‘Sea Oak’: Amazon Comedy Pilot Taps Hiro Murai To Direct; Evan Dunsky As Ep/Co-Showrunner; Adds Cast
Atlanta producer-director Hiro Murai is set to direct and executive produce Amazon comedy pilot Sea Oak, starring Glenn Close. In addition, Evan Dunsky (Nurse Jackie, Hemlock Grove) has signed on as executive producer and showrunner alongside George Saunders, and Rae Gray (Fear The Walking Dead) and Jack Quaid (Vinyl) have joined the cast as series regulars. Written by Saunders based on his short story, the genre-bending Sea Oak focuses on Aunt Bernie (Close) a meek…...
- 6/21/2017
- Deadline TV
Emmy-winning Damages alum Glenn Close has been tapped to star in Amazon comedy pilot Sea Oak. Written by George Saunders based on his short story, the genre-bending Sea Oak focuses on Aunt Bernie (Close) a meek working-class woman who dies tragically in a home invasion in her Rust Belt subsidized housing complex called Sea Oak. Compelled by sheer force of dissatisfaction, she comes back from the dead full of rage, determined to get the life she never had. Saunders…...
- 6/16/2017
- Deadline TV
Glenn Close is ready to do damage of the undead kind over at Amazon — as the star of the comedy pilot Sea Oak.
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From novelist George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo), Sea Oak (not to be confused with Amazon’s Red Oaks) is described as a cross between a zombie drama and a family revenge comedy. Per THR.com. Close will play Aunt Bernie, a working-class woman who is tragically killed in a home invasion. She eventually returns from the dead, no longer the gentle soul she once was,...
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From novelist George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo), Sea Oak (not to be confused with Amazon’s Red Oaks) is described as a cross between a zombie drama and a family revenge comedy. Per THR.com. Close will play Aunt Bernie, a working-class woman who is tragically killed in a home invasion. She eventually returns from the dead, no longer the gentle soul she once was,...
- 6/16/2017
- TVLine.com
Exclusive: It’s a timely story about a veteran’s trouble with his broken family after returning home from war. Tobey Maguire has acquired George Saunders’ short story Home and is developing it as a feature film with A Monster Calls author-screenwriter Patrick Ness already hired to adapt. Home first appeared in the June 30, 2011, issue of The New Yorker. Maguire will produce with Matthew Plouffe. Ness previously adapted his bestselling Ya trilogy Chaos Walking for…...
- 6/2/2017
- Deadline
Exclusive: I hear Amazon Studios is finalizing deals for pilot orders to three single-camera comedy projects, Love You More, from former Sex and the City showrunner Michael Patrick King, which stars Bridget Everett; the genre-bending Sea Oak, from short-story writer George Saunders; and the Detroit-set The Climb, starring and written by Diarra Kilpatrick, from the Mark Gordon Co. The current pilot season at Amazon, home of such original comedy series as Transparent and Moz…...
- 3/23/2017
- Deadline TV
It took George Saunders a while to publish his first novel: The supernatural/historical fiction mashup Lincoln In The Bardo, released earlier this month, follows 20 years of award-winning short fiction, essays, and journalism from the MacArthur Fellow. But it didn’t take long at all for someone to think Lincoln In The Bardo would make a good movie. According to Deadline, Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman have purchased the film rights to Lincoln In The Bardo, with Saunders joining them as a producer on the project. Deadline quotes Saunders as saying “My hope is that we can find a way to make the experience of getting this movie made as wild and enjoyable and unpredictable as the experience of writing it—I am so happy to have such fearless companions on the trip.”
“Fearless” is one way to put it. Taking place in a Washington D.C. cemetery during ...
“Fearless” is one way to put it. Taking place in a Washington D.C. cemetery during ...
- 3/22/2017
- by Erik Adams
- avclub.com
Exclusive: Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman have acquired movie rights to Lincoln In The Bardo, the bestselling novel from George Saunders that hit shelves last month. The pair will produce the adaptation with Saunders, and no director or cast has been set. Published by Random House, short-story writer Saunders’ first novel is set against the backdrop of the Civil War and centers on Abraham Lincoln’s grief over the death of his 11-year-old son Willie, with much of the…...
