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.
Well, season one’s over. What did you think? Spoilers Ahoy in the comments section!
As they’re wont to do, Suvudu has released another 50-page excerpt of an exciting new novel on their website. This time around, it’s Mark Charan Newton‘s City of Ruin, one of my favourite novels of last year!
‘Last year?’ you say.
‘Well,’ I respond. ‘You see, Newton’s books are released about a year ahead of time in the UK and Canada… so I get to read them early!’
‘I wanna read them early!’ you whine.
‘Then rejoice! Just check out The Book Depository. Free worldwide shipping from the UK! Even better, if you like City of Ruin, you can also order its sequel, The Book of Transformations, which won’t be out in the US for at least another year!’
‘Thanks, Aidan!’ you shout. Absolute jubilation warps your face and tears of joy rolling down your cheeks. ‘You’re an amazing blogger and advocate of great Fantasy novels.’
‘Yah, I know.’
Newton has some interesting thoughts on City of Ruin:
[City of Ruin] is about a siege. It’s a war story. Villiren is a city under threat from an outside force, a race not natural to the world in which the book is set. I invested a lot of the narrative in building up to the war, because to make this war story more powerful, I added in some personal stories. The reasoning was that if the reader was invested in characters beforehand, then they would care when the invasion begun and their lives are at threat. So there are love affairs, a crime plot (with a serial killer), a gang leader whose marriage is breaking down uncontrollably.
You can read the first 50 pages of City of Ruin, and read the rest of Mark’s thoughts on the novel, on Suvudu.
