Are you there Judy Blume fans? It's me, Tiger Eyes.

Willa Holland plays DaveyStrange that a Judy Blume book hasn't been made into a feature film before now. There's been television but this is the first time on the big screen: Tiger Eyes is being released without hullabaloo on June 7th. It will also be available on demand. The director is Lawrence Blume; the author's son - what absolute heaven that must have been for Mama Blume; I can only imagine how thrilled I would be to collaborate with my...

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Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska couple up in May December romance

Cate BlanchettWhile Blue is the Warmest Color, winner of the Palme D'or is certainly the biggest lesbian love story to come out of Cannes this year -  it's not the only one. Dealmaker Harvey Weinstein finalized and announced his plans (or grabbed the chance at free pr) at Cannes to go forward with the Todd Haynes directed adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's gay romance novel of the 1950's Carol aka The Price of Salt. Adapted by Phyllis Nagy,...

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Behind the Candelabra: My take on the movie

Warning: This Post Riddled with Spoilers Behind the Candelabra, the story of Liberace and his lover Scott Thorson, gets off to a bumpy campy start with their meeting in Liberace's Vegas dressing room. Liberace (Michael Douglas) has such a ridiculous leer on his face, he so obviously wants to devour Thorson(Damon) who just stands there looking goofy and gorgeous and uncomfortable that for a nano-second I cringed. I watched cautiously...

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Kiss and Tell: Behind the scenes of Behind the Candelabra

HBO has released an extended behind-the-scenes look at Behind the Candelabra, the tv movie based on Scott Thorson's memoir about his life with Liberace. The Steven Soderbergh film starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon airs this Sunday at 9PM EST.  The buzz, as I buzzed yesterday, is that it's brilliant.  The 15 minute piece includes interviews with the actors - including the question of kissing each other - as well as archival footage...

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Behind the Candelabra: Bling It On!

If Cannes has been a bit of a mixed bag for James Franco's adaptation of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, another adaptation I've been watching out for had a much more uniformly enthusiastic reception. Steven Soderbergh's movie Behind the Candelabra, based on Scott Thorson's memoir of his life with Liberace -Thorson is played by Matt Damon, Michael Douglas is the flamboyant entertainer - has blown most everyone away. Turns out it's the full-on...

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James Franco won't lay dying

James Franco is dividing critics, as usual, this time with his adaptation of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying which screened at Cannes this week.  Interesting to note even the negative reviews grant Franco respect for the effort. An E for effort in the school-like references that critics like Mary Corliss in Time are making as a sort of snarky nod to Franco's grad student status. Franco brought it on with his own essay online in the...

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My take on the movie: What Maisie Knew is an inspired adaptation.

Kudos to screenwriters Nancy Doyne and Carroll Cartwright for extracting the essential truth of Henry James' novel What Maisie Knew and implanting it in a thoroughly modern context. Released from the dreary schoolroom, hansom cabs and grey skies of Victorian era London, 'Maisie' feels fresh, new and right at home in Manhattan's upper west side, circa now.The directors chat with Onata over a Shirley TempleDirectors Scott McGehee and David Siegel...

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Leonardo DiCaprio says hello to The Deep Blue Good-by

This excites the hell out of me - Dennis Lehane, author of novels Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, is adapting the great John D. MacDonald's The Deep Blue Good-by, the first of the Travis McGee books FOR LEONARDO DICAPRIO TO PLAY TRAVIS. I feel like a little kid but I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait. Leo as a beach bum? And as this particular cynical but romantic beach bum? Yes please.  If this goes well there could be a whole...

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What Maisie Knew ... my take on the Henry James' classic

What Maisie Knew is quite an old book - published in 1897 - but its' subject matter is just as timely in 2013 as ever. The inspiration for a new film starring Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgard, Steve Coogan, Joanna Vanderham and scene stealing Onata Aprile, here's the overview of the novel's storyline from Barnes and Noble."After her parents’ bitter divorce, young Maisie Farange finds herself shuttled between her selfish mother and vain father,...

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The Spring Snow falls in The Fault in our Stars

We don't have 'spring snow' in L.A.  That's the annual Amsterdam springtime ritual when the Iepen (the elm trees) shake off their seeds, so beautifully described by John Green in The Fault in Our Stars. The elm trees cast off their seeds every spring'There were elm trees everywhere along the canals, and these seeds were blowing out of them. But they didn't look like seeds. They looked for all the world like miniaturized rose petals...

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Listen to Julianne Moore sing with The Kills in 'What Maisie Knew'

What Maisie Knew opens today in L.A.; my understanding is that it's in limited roll-out but I'm not sure where besides the usual big city suspects. In the screen adaptation of Henry James' novella, Julianne Moore plays Maisie's divorced mother Susanna, an aging rocker. (more on the story, including a trailer with music by STARS here) In the film she teams up with real-life rock group The Kills, singing two songs with them on the soundtrack, “Night...

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Scarlett Johansson is Making a "Summer Crossing"

Scarlett Johansson Update 5/16/2012: I TOLDJA about Scarlett Johansson adapting Summer Crossing over a year ago, back on 11/12/2011!  Johansson's finally getting some financing and announced at Cannes that they'll start shooting next year.  She talked to EW about the project “Several years ago I began working alongside the Capote estate and writer Tristine Skylar to adapt Summer Crossing, an inspired early work of Truman’s which...

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Hailee Steinfeld goes For the Dogs with Sam Worthington

Some news from Cannes on the Phillip Noyce adaption of Kevin Wignall's novel For the Dogs. The film, set to star Sam Worthington as Stephen Lucas, a hit man hired to watch over a teenage girl, gets his girl; True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld. I haven't paid attention to this one; I usually don't seek out thrillers and suspense for reading material although I almost always end up enjoying them. Especially when Publishers Weekly compares the author...

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This Is Where I Leave You : On location in New York City

JAZZY COVERUpdatedFilming  for the screen adaptation of Jonathan Tropper's This Is Where I Leave You got underway yesterday in NYC. The first day's shooting location was Oakland Cemetery, 2 Saw Mill River Rd, Yonkers, NY. according to On Location Vacations. Not sure if they've moved on yet or not - depends on the length funeral in the novel, I s'pose. (10am Update: OLV reports the film is shooting today at Coler-Goldwater Hospital...

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As I Lay Dying ... First trailer and poster for Franco's Cannes entry

POSTERBOOKHere's the first trailer for James Franco's movie adaptation of As I Lay Dying. And finally a poster! A very pleasing poster that is so strong and GRAPHIC without being graphic; I suspect it's just a placeholder created for Cannes; can you imagine a film poster without a giant head or heads on it?They'll use this as a teaser until the film gets its distributor and then the real marketing gets ramped up. And then they'll need James....

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