- 3/22/2017
- Deadline
Deal with The Last Post producer further bolsters Lionsgate’s UK TV ambitions.
Lionsgate UK announced today that it has entered into a first look deal with UK production outfit Bonafide Films to provide projects for worldwide distribution.
Bonafide is currently in production on BBC One’s The Last Post, the Peter Moffat (The Night Of) series that tells the story of a regiment of military police and their families stationed in the Middle East during the 1960s Aden Emergency.
The company is also developing an adaptation of Jg Ballard’s Super-Cannes, adapted by playwright DC Moore and directed by Saul Dibb (The Duchess); an original series with BAFTA and Golden Globe winning writer Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy); and adaptations of the George Saunders novella, Bounty, and the Ned Bauman novel The Teleportation Accident with Straughan for Film4.
Bonafide is run by managing director Margery Bone, creative director Elwen Rowlands and head of production...
Lionsgate UK announced today that it has entered into a first look deal with UK production outfit Bonafide Films to provide projects for worldwide distribution.
Bonafide is currently in production on BBC One’s The Last Post, the Peter Moffat (The Night Of) series that tells the story of a regiment of military police and their families stationed in the Middle East during the 1960s Aden Emergency.
The company is also developing an adaptation of Jg Ballard’s Super-Cannes, adapted by playwright DC Moore and directed by Saul Dibb (The Duchess); an original series with BAFTA and Golden Globe winning writer Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy); and adaptations of the George Saunders novella, Bounty, and the Ned Bauman novel The Teleportation Accident with Straughan for Film4.
Bonafide is run by managing director Margery Bone, creative director Elwen Rowlands and head of production...
- 1/31/2017
- ScreenDaily
Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2015 discoveries”.
Melody C. Roscher: (1) The 2009 album “Zebra” by Karl Blau. (2) Tybee Island, Georgia. (3) “Pastoralia” by George Saunders.
Lavallee: As co-producer on Simon Killer, you’ve been part of the Borderline Films fabric for some time now. How would you describe Antonio Campos as a filmmaker and artist in terms of his interests, obsessions and/or curiosity?
Roscher: Antonio is endlessly interested, endlessly obsessed and authentically curious. He is a humanist. He’s driven to understand why people do what they do, be it either something beneficial or something very confusing or harmful. Mostly he has a huge heart and love for the people around him. He pours that love into the craft of his work.
Lavallee: What kind of legal concerns/issues were there in dealing with real life subjects. Did you need/or seek out approval or any special permissions?...
Melody C. Roscher: (1) The 2009 album “Zebra” by Karl Blau. (2) Tybee Island, Georgia. (3) “Pastoralia” by George Saunders.
Lavallee: As co-producer on Simon Killer, you’ve been part of the Borderline Films fabric for some time now. How would you describe Antonio Campos as a filmmaker and artist in terms of his interests, obsessions and/or curiosity?
Roscher: Antonio is endlessly interested, endlessly obsessed and authentically curious. He is a humanist. He’s driven to understand why people do what they do, be it either something beneficial or something very confusing or harmful. Mostly he has a huge heart and love for the people around him. He pours that love into the craft of his work.
Lavallee: What kind of legal concerns/issues were there in dealing with real life subjects. Did you need/or seek out approval or any special permissions?...
- 1/23/2016
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders “His essays are profound,” the actor raves of the short story scribe. “Eye-opening, empathetic, gut-busting.” Photos: Oscars 2014 After-Party Pictures: Hottest Celeb Bashes The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey In his 1975 classic, “Abbey recommends engaging in sabotage,” says the star. “I know we shouldn’t commit crimes, but I’m with him in spirit!” Why We Make Things and Why It Matters by Peter Korn A “moving” philosophical reflection written by a fell woodworker, “it’s about using your creativity to make anything with your hands.” Official Book [...]...
- 5/6/2015
- Us Weekly
Following on from their success with undead comedy romp Zombieland and the upcoming Deadpool feature, screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are eyeing up new material for their next project. According to a report from Film Divider, the pair are said to be toying with the idea of another adaptation, George Saunders’ short story, Escape From Spiderhead. Dropping the start of the title for the punchier Spiderhead, it’s expected that the duo will adapt the story for their joint directorial debut.
