These days Jojo Moyes is a bestselling author with a movie adaptation about to hit screens.
But before she wrote her best-known book she says, “I had not troubled the bestseller charts.”
The former journalist, who has written 13 novels, hit publishing pay dirt with Me Before You, a romance about a young woman who has a life-changing relationship with a paralyzed man.
“I was driving my kids home from school,” says Moyes, “and I heard this story on the news about a young athlete who had been left quadriplegic after an accident.
“Several years into life as a quadriplegic he had persuaded his parents to take him to Dignitas, which is a centre for assisted suicide in England to end his life.
“I was just really shocked by this story because as a human and a parent I could not envisage how a parent would agree to do that.
“I kept thinking I would fight to the death to keep my kids alive. Because I am an ex journalist, I started to read around it and read more about this young man and read more about the issue and I discovered it wasn’t as black and white as I wanted to believe. Then it got me thinking, what would I be like if I were him? What would it be like to be his mother? What would it be like to be his girlfriend?”
The book sold north of 5 million copies and is now a movie starring Games of Thrones dragon lady Emilia Clarke. The 29-year-old actress plays the relentlessly cheerful Louisa, caregiver to quadriplegic Will, played by The Hunger Games star Sam Claflin.
“I read the amazing book first,” the effervescent Clarke says. “I was reading it to see if I wanted to be in it. In the first couple of pages of Lou (I thought) this is who I am. This is so much me in every way. Then there was the story itself and the beauty within it; the heartbreak, the joy and the laughter fell on top of one another and I just said yes.
“I understand (Louisa) innately because if things ever get too dire I’m going to crack a joke. We’re going to laugh through this. In those moments, at that peak when something bad has happened, and you’re like, ‘Let’s laugh about it,’ as you’re laughing you start crying.
She also says she had a rigorous rehearsal process with co-star Claflin, so she got to know her character and their story really well.
“When you’ve got all that knowledge someone only has to say one thing and you are there because you have built her within you. You’ve built the story around you.”
Moyes says finding the right person to play Louisa was important to not only the success of the film, but also to keep the fans of the book happy.
“I felt a huge responsibility to those people because it’s not like this has only been read by 20,000 people,” says Moyes.
“This is a much bigger thing. I will defy anybody to see Emilia as Lou and not feel this is a true representation of the character.
“When I picture Lou, I can’t help but picture Emilia. That is how fully she has taken root in my imagination.”
In “Me Before You,” a new three-hankie weepie based on the bestselling novel by Jo Jo Moyes, Emilia Clarke leaves behind her “Game of Thrones” persona as Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen—a.k.a. First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, Mother of Dragons and The Unburnt—to play Louisa Clark, an unambitious former Buttered Bun waitress who takes a job that changes her life forever.
Louisa is a wide-eyed 26-year-old with no great plan for her life. After six years of serving tea and scones to the elderly clients of The Buttered Bun Café she loses her job when the place shuts down. Jobs are scarce in the village—“There are no jobs. I should know,” says her under employed father (Brendan Coyle).—and her family desperately needs the money she brings in.
Prepared to take any job she visits the local employment center where they have just the thing for her. “There’s nothing about having skills so it’s perfect for you,” says the staffer as he tells her about the position of care assistant and companion to Will Traynor (“The Hunger Games’s” Sam Claflin), a recently paralyzed man so wealthy he lives in the local castle.
For most of his life Will was Louisa’s opposite, a robust go-getter who lived life to the fullest. Now, confined to a wheelchair with a spinal chord injury, he feels so lost he strikes a deadly deal with his parents. He will give them six months to help him find happiness, and if that doesn’t happen he’s off to Dignitas in Switzerland to die with dignity and put an end to his pain and constant exhaustion. That’s where Louisa comes in. “It would be nice if he thought of you as a friend,” explains his mother (Janet McTeer), “and not a paid professional.” Her primary purpose is to convince him that life can be just as rewarding as it was before the accident. Of course, before you can say Nicholas Sparks three times really fast, they fall for one another, but is love be enough to keep Will alive?
