Neil Gaiman to write for Doctor Who?
According to Rich Johnston at Comic Book Resources, new Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has put forth a request to legendary writer Neil Gaiman to pen an episode for the 2010 season. I will step back while you shriek with excitement.
Neil Gaiman first garnered fame for his comic book of the 80’s and 90’s, The Sandman, which endeared him to all sorts of people who are now influential in the entertainment industry. He has written novels (one of which, Stardust, was recently adapted into a movie). He has written movies (most recently Beowulf). He has written for television before as well (the Babylon 5 episode “Day of the Dead”).
I hope this rumor is true. Gaiman is well-versed in the fantasy genre and would add a great deal of knowledge and depth to the program. Given how the Doctor is portrayed more or less as a wizard with his sonic screwdriver doubling as a magic wand, perhaps Gaiman could add some more fantasy elements to it. Perhaps the Doctor could even meet Death.
Harry Potter Prequel?
JK Rowling has penned a prequel to the seven book Harry Potter series. The 800-word outline was donated for an auction to raise money for English PEN and Dyslexia Action charities. Before you get too excited, Rowling says that the prequel doesnt actually exist, ending the outline with:
“From the prequel I am not working on — but that was fun!”
And while I’m sure fans would love a prequel, it doesn’t seem like a very good idea to me. The story which takes place before Harry went to Hogwarts, and before he began to discover his powers, isn’t probably a tale worth telling. Plus, the friends and enemies which Harry later meets at Hogwarts would likely not be part of said story.
Other authors who have donated outline works are Lisa Appignanesi, Margaret Atwood, Lauren Child, Richard Ford, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Michael Rosen, Axel Scheffler, Tom Stoppard and Irvine Welsh. Copies of the cards will be published as a book which will be available in August.
source: SunTimes
David Fincher to Direct Graphic Novel Adaptation Black Hole
Update: Neil Gaiman said on his personal blog yesterday that he is still co-writing the Black Hole script with Roger Avary. Seems rather stoked on Fincher’s involvement as well. Thanks to reader ‘Nancy.’
“David Fincher tackling STDs, not like herpes, worse,” is the imagined, beaded brow pitch to the studio. It worked. The director of the Oscar-shunned modern masterpiece Zodiac, as well as Fight Club, is attached to direct a film based on the comics-turned-acclaimed graphic novel, Black Hole, by Charles Burns. Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing the project, but like DiCaprio’s Akira, no official word if Pitt is involved to star. Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman were set to adapt the screenplay in 2006, but no word if Fincher is doing his own thing here.
Set in the ’70s, Black Hole is a 12-issue comic that followed teenagers who spread “the Bug,” a fictional, incurable STD that causes the sexually-active to develop horrific physical deformities, as well as those who didn’t catch it but reacted to the plague. As you might expect, this turns the infected teens into social outcasts, and the plot synopsis at publisher Pantheon Graphics reads, “What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself - the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety and ennui, the longing for escape. And then the murders start.”
Fincher’s next theatrical release is December’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starring Brad Pitt, which is already receiving almighty buzz. Unlike Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, I don’t think Fincher has crafted his end-all-be-all American classic yet. And while Black Hole sounds too fun and twisted to be it, I hope he’ll next be gearing up for the serious sci-fi epic Rendezvous with Rama, one of several projects he’s latched to, another being the Eliot Ness serial killer flick Torso. But a Fincher Ghost World, are you friggin’ kidding? The eclipse has played into some strangely bi-polar news today, and this may be the peak of awesome.
Of note, Alexandre Aja was originally on board to direct this, but he has other fish to fry (and can I just add that a mere two comments for his upcoming Piranha 3D periodically had me questioning life?).
Along with Blankets, Black Hole has been in my “graphic novel requisite procrastination” queue on Amazon for at least six months. I didn’t realize it was originally published by the long-gone Kitchen Sink Press, a company I fondly remember back in the day when I bought comics, if only for seeing its Crow titles amongst the latest The Maxx and Pitt. Damn, this is going to be cool flick, nostalgia can take a hike. And shout out to Paramount Pictures for booking Fincher for three flicks in a row now. That rocks.
Source Link: Variety
Sneak Peak: Neil Gaiman’s Coraline
Neil Gaiman has released a sneak peek at some early, not-quite-final footage from Coraline. Based on Gaiman’s short children’s novel of the same name, Coraline is a young bored girl who discovers that bricked-up wall behind a door in her house leads to another dimension, where she has a different mother, and different father. A stop-motion film produced in stereoscopic 3-D from director Henry Selick, the guy behind The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone. the film features the voice talent of Dakota Fanning, Ian McShane, Teri Hatcher, and Keith David.
Neil Gaiman has yet to really impress me. I’ve me the man and interviewed him twice, and he’s intelligent, clever, and an over-all nice guy. I feel that I should like his material based off my professional interactions, but so far I’ve found myself underwhelmed by Mirrormask, Stardust and Beowulf. Not to say I didn’t like the films, I just don’t understand the huge cult following behind the projects that he creates. I have yet to read a comic or novel written by Gaiman, and maybe there is where I’m missing out. It seems to me that I like many of his ideas, but not the final film productions.
Coraline has a great concept, and the style seems very Nightmare-ish, but without the very cool Tim Burton stylings. What impresses me with this footage is some of the subtle animation. For example, watch the area of Coraoline’s back in the beginning of this clip. Watch the clip.
Coraline will hit theaters in 2008.