Described by the outlet as “rich in both sci-fi ideas and relevant, sometimes confrontational observations on free will, rehabilitation, love and depression,” that thematic outline alone is enough to warrant further exploration. Saunders’ tale originally appeared in The New Yorker back in 2010, and is currently available to view in its entirety on their site.
Set inside an experimental prison, the story spirals out to include a slew of...
Described by the outlet as “rich in both sci-fi ideas and relevant, sometimes confrontational observations on free will, rehabilitation, love and depression,” that thematic outline alone is enough to warrant further exploration. Saunders’ tale originally appeared in The New Yorker back in 2010, and is currently available to view in its entirety on their site.
Set inside an experimental prison, the story spirals out to include a slew of...
- 2/17/2015
- by Gem Seddon
- We Got This Covered
Your newest patron of the literary arts is … Chipotle, which is now publishing new pieces by legitimately famous authors — Toni Morrison, George Saunders, Malcolm Gladwell, and Michael Lewis, among others — on its paper cups and bags. Where did Chipotle get this idea? From noted food-opinion-haver Jonathan Safran Foer, who was bored one day while eating his meat-free burrito and thought, I wish I could read this cup. That is the actual story. After wrestling with his anti-consumer demons, Foer also contributed a short essay to the Chipotle imprint; read it here, or go buy a burrito bowl, as Chipotle intended.
- 5/15/2014
- by Amanda Dobbins
- Vulture
Author George Saunders’ 2013 Syracuse University commencement address dealt with the subject of kindness. Much in the same way that David Foster Wallace’s This is Water was turned into both an animated short as well as a tasteful stocking stuffer, so too Saunders’ rueful musings. Congratulations, by the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness is the name of the 64-page book, and an excerpt has been nicely animated by the folks at Serious Lunch.
- 4/24/2014
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Author George Saunders’ 2013 Syracuse University commencement address dealt with the subject of kindness. Much in the same way that David Foster Wallace’s This is Water was turned into both an animated short as well as a tasteful stocking stuffer, so too Saunders’ rueful musings. Congratulations, by the Way: Some Thoughts on Kindness is the name of the 64-page book, and an excerpt has been nicely animated by the folks at Serious Lunch.
- 4/24/2014
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
From new voices like NoViolet Bulawayo to rediscovered old voices like James Salter, from Dave Eggers's satire to David Thomson's history of film, writers, Observer critics and others pick their favourite reads of 2013. And they tell us what they hope to find under the tree …
Curtis Sittenfeld
Novelist
My favourite books of 2013 are Drama High (Riverhead) by Michael Sokolove, Sea Creatures (Turnaround) by Susanna Daniel, and & Sons (Harper Collins) by David Gilbert. Drama High is incredibly smart, moving non-fiction about an American drama teacher who for four decades coaxed sophisticated and nuanced theatrical performances out of teenage students who weren't privileged or otherwise remarkable and in so doing, changed their conceptions of what they could do with their lives. Sea Creatures is a gripping, beautifully written novel about the mother of a selectively mute three-year-old boy; when she takes a job ferrying supplies to a hermit off the coast of Florida,...
Curtis Sittenfeld
Novelist
My favourite books of 2013 are Drama High (Riverhead) by Michael Sokolove, Sea Creatures (Turnaround) by Susanna Daniel, and & Sons (Harper Collins) by David Gilbert. Drama High is incredibly smart, moving non-fiction about an American drama teacher who for four decades coaxed sophisticated and nuanced theatrical performances out of teenage students who weren't privileged or otherwise remarkable and in so doing, changed their conceptions of what they could do with their lives. Sea Creatures is a gripping, beautifully written novel about the mother of a selectively mute three-year-old boy; when she takes a job ferrying supplies to a hermit off the coast of Florida,...