“Me Before You” is a fairly standard tearjerker with a lineage that can be traced back to ”Love Story” and beyond. The thing that elevates it above the usual sob story is the effervescent Clarke in the lead role. Her relentlessly upbeat charm—she has a smile so broad director Thea Sharrock almost needs a wide-angle lens to capture it—coupled with the character’s complete comfort in her quirky skin shows a much lighter side of Clarke than is ever evident on “Game of Thrones.” She proves she doesn’t need to command dragons to hand in a commanding performance.
Clarke has good chemistry with Claflin. He’s solemn enough to pull off a line like, “I sit and just about exist,” and gushy enough to breathe life into stilted dialogue like, “I just…want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress. Just for a few minutes more.”
Good casting makes “Me Before You” an engaging enough romance that subtly deals with larger issues like class and assisted suicide. Unfortunately by the time Ed Sheeran warbles, “Loving can hurt… It is the only thing that makes us feel alive,” in the long, drawn out final section, the movie gets a little too on the money. The “you only get one life and it is your duty to live it as fully as possible” message isn’t quite as original as the movie thinks it is, but certainly, writer Moyes and Company have their hearts in the right place.
“Everything old can be made new again,” says tribute escort Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) in “The Hunger Games: MockingJay – Part 1,” “even democracy.” So, apparently, is the “Harry Potter” model of cleaving the final book in a popular series into two moneymaking movies.
A better, catchier title for the third part of the Hunger Games tetralogy might be “You Say You Want a Revolution.” “MockingJay – Part 1” takes the action off the playing field and into the realm of rebellion.
With one arrow Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) changed the barbaric Hunger Games forever, opening the door to rebellion. In the surrounding turmoil, her love Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), was left behind in the Capitol and has become a pawn in the propaganda game being played by the totalitarian President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and District 13 rebel leader Alma Coin (Julianne Moore). The revolution to unify the districts against the capitol has begun with Katniss cast as the MockingJay, a reluctant hero but a symbol of hope to the oppressed masses.
“The Hunger Games: MockingJay – Part 1” ups the stakes considerably from the last film, putting several big ideas into motion. The cinematic world created in the first two movies is about to change in very dramatic ways and this movie prepares viewers for the revolution. Katniss looks suitably concerned throughout and there are several effectively staged action scenes, but despite the fine performances and lessons in mass produced anarchy, it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is a place holder for next year’s series finale.
Scenes stating the obvious—“He’s punishing me because I’m the MockingJay!” Katniss reveals in one, “Duh, yeah” scene—feel added in to stretch the movie to its two hour running time.
That’s not to say there isn’t entertainment value here. Far from it. Lawrence takes a role that could have been buried under layers of teen ennui or steely-eyed determination and gives Katniss some real depth and it is a blast to see Moore and Seymour-Hoffman back on screen together again. Sutherland is at his serpentine best and Harrelson and Banks struggle with their new surroundings in entertaining ways; he with sobriety, her with a lack of haute couture.
Most entertaining is the film’s take on the building of a social movement. Katniss is manufactured into the people’s hero. She’s given line readings and a fan to blow her hair around in sexy and stirring propaganda videos and dressed in stylish warrior gear. “Everyone is going to want to kiss you, be you or kill you,” coos Trinket. It’s a handbook to do-it-yourself social unrest and it is smart, funny and on the nose. In the end, however, it’s discovered that Katniss is more effective in her natural state, without meddling hands shaping her. One can’t help but think the same of the movie. Perhaps it might have been satisfying if it too had been left alone and presented in its natural state, as one movie instead of two.
Since the release of the first Hunger Games novel in 2008, literary sleuths have picked it apart, searching for connections to other books and films.
