Since the Brave poster proved (shockingly) popular, here’s the trailer for Pixar’s 2012 film. Like many of you, I’m much more excited for this than Cars 2 (a sequel to one of Pixar’s weakest films). Brave, no surprisingly, looks wonderful.

Via Entertainment Weekly:

Natalie Dormer, who memorably played the seductive and doomed Anne Boylen on Showtime’s The Tudors, has been added to the fantasy drama’s regular cast.

Dormer will play Margaery Tyrell.

A wonderful choice. Older than appropriate for Margaery per the novels, but with the average age of all the children increased, and Dormer’s ability to play younger than her age, I don’t anticipate being bothered by that. Not as delicately pretty as I pictured the character, either, but she absolutely has the shrewd charisma and quiet sophistication to handle Margaery’s plot. She’ll really have a chance to shine in the third season. I’m a big fan of Dormer’s work on The Tudors, so I’m understandably excited about her addition to the Game of Thrones cast.

Via Entertainment Weekly:

”He fits the ears, and he’s got some very nice feet,” Jackson says of his Bilbo. ”I think he’s got the biggest hobbit feet we’ve had so far. They’re a little bit hard to walk in, but he’s managed to figure out the perfect hobbit gait.”

That’s pretty much the Bilbo I’ve always pictured in my head. Freeman’s got the proper charisma and irreverence to give life to the iconic character. Love the dwarves hiding the in the background!

Brave is set in the mystical Scottish Highlands, where Mérida is the princess of a kingdom ruled by King Fergus and Queen Elinor. An unruly daughter and an accomplished archer, Mérida one day defies a sacred custom of the land and inadvertently brings turmoil to the kingdom. In an attempt to set things right, Mérida seeks out an eccentric old Wise Woman and is granted an ill-fated wish. Also figuring into Mérida’s quest — and serving as comic relief — are the kingdom’s three lords: the enormous Lord MacGuffin, the surly Lord Macintosh, and the disagreeable Lord Dingwall.

Despite being an absolute hound for Pixar movies, I’d not seen this poster nor read this early blurb of their next movie, Brave… and holy smokes am I excited! Just beautiful and atmospheric. Pixar dipping into Scottish myth is just too much awesome for me to handle.

Thanks to wily espionage by The Mad Hatter, some news of HBO’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s classic Americana/Urban Fantasy novel, American Gods, has surfaced:

First and foremost Neil mentioned that the first season of the HBO adaptation of American Gods will be comprised of the whole of the novel. Given that it has been discussed that there are plans for 6 seasons Neil will be providing a lot more information. The idea that the “Monarch of the Glen” being made part of the series seems likely as well. Plus Neil said there are at least two more stories about Shadow’s time in Europe that take place after Monarch and before the events of the planned sequel to American Gods. Neil briefly discussed the shorts and seemed interested in getting to them sooner than later. He also brought up what he calls “The American Gods Sequel Box,” which includes Bigfoot, a possible appearance by Jesus, and a tiny town in Florida founded by Spiritualist in the 20s comprised of lots of tarot reading shops. It is apparently a real thing.

Seems I was right on the money with my predictions when news of the project first hit the web. Most interesting to me, though, is the discussion of ‘The American Gods Sequel Box.’ With only the first season of the television show covering the novel, I’m curious to see what direction HBO takes with the following seasons. As I said in the previous post, it would be great if they took one of Gaiman’s concepts from ‘The Box’ and dedicated a season to exploring it before moving onto a new, self-contained idea when the season ends, similar to The Wire. Gaiman has experience writing television/film/theatre, so it will be interesting to see if he chooses stories from ‘The Box’ based on how well they’ll translate to the screen or if he’ll be removed from the creative aspects of the adaptation. With George R.R. Martin penning an episode per season for Game of Thrones, it’s easy to assume that Gaiman will play a similar role on American Gods. Very curious to see how this project proceeds.