- 11/24/2013
- by Ali Smith, Robert McCrum, Tim Adams, Kate Kellaway, Rachel Cooke, Sebastian Faulks, Jackie Kay
- The Guardian - Film News
Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm Gladwell, Eleanor Catton and many more recommend the books that impressed them this year
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental portrayal of contemporary China. It made me think and laugh. I also love Dave Eggers' The Circle (Hamish Hamilton), which is a sharp-eyed and funny satire about the obsession with "sharing" our lives through technology. It's convincing and a little creepy.
William Boyd
By strange coincidence two of the most intriguing art books I read this year had the word "Breakfast" in their titles. They were Breakfast with Lucian by Geordie Greig (Jonathan Cape) and Breakfast at Sotheby's by Philip Hook (Particular). Greig's fascinating, intimate biography of Lucian Freud was a revelation. Every question I had about Freud – from the aesthetic to the intrusively gossipy – was...
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental portrayal of contemporary China. It made me think and laugh. I also love Dave Eggers' The Circle (Hamish Hamilton), which is a sharp-eyed and funny satire about the obsession with "sharing" our lives through technology. It's convincing and a little creepy.
William Boyd
By strange coincidence two of the most intriguing art books I read this year had the word "Breakfast" in their titles. They were Breakfast with Lucian by Geordie Greig (Jonathan Cape) and Breakfast at Sotheby's by Philip Hook (Particular). Greig's fascinating, intimate biography of Lucian Freud was a revelation. Every question I had about Freud – from the aesthetic to the intrusively gossipy – was...
- 11/23/2013
- by Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Tom Stoppard, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, William Boyd, Bill Bryson, Shami Chakrabarti, Sarah Churchwell, Antonia Fraser, Mark Haddon, Robert Harris, Max Hastings, Philip Hensher, Simon Hoggart, AM Homes, John Lanchester, Mark Lawson, Robert Macfarlane, Andrew Motion, Ian Rankin, Lionel Shriver, Helen Simpson, Colm Tóibín, Richard Ford, John Gray, David Kynaston, Penelope Lively, Pankaj Mishra, Blake Morrison, Susie Orbach
- The Guardian - Film News
This year’s National Book Awards were announced Wednesday night in a typically fancy-pants ceremony at Cipriani’s. The winners — also known as what your book club will start recommending this month — are ahead, in bold.FICTIONRachel Kushner, The FlamethrowersJhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland James McBride, The Good Lord BirdThomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge George Saunders, Tenth of DecemberNONFICTIONJill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane FranklinWendy Lower, Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of BeliefPOETRYFrank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog Lucie Brock-Broido, Stay, Illusion Adrian Matejka, The Big Smoke Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: PoemsYOUNG People's LITERATUREKathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About LuckTom McNeal, Far...
- 11/21/2013
- by Delia Paunescu
- Vulture
The National Book Foundation has dropped its list of finalists for the 2013 National Book Awards. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on November 20. The nominees are:FictionRachel Kushner, The FlamethrowersJhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland James McBride, The Good Lord BirdThomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge George Saunders, Tenth of December NonfictionJill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin Wendy Lower, Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief PoetryFrank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog Lucie Brock-Broido, Stay, Illusion Adrian Matejka, The Big Smoke Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: Poems Young People's LiteratureKathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About Luck Tom McNeal, Far Far Away...
- 10/16/2013
- by Lindsey Weber
- Vulture
Alice Munro, a Canadian master of the short story revered as a thorough but forgiving documenter of the human spirit, won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, the Swedish Academy said. Munro, 82, is the first Canadian writer to receive the prestigious $1.2 million award since Saul Bellow, who left for the U.S. as a boy and won in 1976. Seen as a modern Chekhov for her warmth, insight and compassion, she has captured a wide range of lives and personalities without passing judgment on her characters. She is beloved among her peers, from Lorrie Moore and George Saunders to Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen.
- 10/10/2013
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
The National Book Awards released its long list for fiction on Thursday with the prestigious prize-giver singling out some of the literary world’s best known authors like Thomas Pynchon and Jhmupa Lahirir. Pynchon was cited for “The Bleeding Edge,” an Internet-infused mystery, while Lahirir was singled out for “The Lowland,” a story of Bengali brothers growing up in Calcutta. Other top names vying for the honor are Alice McDermott, for her dreamlike examination of a Brooklyn woman in “Someone”; George Saunders for his short story collection “Tenth of December”; and Rachel Kushner, for her tale of a peripatetic artist in “The.
