigued.... --Kim

Good Girls Gone Bad...

First, I am confronted with images of Billie Piper whoring herself out in a martini glass. (Yes, Meg, I said it.) She's starring in some new Showtime series called The Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Lord. Fanny Price and Sally Lockhart, please avert your eyes.

Now comes word that Sienna Miller is going to be playing a bitchy, evil version of Maid Marion in Ridley Scott's revisionist version of Robin Hood, in which he subverts all the characters, so that the Sheriff of Nottingham, I suppose will be a good guy, and Russell Crowe (Robin) will basically play himself.

Collaborative Coelho Adaptation...

This is interesting.

Young Muskies Unite!

Millenium Films is planning a prequel for Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, which will tell the story of how Athos, Porthos, Aramis (and maybe) D'Artagnan first came to be all for one. Swashbuckling hotties with plumed hats and swords? I'll take it. Who should be cast?

Source: Variety

Asia Argento Does Adultery...

Proclaimed one of the most sexually explicit costume dramas ever made, The Last Mistress hits theaters in New York and L.A. at the end of the month. It's an adaptation of Jules-Amedee Barbey d'Aurevilly's scintillating and shocking 19th century novel. The premise is as old as the ages: French libertine marries good-girl virgin but can't get his insatiable lover of the last ten years, La Vellini (played by Asia Argento), out of his head (or bed).

Here's the trailer.