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.
The Guardian has an exclusive excerpt from Philip Pullman’s latest book, Once Upon a Time in the North, which takes place in the same world as his acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy and a few decades earlier.
The most interesting thing was the bears. The first time Lee saw one slouching casually out of an alley he could scarcely believe his eyes. Gigantic, ivory-furred, silent: the creature’s expression was impossible to read, but there was no mistaking the immense power in those limbs, those claws, that air of inhuman self-possession. There were more of them further into town, gathered in small groups at street corners, sleeping in alleyways, and occasionally working: pulling a cart, or lifting blocks of stone on a building site.
The townspeople took no notice of them, except to avoid them on the pavement. They didn’t look at them either, Lee noticed.
“They want to pretend they’re not there,” said Hester.
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
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
So, here it is at last: The final confrontation between Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the “symbol of hope†for both the Wizard and Muggle worlds, and Lord Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named, the nefarious leader of the Death Eaters and would-be ruler of all. Good versus Evil. Love versus Hate. The Seeker versus the Dark Lord.
View the full New York Times review here. There are some small spoilers but nothing, in my opinion, that would affect your enjoyment of the book.
Note: this post is spoiler-free.
Security guru Bruce Schneier writes:
It’s online [Note: link is spoiler safe]: digital photographs of every page are available on BitTorrent.
I’ve been fielding press calls on this, mostly from reporters asking me what the publisher could have done differently. Honestly, I don’t think it was possible to keep the book under wraps. There are millions of copies of the book headed to all four corners of the globe. There are simply too many people who must be trusted in order for the security to hold. And all it takes is one untrustworthy person — one truck driver, one bookstore owner, one warehouse worker — to leak the book.
But conversely, I don’t think the publishers should care. Anyone fan-crazed enough to read digital photographs of the pages a few days before the real copy comes out is also someone who is going to buy a real copy. And anyone who will read the digital photographs instead of the real book would have borrowed a copy from a friend. My guess is that the publishers will lose zero sales, and that the pre-release will simply increase the press frenzy.
I’m kind of amazed the book hadn’t leaked sooner.
Paper-based media also has its share of spoilers and early releases:
With only two days to go before the publication of the seventh and final instalment of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, both the New York Times and the Baltimore Sun have broken one of the most stringent embargoes of recent times and published a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
After reading a copy “purchased at a New York City store yesterday”, one of America’s most influential literary critics, Michiko Kakutani, hails the volume in the New York Times as a dose of “good old-fashioned closure”.
Bloomsbury described the review as “very sad” to Reuters, pointing out that there was only one more day until the official release of the book around the world.
Link to Guardian article (some very vague spoilers, mostly about book structure/pacing)
As the end of the Harry Potter series approaches this July, publishers and booksellers are stepping up the search to find a new big hit to fill the coming hole in their profits. Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, is one of the latest candidates.
Interestingly, Tunnels was originally self-published; then went on to be picked up by one of the stars of the publishing business.
The latest candidate arrives under the aegis of the man who, as an editor at Bloomsbury, was the first to spot Potter’s potential, and who has gone on to publish the popular Cornelia Funke books. Barry Cunningham is now tipping a fantasy tale about a boy archaeologist, who discovers a world of thrilling adventure after digging a hole, as the next enormously big thing.
Cunningham found the first of the books, Tunnels, after its joint authors Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams pooled their resources to self-publish a deluxe edition. The first print run, sold through Gordon’s local bookshop in Norfolk, apparently sold out within hours - a sensational success for a self-published book - and word reached Cunningham.
With the backing of Cunningham - a man considered something of a magician himself in the publishing world - the book has gone on to sell pre-publication rights in 15 languages around the world, securing advances totalling more than £500,000. Cunningham is currently in Hollywood, in discussions to sell the film rights.
Link to the full Guardian article
