Big screen adaptations of novels are common. This year everything from Big screen adaptations of novels are common. This year everything from The Lorax to The Hunger Games and even Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter are making the leap from page to stage.
Less common is the reworking of self-help books for the movies.
Earlier this year Think Like a Man, a rom com based on Steve Harvey’s bestselling advice book was a huge hit and this weekend pregnancy guide What to Expect When You’re Expecting gets the all star treatment as a comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Banks.
Self help guides rarely get adapted into movies because they generally lack a dramatic arc. 101 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills Instantly, 4th Edition, for instance, doesn’t offer up much in the way of exciting drama, but some filmmakers have found ways of creating stories from advice books.
In 1962 when Helen Gurley Brown’s book Sex and the Single Girl sold 2 million copies in 3 weeks, Hollywood came calling. The book’s then controversial premise—
that women should enjoy sex in or out of wedlock— was, however, watered down into a salute to marriage, which better suited the tone of the times than the book’s feminist message.
Years later both Sex and the City and Renée Zellweger’s sex farce Down with Love both looked to the book for inspiration.
The success of Sex and the Single Girl gave birth to Woody Allen’s adaptation of David Reuben’s sex manual Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). Allen adapted the bestseller’s seven chapters—including What Happens During Ejaculation?—into vignettes which explored human sexuality.
In 2004 Tiny Fey shortened the unwieldy title Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughters Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence to Mean Girls. The story of high school cliques was a hit and launched the careers of Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried.
Not all self-help book adaptations are successful. One review for Let’s Go To Prison, based on an advice book by Jim Hogshire, said, “89 minutes that drag on like, well, a prison sentence,” while He’s Just Not That Into You was likened to “reliving your 20s, without any of the fun.”
Those flops haven’t stopped filmmakers from developing more stories from self-help books. Soon the most famous of them all, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, will be coming to a theatre near you. are making the leap from page to stage.
Less common is the reworking of self-help books for the movies.
Earlier this year Think Like a Man, a rom com based on Steve Harvey’s bestselling advice book was a huge hit and this weekend pregnancy guide What to Expect When You’re Expecting gets the all star treatment as a comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Banks.
Self help guides rarely get adapted into movies because they generally lack a dramatic arc. 101 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills Instantly, 4th Edition, for instance, doesn’t offer up much in the way of exciting drama, but some filmmakers have found ways of creating stories from advice books.
In 1962 when Helen Gurley Brown’s book Sex and the Single Girl sold 2 million copies in 3 weeks, Hollywood came calling. The book’s then controversial premise—
that women should enjoy sex in or out of wedlock— was, however, watered down into a salute to marriage, which better suited the tone of the times than the book’s feminist message.
Years later both Sex and the City and Renée Zellweger’s sex farce Down with Love both looked to the book for inspiration.
The success of Sex and the Single Girl gave birth to Woody Allen’s adaptation of David Reuben’s sex manual Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask). Allen adapted the bestseller’s seven chapters—including What Happens During Ejaculation?—into vignettes which explored human sexuality.
In 2004 Tiny Fey shortened the unwieldy title Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughters Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence to Mean Girls. The story of high school cliques was a hit and launched the careers of Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried.
Not all self-help book adaptations are successful. One review for Let’s Go To Prison, based on an advice book by Jim Hogshire, said, “89 minutes that drag on like, well, a prison sentence,” while He’s Just Not That Into You was likened to “reliving your 20s, without any of the fun.”
Those flops haven’t stopped filmmakers from developing more stories from self-help books. Soon the most famous of them all, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, will be coming to a theatre near you.
This weekend Tim Burton and Johnny Depp bring the long dead gothic soap opera Dark Shadows to back to life.
The 1960s era melodrama—which TV Guide included on their Top Cult Shows Ever list—hinged on the supernatural comings and goings at the Collins family’s Maine estate.