- 9/19/2013
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
Kutcher isn't just a pretty face. He's figured out how to portray himself as a 'man of ideas' in this nerd age
What can we learn from Ashton Kutcher?
Hot on the heels of George Saunders' commencement speech, in which the novelist shocked the class of 2013 by urging them less toward professional advancement than personal integrity – to "be kind" – comes Kutcher at the Teen Choice Awards, with a speech expressly modelled along the same "life lessons" lines.
Kutcher, of course, is promoting a biopic of Steve Jobs and all those hours in the black turtleneck have probably gone to his head. His manner on stage and in his media appearances of late has been of a man who has seen the meaning of life and doesn't know if the rest of us can take it. (For which also see: James Franco). But the three inspirational bullet points he works through at the awards,...
What can we learn from Ashton Kutcher?
Hot on the heels of George Saunders' commencement speech, in which the novelist shocked the class of 2013 by urging them less toward professional advancement than personal integrity – to "be kind" – comes Kutcher at the Teen Choice Awards, with a speech expressly modelled along the same "life lessons" lines.
Kutcher, of course, is promoting a biopic of Steve Jobs and all those hours in the black turtleneck have probably gone to his head. His manner on stage and in his media appearances of late has been of a man who has seen the meaning of life and doesn't know if the rest of us can take it. (For which also see: James Franco). But the three inspirational bullet points he works through at the awards,...
- 8/26/2013
- by Emma Brockes
- The Guardian - Film News
Russian distributor Luxor has picked up the upcoming film from actor/producer Alexander Nevsky, Black Rose, shooting in Moscow until July 7.
The production by Nevsky’s own La-based company Hollywood Storm has a cast including Kristanna Loken, Adrian Paul, Robert Davi, Matthias Hues, and world champion ballroom dancer and fitness model Oksana Sidorenko.
The screenplay by Brent Huff and George Saunders centres on a Moscow police major (played by Nevsky) who travels to Los Angeles to help the local police there investigate a series of murders in the Russian immigrant community.
After the Moscow shoot, the film will move to Los Angeles, and theatrical release is planned for December 2013.
Depardieu to play Caucasian hermit
Russian citizen Gérard Depardieu is to follow his title role in Irakli Kvirikadze’s Rasputin, which will close the Moscow International Film Festival on Saturday (June 29), with a part as a Caucasian hermit in Polish film-maker Jan Jakub Kolski’s next feature, My Mother...
The production by Nevsky’s own La-based company Hollywood Storm has a cast including Kristanna Loken, Adrian Paul, Robert Davi, Matthias Hues, and world champion ballroom dancer and fitness model Oksana Sidorenko.
The screenplay by Brent Huff and George Saunders centres on a Moscow police major (played by Nevsky) who travels to Los Angeles to help the local police there investigate a series of murders in the Russian immigrant community.
After the Moscow shoot, the film will move to Los Angeles, and theatrical release is planned for December 2013.
Depardieu to play Caucasian hermit
Russian citizen Gérard Depardieu is to follow his title role in Irakli Kvirikadze’s Rasputin, which will close the Moscow International Film Festival on Saturday (June 29), with a part as a Caucasian hermit in Polish film-maker Jan Jakub Kolski’s next feature, My Mother...
- 6/25/2013
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Lena Dunham, Joe Biden, and George Saunders — as well as Jimmy Fallon, Arianna Huffington, Dr. Oz, Christina Aguilera, and dozens more — gathered together to mingle with and honor one another at Time’s 100 Gala, celebrating its annual “100 Most Influential People in the World” issue. The mix made for some interesting red carpet conversation, as entertainers mixed with politicians and publishing figures. Most attendees agreed it was an honor to be in the same room as so many other luminaries. Michael Kors, who showed up with Olivia Munn and sunglasses, gave out fashion tips. Barbara Walters talked up the latest biography she’s loving.
