For Harry Potter fans, my sister has put together a great Remus Lupin music fanmix. Spoiler Alert: don’t click the link if you haven’t finished Harry Potter book seven (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). The fanmix is titled Got a Suitcase, Got Regrets. Follow the link to view the track list and download the music! It’s quite a fitting tribute to a very lovable character.
IGN is reporting that J.J. Abrams (Lost producer) is prepared to direct The Dark Tower, based on the Stephen King series.
IGN has exclusively learned that J.J. Abrams is poised to direct The Dark Tower, based on the Stephen King literary series. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot had “no comment” on the matter.
Sources advised us that an official announcement is forthcoming. We have been unable to determine whether Dark Tower will be a film project or a TV miniseries, although the latter is a more likely prospect given the complex nature of King’s seven-book series. Given Abrams’ success on the small screen — and King’s well known love for the Abrams-produced TV series Lost — the tube seems a better fit for The Dark Tower. That said, IGN now has reason to believe the project will be for the big-screen.
Read the full article on IGN.
Updated: Hollywood Reporter also confirms that J.J. Abrams is going to be involved in bringing The Dark Tower to film.
Reuters reports that the seventh and final book of the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, will be released on July 21, 2007. The fifth movie will also be released in July.
It is amazing how successful the Harry Potter series has become. It’s hard to believe that J. K. Rowling would be ending the series for good with this last book. Maybe she will write another series with Harry “all grown up”? Or narrate the stories of another group of students at Hogwarts? I’m sure whatever she writes next will sell many copies. She has a writing style that is simple enough to appeal to kids, and yet there is enough humor and interesting concepts that appeal to adults as well. The books are engaging and easy to read. I would recommend them to anyone who likes fantasy.
John Hodgman has been a correspondent on The Daily Show, and is also well known for being the “I’m a PC” guy in Mac ads. He has written a book called “The Areas of My Expertise”. The audio of the book, read by John himself, is available right now on iTunes for free! I just downloaded it myself and will listen to it later (it’s seven hours in length). If anyone else listens to it or has read it, feel free to share your thoughts.
By now you’ve probably heard of the new fantasy movie coming out today about a Dragon rider… it’s called Eragon. I recently finished reading the book, and I enjoyed it. It is classified as “young adult”, so it is a quick read, meant for younger people. The author, Christopher Paolini, started writing it when he was 15 (his parents helped him publish it a few years later). There have been quite a few criticisms of the book, especially those calling the writing derivative and immature and accusing the author of ripping off Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. They even go so far as to make fun of the title, which is also the name of the main character, stating that it is just one letter different than the word ‘dragon’. To be honest, I agree with the criticisms to a certain extent. I won’t spoil the plot, but instead I’ll just say that it seems very much like Star Wars in a Lord of the Rings setting. Some of the dialog seemed a bit contrived, and I’m not usually critical of books if they have a good plot. However, despite its flaws, I still enjoyed reading it. While the plot wasn’t very original, it wasn’t dull either. There was always something happening to keep my interest and develop the story. I will definitely get the second book (when it’s in paperback).
I was looking forward to seeing the Eragon movie after reading the book, but the movie is getting horrible reviews. I have read that the movie is quite a bit different than the book, which is a shame. I hate it when movie directors and writers stray too far from the original. The Lord of the Rings movies were very well done… they differed from the books only when necessary, while still holding true to the spirit of the books. The Harry Potter movies have also been reasonable transformations from the book. I will probably still see the Eragon movie because I like seeing books that I enjoy portrayed on film.