Werewolves, zombies and witches all appeared, but it was Barnabas Collins, a lovesick vampire troubled by his immortal existence—although it wasn’t until episode 410 that they actually used the “v” word. Until then they’d say, “He walks at night but he ain’t alive.”—who brought in upwards of 20 million afternoon viewers during the show’s heyday.
Collins, played by Canadian actor Jonathan Frid (who passed away last month at age 87), was the show’s biggest star and the reason Quentin Tarantino and Madonna never missed an episode.
Depp, who resurrects the character in the movie, was also a big fan.
“Jonathan Frid was the reason I used to run home from school to watch Dark Shadows,” he said, adding that as a child, he was so obsessed with Barnabas Collins that he wanted to be him.
The fame that came along with playing the lusty vampire was unexpected. When Frid won the role he was planning a move to San Diego to teach acting and only accepted the part as a three-week gig to make money for the move.
“Ever since Frid joined Dark Shadows in April 1967, the program’s ratings have zoomed,” wrote the Chicago Tribune, “and Frid’s popularity has soared so rapidly that not even television’s imagemakers, let alone the actor himself, can explain it.”
The character struck a chord with audiences—Frid suggested the show became successful because it offered an escape from the reality of the Vietnam war—but in his first weeks wearing Barnabas’s cape he had no idea of his popularity. When a producer handed him a piece of paper he only reluctantly accepted it, thinking it was a pink slip. It wasn’t. It was a piece of fan mail.
Frid also played the character on the big screen in House of Dark Shadows. Many other TV cast members also reprised their roles but be warned, the movie is much bloodier than the soap.
After Dark Shadows left the air in 1971 Frid worked primarily on stage, but his final performance, as a guest at a Collin’s Manor gala, is featured in Tim Burton’s movie.
The Avengers stars a group of actors who were well known before they donned the capes and mechanical suits of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Hulk.
Of them, Robert Downey Jr. was the best known, while the Chrises, Evans and Hemsworth were talented up-and-comers and Mark Ruffalo was the Oscar-nominated indie king.
With the film breaking box office records in its worldwide release, it’s fair to say each of these actors will now go from superheroes to superstars.
But what about before they could leap tall buildings in a single bound? (I know that was Superman, but you get my point!) Here are some movies that helped shape this quartet of actors into stars.
Robert Downey Jr.
Despite saying, “I know very little about acting. I’m just an incredibly gifted faker,” Downey has developed into what Esquire called “the second best actor in the world.”
Ten years ago, however, Downey was better known for his extracurricular activities than his films. His committed, loopy performances made him a star at a young age and netted him an Oscar nomination for playing Charlie Chaplin, but drugs and alcohol sidelined him until 2001 when, clean and sober, he rebuilt his career.
MUST SEES: Less Than Zero, Natural Born Killers, Chaplin, Good Night & Good Luck, Richard III.
Chris Evans
Evans played a superhero in Fantastic Four and its sequel, but it took Captain America to make him an A-list star.
He’s flip-flopped between mainstream fare like Not Another Teen Movie and edgier films like The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, to “show some layers. I’m not just a superhero-action guy.”
MUST SEES: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Puncture, Fierce People.
Chris Hemsworth
Hemsworth made his American debut as George Kirk, father to the icon character James T. in the reboot of Star Trek.
Already a soap (Home and Away) and reality show (Dancing with the Stars) star in Australia, the muscle bound performer beat out dozens of actors to win the role of Thor, including his own brother Liam Hemsworth.
MUST SEES: Cabin in the Woods, A Perfect Getaway.
Mark Ruffalo
Early comparisons to Marlon Brando earned Ruffalo roles in an interesting array of films. Playing Laura Linney’s slacker brother in You Can Count on Me made him a star and indie film darling.
MUST SEES: My Life Without Me, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shutter Island, The Kids Are All Right.
Movie tough guy Jason Statham is either remarkably consistent or just really enjoys playing guys who can break your neck with his steely gaze. Whatever the case, when you pay your money for a Statham flick you know in advance what you’re getting into.