- 4/24/2013
- by Adam Carlson
- EW.com - PopWatch
George Saunders’s many rabid fans — more numerous by the day, per the Times’ best-seller list — haven’t had to wait long for their next fix of wildly inventive dystopia. Just four months after the release of his latest collection of stories, Tenth of December, which The New York Times Magazine raved about (justifiably) in a cover profile, his publisher’s out today with Fox 8, a gorgeously illustrated children’s story gone awry — about a fox whose habitat is destroyed by a shopping mall, and that’s just for starters — available only as an e-book. Saunders spoke with us about his foxy misspellings, the limits of mind-expanding technology, and the nagging question of whether there’s any hope for humanity.How did you decide to write a story narrated by a fox with terrible spelling?I wrote a little humor piece once from the point of view of a dog,...
- 4/12/2013
- by Boris Kachka
- Vulture
Julie White was having a terrific week: Her character, Anne on NBC's "Go On," had an important storyline; her indie film, "Language of a Broken Heart," opened; and her voice was the only other one heard in Holland Taylor's one-woman Broadway show, "Ann."
White, who has been an actor for decades, is happy.
"Go On," which airs Thursday, April 4, revolves around a grief counseling group Matthew Perry's character must attend.
"I love that my character is such an unusual character on television," White tells Zap2it of Anne, a lesbian whose partner died. "She is really a woman not about the male gaze at all, and with no apology at all. She is not part of the landscape.
"After you have acted as long as I have, your criteria for a part is, 'Please let it not be embarrassing in any way!' " White says.
White grew up...
White, who has been an actor for decades, is happy.
"Go On," which airs Thursday, April 4, revolves around a grief counseling group Matthew Perry's character must attend.
"I love that my character is such an unusual character on television," White tells Zap2it of Anne, a lesbian whose partner died. "She is really a woman not about the male gaze at all, and with no apology at all. She is not part of the landscape.
"After you have acted as long as I have, your criteria for a part is, 'Please let it not be embarrassing in any way!' " White says.
White grew up...
- 4/4/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
It's Sunday afternoon — your last chance to read all that stuff you meant to read last week before Monday brings a new deluge of things you will want to read. Below, some of our recommendations: "Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie" by Stephen Rodrick (The New York Times Magazine): The title is self-explanatory, and the content is both what you'd expect and, somehow, so much more. "The Holy or the Broken" by Ryan Dombal (Pitchfork): How Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" — which you know from either 1984's Various Positions, Jeff Buckley's Grace, Marissa's death on The O.C., or Adam Sandler's parody at December's Hurricane Sandy benefit concert, depending on how old you are — became a cultural touchstone. "The Lion Smokes Tonight" by Drew Magary (GQ): Hanging out with the Rasta-dude formally known as Snoop Dogg."George Saunders and Andy Ward...
- 1/13/2013
- by Andre Tartar,Caroline Bankoff
- Vulture
It's Sunday afternoon — your last chance to read all that stuff you meant to read last week before Monday brings a new deluge of things you will want to read. Below, some of our recommendations: "Allison Williams on Season Two of Girls, Improv-ing With Lena Dunham, and Being Marnie Michaels—the New Marcia Brady" by Bruce Handy (Vanity Fair): The HBO star has a theory about why middle-aged viewers feel more sympathy toward Girls' characters than people her own age. "Good Will Hunting: An Oral History" by Janelle Nanos (Boston Magazine): Go ahead and travel back in time to a world in which no one had ever heard of Ben Affleck."George Saunders Has Written the Best Book You’ll Read This Year" by Joel Lovell (New York Times Magazine): A look at the literary heavyweight and his "eye for the absurd and dehumanizing parameters of...
- 1/6/2013
- by Andre Tartar
- Vulture
From a full programme of film and stage adaptations to a new James Bond novel, unpublished works by Rs Thomas and Wg Sebald and a new prize for women writers, 2013 is set to be a real page-turner
January
10th The Oscar nominations are announced unusually early this year. Keep an eye out for a bumper crop of literary adaptations, including David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, the David Nicholls-scripted Great Expectations, as well as Les Miserables, Anna Karenina and The Hobbit.
