The Guardian books blog notes that the movie trailer for Where the Wild Things Are is out. The film is based on the classic children’s book by the same name (Wikipedia article on it is here) and will be released on October 16th.
Reuters has a short video up about the movie Inkheart (based on the book by Cornelia Funke) and its world premiere. Nothing too fascinating, but it’s probably worth a look if you’ve read it and/or plan to see the film:
(Link to video on Reuters is here if the embedded video doesn’t play. You’ll have to watch a short commercial first.)
Published today in The Guardian:
The Wizard and the Hopping Pot: There was once a kindly old wizard who used his magic generously and wisely for his neighbours. But then he died and he left his lucky cooking pot to his son. His son was a meanie who didn’t like Muggles and refused to help anyone. The pot got very angry about this and grew warts and hopped around the village chasing him, until he changed his mind. The End.
J.K. Rowling’s remaining three stories receive a similar treatment. You can view the full article here.
According to the LA Times, Warner Brothers plans to split Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into two movies. Part one will arrive in cinemas in November 2010 and part two will follow in May 2011. It might seem an obvious ruse to add a little more value to the richest franchise in movie history - which has brought in £2.2bn around the world thus far - but those involved insist the decision has been made to serve a story that cannot be properly adapted any more briefly.
Daniel Radcliffe, the series’ star, is quoted as saying “it’s the only way you can do it, without cutting out a huge portion of the book”. He explained that subplots in earlier books could be excised for adaptations, but “the seventh book doesn’t really have any subplots. It’s one driving, pounding story from the word go.”
Link to full Guardian article
From Times Online:
A unique volume of fairytales handwritten and illustrated by J.K. Rowling fetched nearly £2 million at auction today, far surpassing Sotheby’s estimated selling price of a mere £50,000. Following the auction, an astonished Miss Rowling said: “I am stunned and ecstatic. This will mean so much to children in desperate need of help. It means Christmas has come early for me.”
Read the full article here. View J.K. Rowlings website here.
The bestselling author of children’s and adults’ fiction explains how not being able to get to the library got her started and now she has no choice
The interview is available on Guardian Unlimited Books - or, take a look at Anne Fine’s official site.
BBC News reports:
JK Rowling has said she is back at work, just days after her final Harry Potter book was published.
In an interview with the USA Today newspaper, the author said she was sad the Harry Potter series had come to an end, but would not stop writing.
“I’m sort of writing two things at the moment,” she said. “One is for children and the other is not for children.”
Rowling, 41, said she expected to drop one of her two new books, which is what happened when she started writing Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone in the 1990s.
“The weird thing is that this is exactly the way I started writing Harry,” she said. “I was writing two things simultaneously for a year before Harry took over. So one will oust the other in due course, and I’ll know that’s my next thing.”
Sales of the seventh and last Harry Potter book are, to no one’s surprise, breaking records in the publishing industry.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has thrown off concerns over internet spoilers and broken embargoes to confirm its position as the world’s fastest-selling book today, with Nielsen Bookscan estimating a staggering 2.7m copies sold in the UK of the seventh and final book during a hectic period of just 24 hours - a 35% increase on first-day sales of JK Rowling’s last blockbuster, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The figure, which includes sales through UK bookshops, supermarkets, internet sites and newspapers on Saturday July 21 2007, brings to a close a remarkable run for the popular children’s serial, which saw record-breaking sales of 1.8m copies in one day for the fifth book in the series, and 2m for the sixth. UK sales of the Harry Potter series as a whole now stand at 22.6m copies, with 72.1m copies sold worldwide.
Link to the Guardian article