In this weekend’s Safe, the gravelly-voiced action hero digs deep into his bag of tricks to play Luke Wright, Statham Character #2. That’s the “loner with a past who must protect a youthful innocent.” (As opposed to Statham Character #1 in which he plays “a loner with a past who must protect a loved one.”)
Like his other movies Safe is a marketers dream. Here’s a sample ad:
Body Count: 350
Bullet Budget: $1,000,000
Jason Statham’s Steely Glare: Priceless
Recently a scientific poll—OK, I posted a question on facebook—posed this question: What makes Statham movies so popular? Here are some of the comments:
• His Blue Steel stare puts Zoolander to shame!
• His complete lack of facial movement? It’s like if Buster Keaton were an emotionless British killing machine.
• He always manages to kick someone’s butt while being tied to a chair.
• Not since Don Johnson, circa Miami Vice, has an actor managed to maintain a perfect three-day stubble…
His movies are predictable as heck. “You gotta be kidding me!” you’ll be tempted to say at some of the plot twists, if only the movie’s characters didn’t beat you to it. They are cliché-a-thons, but because Statham understands his audience and persona his films are dumb good fun. His über-macho presence is more important than the script. As long as he is in motion, running and leaping, kicking and punching, and giving voice to action movie platitudes in his distinctive English rasp, his pictures work.
Statham has made films like Transporter, Killer Elite, The Mechanic,
over-and-over. Different title, and sometimes with a big name supporting cast—like Robert De Niro and Clive Owen—and sometimes not—Safe co-stars newcomer Catherine Chan—but the story of a tough guy who lives in a world where “everybody knows the rules; there are no rules,” is the common thread.
Statham, however, says he’s open to showing audiences another side of his personality. When a Huffington Post writer asked if he would make a rom com with Reese Witherspoon he said, “of course, I would love to do that. But, my phone is right there and it ain’t ******* ringing.”
The word romance conjures up different ideas for different people. Some folks, when they muse about love, create pictures of Fabio locked in an embrace with a raven-haired beauty in their mind’s eye. Others imagine John Cusack, boom-box raised above his head, lurking outside his beloved’s bedroom window.
When Nicholas Sparks thinks about amour, however, I imagine dollar signs come to mind. He is the premier romance writer of his generation, single handedly giving Harlequin a run in the tearjerker department. Who else could write a line like, “Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it,” with a straight face?
The flowery pen behind novels and screenplays like The Notebook, Dear John and Nights in Rodanthe returns with this weekend’s parcel of passion, The Lucky One, a story of good luck charms and true love.
He writes tales of love and loss, of mighty obstacles overcome and lip-locks galore, which he defines as “dramatic epic love stories” along the lines of “Eric Segal’s Love Story or The Bridges of Madison County… But you can even go all the way back. You had Hemingway write A Farewell to Arms, the movies of the forties—Casablanca, From Here to Eternity—Shakespeare, and that’s the genre I work in.”
He caught some flack for comparing himself to Shakespeare—one writer said, “If Sparks is like Shakespeare, then a housepainter is like Picasso.”—but the fact remains that his unconventional love stories have made his name synonymous with the romance genre.
Sitting at the top of the list is The Notebook, which made stars of Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gostling. Marie Claire magazine says, “this movie is packed with heart-flutteringly incredible loves scenes… that it’s impossible to choose just one,” but Noah and Alley’s boat ride on the lake surrounded by swans is generally considered to be the most memorable moment in a movie that is essentially just one long love scene.
Peter Travers called Message in a Bottle “a hazard to all those allergic to ponderous chick flicks,” but the movie features great romantic chemistry between Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn and a scene stealing performance from Paul Newman.
Even Miley Cyrus has been Sparksified. She chose the author to pen The Last Song, her fist post Hannah Montana movie, because she was a huge fan of his other weepie A Walk to Remember.
The Three Stooges—Larry Fine, Curly Howard and brother Moe Howard were the most famous incarnation—“nyuk! nyuk! nyuked!” their way through 220 slapstick movies in a career that spanned the heyday of vaudeville to the 1970s.