18th A new stage adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw at the Almeida theatre in London. In the year of the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth, his musical version will also feature around the country in both concert and stage performances.
24th The finalists for the fifth Man Booker International prize will be announced at the Jaipur festival.
January
10th The Oscar nominations are announced unusually early this year. Keep an eye out for a bumper crop of literary adaptations, including David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, the David Nicholls-scripted Great Expectations, as well as Les Miserables, Anna Karenina and The Hobbit.
18th A new stage adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw at the Almeida theatre in London. In the year of the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth, his musical version will also feature around the country in both concert and stage performances.
24th The finalists for the fifth Man Booker International prize will be announced at the Jaipur festival.
- 1/5/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Congratulations to Brad Listi’s Other People podcast, which reached a centenary today with a big get: author George Saunders. If you read the print edition of Filmmaker, you will have heard about the podcast as I featured it in our Super 8 a while back. (My blurb is embedded here — Brad, thanks for the scan!) Other People is a twice-a-week podcast in which Listi interviews authors about… well, just about anything. Their books are discussed, of course, but also their biographies, their writing processes, their child-raising habits, their obsessions, their quirks… It’s always a deeply human conversation, and the fact that I, a fickle listener, am still downloading 100 episodes out is a testament to its quality. And now that Other People has crossed the 100 barrier, I am slightly fascinated by it. The podcast is twice a week and well produced. There’s also a weekly newsletter, which is...
- 8/29/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Celeste Holm died at the age of 95 Sunday, passing away at her New York home after suffering from dehydration caused by a fire in Robert De Niro's apartment in the same building. She leaves behind an impressive legacy that spans film, television and theater.
The actress is perhaps best known in the film world for her Oscar and Golden Globe-winning turn in "Gentleman's Agreement," a 1947 movie which also starred Gregory Peck and Dorothy McGuire and was directed by Elia Kazan. In the film, Holm plays fashion editor Anne Dettrey, who befriends Peck's Philip Green, a widowed journalist.
As a French nun in 1949's "Come to the Stable," Holm starred alongside Loretta Young. Both actresses were nominated for Academy Awards (Best Actress for Young and Best Supporting Actress for Holm).
The late star received her final Oscar nomination for her role in "All About Eve," a 1950 picture which also featured Bette Davis,...
The actress is perhaps best known in the film world for her Oscar and Golden Globe-winning turn in "Gentleman's Agreement," a 1947 movie which also starred Gregory Peck and Dorothy McGuire and was directed by Elia Kazan. In the film, Holm plays fashion editor Anne Dettrey, who befriends Peck's Philip Green, a widowed journalist.
As a French nun in 1949's "Come to the Stable," Holm starred alongside Loretta Young. Both actresses were nominated for Academy Awards (Best Actress for Young and Best Supporting Actress for Holm).
The late star received her final Oscar nomination for her role in "All About Eve," a 1950 picture which also featured Bette Davis,...
- 7/15/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
He’s photographed naked women for Roger Corman, made a movie called Mutant Vampire Zombies from the Hood!, helmed an Asylum mockbuster that spawned a major studio lawsuit, nearly made a mega blockbuster for a major studio, and, best of all, his name really is Thunder.
With The Asylum’s lawsuit-inspiring mockbuster American Warships premiering on Syfy this weekend (May 19th at 9/8 Central) and hitting DVD shelves next week (May 22nd), I chatted with its writer-director, Thunder Levin, about the trials and tribulations of making an Asylum mockbuster, graduating from the school of Corman, and navigating the pitfalls of the b-movie scene filmmaking.
Foy: Forgive me. I have to ask a question you’ve no doubt been asked many times before. Your first name is really Thunder? That’s not just a nickname?
Thunder: (sigh) Yeah, I’ve been asked that a few times before. Yes, Thunder is my real name.
With The Asylum’s lawsuit-inspiring mockbuster American Warships premiering on Syfy this weekend (May 19th at 9/8 Central) and hitting DVD shelves next week (May 22nd), I chatted with its writer-director, Thunder Levin, about the trials and tribulations of making an Asylum mockbuster, graduating from the school of Corman, and navigating the pitfalls of the b-movie scene filmmaking.