They elevated the double cheek slap to a fine art, made the nose tweak a signature move and threw more pies than the busiest pastry chefs.
They also made an impact. Mel Gibson worked Stooges references into all the Lethal Weapon movies and Quentin Tarantino inserted a clip of the Stooge classic the Brideless Groom into Pulp Fiction. Iggy Pop named his band The Stooges in tribute and in 1983 the Jump ‘N the Saddle Band had a hit with The Curly Shuffle. There’s even a Philadelphia museum devoted to them—named The Stoogeum, of course—which attracts thousands of people yearly.
This weekend a new trio says “Hello! Hello! Hello!” in The Three Stooges, a Farrelly Brothers directed comedy starring Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes, and Will Sasso as Moe, Curly and Larry. Its vintage Stooges so expect head butts, the occasional hair pull and assorted slaps, all with a new twist.
To see classic Stoogisms, however, check out these movies:
The story of Hoi Polloi was so effective the trio recycled it twice more in the films Half-Wits Holiday and Pies and Guys. The Pygmalion-esque plotline of a professor who claims he can turn the Stooges into refined gentlemen features a dancing scene voted by fans as their favorite Stooge moment of all time.
Disorder in the Court casts the boys as star witnesses at the murder trial of their friend, a nightclub dancer. The film’s most famous scene, Curly taking the witness stand oath, was borrowed almost in its entirety from the Buster Keaton movie Sidewalks of New York.
Curly’s favorite film was A Plumbing We Will Go which featured the guys as plumbers hired to fix a leak in a mansion. They mix and mingle the electrical and plumbing systems causing havoc in the house. The result? A woman turns on a TV report from Niagara Falls and a wave of water pours out of the set.
Also recommended are Violent Is the Word for Curly, featuring the classic Swingin’ the Alphabet song and Grips, Grunts and Groans, which gave birth to the famous Stooge stunt of attempting to escape a room only to wind up running in circles.
As the 100th anniversary of the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic approaches, there are no shortages of cinematic ways to pay tribute to one of the most famous disasters of the 20th century.
This weekend, James Cameron’s Titanic sets sail again in theatres, this voyage in 3D. The story of Jack and Rose and their unsinkable love may be the best known of all the big boat movies, but it isn’t the only one.
The first films about the sinking were made within a year of the event; 1912 saw three 10-minute films released to quench audience’s thirst for Titanic news. The most famous of the movies featured an actual Titanic survivor.
Saved from the Titanic starred Dorothy Gibson, an actress who was also a first class passenger on the ship. Premiering on May 14, 1912, (just 29 days after the Titanic sank) the movie has Ms. Gibson recalling her experiences as a passenger, while wearing the same dress she had worn when the ship went down.
In a fictional twist she is shown as one of the last people to leave the ship when, in fact, she was the first person to enter lifeboat number seven.
Cut to 1929. British International Pictures was forced to release their epic film on the Titanic under the name The Atlantic when White Star Line threatened legal action. Seems the Titanic’s owner was actively trying to dissuade producers from cashing in on the Titanic disaster.
The next mention of the doomed ship on film came in 1933 in the best picture winner Cavalcade. In its most famous scene, newlyweds embark on their honeymoon cruise. Standing on the deck they discuss their plans as the ship pulls out of dock. Soon it’s revealed they’re standing in front of a life preserver embossed with the name Titanic.
Best of the bunch are Titanic, an all-star docu-drama headlined by Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Wagner, that debuted on April 14, 1953, exactly 41 years after the disaster and A Night to Remember, which is still regarded as the most accurate of all the Titanic films.
Nazis also cashed in on the Titanic
Even Hitler had a hand in making a Titanic film. 1943’s S.O.S Titanic was a propaganda film suggesting British incompetence was to blame for the disaster.
As water funnels into the ship, Captain Smith says, “See if you can find any German people on board. They’ll know how to save the ship.”
Clive Owen should be breathing the same air as George Clooney and Will Smith; that crystal clean A-lister air that only the rarified few ever get to sample.
He ought to be a massive movie star, but despite smouldering good looks and some big hits like Children of Men and The Inside Man, he isn’t.
Last year the Globe and Mail noted that Owen “remains just below popular radar” despite “critical acclaim for his acting chops.” He’s a Golden Globe and BAFTA winner and an Oscar nominee, so the acting chops aren’t in doubt, but being a movie star and being a good actor are not mutually exclusive. If so, Sam Rockwell and Casey Affleck would be superstars.
So why isn’t Owen in the mega leagues?
Partly by choice. It’s said that he prefers a quiet life in the coastal town of Harwich, England, with his wife of almost two decades and children, to walking a red carpet.
Fair enough, but I think the eclecticism of his choices prevents audiences from getting a handle on him.
This weekend, for instance, he plays a protective father who battles a bogeyman named Hollowface to protect his daughter in the horror film Intruders.
It’s not the first time he’s played a family man but in very different kinds of films, with varying portrayals.
In Trust he was a sensitive father shattered by his daughter’s involvement with an online predator and in The Boys Are Back he had to learn how to be a father to two kids he barely knew after his on-screen wife died.
Then there is the long list of action movies on his resumé. He has punched, kicked and shot his way through violent films that relied on cartoon theatrics like Shoot ’Em Up and Sin City, espionage thrillers like Killer Elite and The International and even spy comedies like The Pink Panther.
Then there are the swashbuckling period pieces like King Arthur and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, where he’s all ruffles and chain mail, and Gosford Park, a murder mystery set in 1932, where he plays Robert Parks, the valet to a wealthy land owner.
The only constants connecting Owen’s movies are his charisma — “I don’t ‘do’ emotion,” he says. “Emotions are overrated. I’m more interested in creating a presence” — and his acting ability. Mega star or not, no one can deny the guy has presence no matter what the role.
If you’ve read The Hunger Games novels, you’re likely excited about the big screen adaptation hitting theatres this Friday. The story of a dystopian world where children killing children is a national pastime — think American Idol, only with knives — was a mega-hit in book stores and promises to pack theatres.
But if the movie lineups are enough to keep you away from the theatre on Saturday night, here are some similar themed movies to get you in the mood.
Battle Royale is the ultra-violent Japanese cousin to The Hunger Games.
The movie is a futuristic nightmare about a group of kids who are shipped off to a remote island and forced to wage war against one another until only one remains.
The film’s bloody conflict enraged the Japanese censors who tried to ban the movie, but their plan backfired. Slapping a tough R15 rating on the film only increased people’s desire to see it. “Because it was forbidden,” says director Kinji Fukasaku, “they wanted to watch it even more.”
Also breathing the same air is Series 7: The Contenders, a parody of reality television where contestants hunt down and murder one another. This gory satire won a passing grade from Roger Ebert who said, “It’s not the idea that people will kill each other for entertainment that makes Series 7 jolting. What the movie correctly perceives is that somewhere along the line we’ve lost all sense of shame in our society.”
The idea of televising human blood sports isn’t new to the reality TV era, however. Years before Survivor made the phrase, “You’ve been voted off the island” a household term, Steven King and Arnold Schwarzenegger unleashed The Running Man on audiences.
Arnold plays a wrongly convicted man fighting for his survival on a TV game show, overseen by Family Feud host Richard Dawson.
“I’ll be back!” Arnold says, mimicking his Terminator catchphrase. “Only in a rerun,” says Dawson, who hopes Arnold bites it and gives the show a spike in ratings.
Finally, director Norman Jewison imagined a theme similar to The Hunger Games in his 1975 film Rollerball.
Set in 2018, it’s about a deadly sport that combines roller derby, hockey, football and a generous helping of violence.
The movie’s style seems a bit dated but the ideas aren’t. Jewisons’ prophetic take on violence, the influence of corporations and the state of entertainment are bang on.
Big screen adaptations of novels are common. This year everything from Big screen adaptations of novels are common. This year everything from The Lorax to The Hunger Games and even Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter are making the leap from page to stage.