Foy: Forgive me. I have to ask a question you’ve no doubt been asked many times before. Your first name is really Thunder? That’s not just a nickname?
Thunder: (sigh) Yeah, I’ve been asked that a few times before. Yes, Thunder is my real name.
- 5/16/2012
- by Foywonder
- DreadCentral.com
Ben Loory is a screenwriter who’s done project work for Jodie Foster and Alex Proyas, so it seems appropriate that his debut short-story collection, Stories For Nighttime And Some For The Day, brings the thrifty, breezy storytelling of the screen to prose fiction. Clocking in at 40 stories in 200 pages, this single-serving approach reads like Grimm’s Fairy Tales filtered through George Saunders with a short attention span. It’s immensely entertaining, full of funny, thoughtful modern fables and fairy tales designed to be unsuitable for bedtime stories, and sprinkled with just enough darker ones to provide a ...
- 8/10/2011
- avclub.com
This weekend: sisters take over their family's alligator park in Swamplandia!, Allison Pearson visits the cruel fates of adolescent fandom, and the haunting novels of Albania's Ismail Kadare.
Into the Swamp
Related story on The Daily Beast: This Week's Hot Reads
Swamplandia!, the talented short-story writer Karen Russell's debut novel, gives us two more of those precocious children who overcrowd the last 60 years of American fiction. From J.D. Salinger's Glass children to William Gaddis' Jr to Jonathan Safran Foer's Oskar Schell, our literature has clamored with intellectually overdeveloped but socially stunted children. Through their eyes, we're traditionally afforded fresh perspectives-often poignant or satirical-on modern society. Swamplandia!'s unique twist is to present two youths who at first seem to be Everglades savants, but turn out to be just regular kids in swampy circumstances.
The children in question are 13-year-old Ava Bigtree and her older brother Kiwi,...
Into the Swamp
Related story on The Daily Beast: This Week's Hot Reads
Swamplandia!, the talented short-story writer Karen Russell's debut novel, gives us two more of those precocious children who overcrowd the last 60 years of American fiction. From J.D. Salinger's Glass children to William Gaddis' Jr to Jonathan Safran Foer's Oskar Schell, our literature has clamored with intellectually overdeveloped but socially stunted children. Through their eyes, we're traditionally afforded fresh perspectives-often poignant or satirical-on modern society. Swamplandia!'s unique twist is to present two youths who at first seem to be Everglades savants, but turn out to be just regular kids in swampy circumstances.
The children in question are 13-year-old Ava Bigtree and her older brother Kiwi,...
- 2/5/2011
- by The Daily Beast
- The Daily Beast
Films by Stephen Frears, Abbas Kiarostami and Sophie Fiennes all come highly recommended
So, Cannes: I've been neglecting my blog, because things have been incredibly busy. It is hard to describe just how much queuing, waiting, being mucked about and dashing hither and thither there is at this the greatest of all film festivals. And that's before you get to sit down and write a word. To say it's a whirl is putting it mildly. However, here I am on the train back after a sleep-deprived and adrenaline-fuelled week. And here are my cinematic recommendations.
First, one of those odd ones: I didn't, to my great chagrin, get to see Mike Leigh's Another Year. But word of mouth on the Croisette is very good: everyone's saying this is a "strong" film by the British auteur. As a paid-up member of the Leigh fan club, I'll certainly waste no time...
So, Cannes: I've been neglecting my blog, because things have been incredibly busy. It is hard to describe just how much queuing, waiting, being mucked about and dashing hither and thither there is at this the greatest of all film festivals. And that's before you get to sit down and write a word. To say it's a whirl is putting it mildly. However, here I am on the train back after a sleep-deprived and adrenaline-fuelled week. And here are my cinematic recommendations.
First, one of those odd ones: I didn't, to my great chagrin, get to see Mike Leigh's Another Year. But word of mouth on the Croisette is very good: everyone's saying this is a "strong" film by the British auteur. As a paid-up member of the Leigh fan club, I'll certainly waste no time...
- 5/18/2010
- by Charlotte Higgins
- The Guardian - Film News
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