The scrutiny increased when the first film in the tetralogy set records for the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel in 2012, and continues unabated with the release of this weekend’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1.
Based on Suzanne Collins’s mega-successful series, the movies are set in a dystopian world ruled by a fascist-style president (Donald Sutherland) who presides over The Hunger Games, a televised battle-to-the-death between 24 young players, two from each of the country’s districts, including Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).
The series draws on things we’ve seen before, in everything from the human sacrifices of Greek mythology or Survivor-style television shows to news stories of government corruption to create a world with its own rules, style and customs.
The most often-cited influence is Battle Royale, a 2000 Japanese movie based on a book by Koushun Takami. Like The Hunger Games, it’s a story of school kids in a televised government-sanctioned death match.
Battle Royale’s DVD box set even included a quote from a critic suggesting there’d be no Hunger Games without the Japanese film. “This is the movie that started it all,” it reads.
Hunger fans were quick to point out differences in the two films. The Japanese movie is about survival, they said, while Collins wrote about revolution. The author revealed her main influences were reality television and the Iraq war.
“I had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in,” she told the New York Times.
It’s worth noting that the idea of humans being preyed upon for the entertainment of the upper classes dates back at least as far as 1932’s The Most Dangerous Game. The story of a big-game hunter who tracks humans for sport on an isolated island is based on a Richard Connell short story that also loosely inspired episodes of everything from Gilligan’s Island to Lost in Space. Since then, Norman Jewison’s Rollerball, Roger Corman’s Deathrace 2000 (and its 2008 Jason Statham remake) and The Running Man have mined similar territory.
As for the author who wrote Battle Royale, he gave ABC News a very diplomatic answer when asked about the similarities between the two stories. “I think every novel has something to offer,” he said. “If readers find value in either book, that’s all an author can ask for.”
Hoffman at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014
(Danny Moloshok/AP)
Critically-acclaimed actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died Sunday from a suspected drug overdose.
The 46-year-old was found dead in his Greenwich Village home in New York Sunday morning. Hoffman has three children with his partner of 15 years, Mimi O’Donnell.
Sources tell the Associated Press Hoffman had a syringe stuck into his arm when he was found by a friend who called 911. There were also envelopes of heroin in the apartment. An autopsy to determine Hoffman’s cause of death is expected to take place Monday.
Hoffman spoke candidly over the years about his past struggles with addiction. After 23 years sober, he admitted to falling off the wagon with prescription pills and heroin. That led to a stint in rehab.
In a 2011 interview with the Guardian, Hoffman described his addictions as “pretty bad”. “I had no interest in drinking in moderation. And I still don’t”, he told the paper. “Just because all that time’s passed doesn’t mean maybe it was just a phase.”
Hoffman’s family released the following statement Sunday afternoon.
“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Phil and appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from everyone. This is a tragic and sudden loss and we ask that you respect our privacy during this time of grieving. Please keep Phil in your thoughts and prayers.”
Movie critic Richard Crouse told Newstalk 1010 Sunday Hoffman had “an incredibly diverse career and knocked it out of the park virtually every time.”
Hoffman won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in the 2005 biopic “Capote”. He received three nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category for The Master, Doubt and Charlie Wilson’s War.
Crouse says Hoffman brought a soulful-ness and a believability to his performances. “When you saw him on screen, there was nothing really false about it, you never really saw the acting.”
One of Hoffman’s breakthrough roles was as a gay member of a porno film crew in “Boogie Nights”, one of several movies Paul Thomas Anderson-directed movies that he would eventually appear in.
Hoffman often took on comic, slightly off-kilter roles in movies like “Along Came Polly”, “The Big Lebowski” and “Almost Famous”, in which he plays real life rock critic Lester Bangs. Crouse says Hoffman’s turn as Bangs is his favourite performance by the actor.
“He seems like such a huge part of it and he’s just such a great shining white light in the middle of this movie, even though it is a relatively small part. And that’s a testament to his talent”, says Crouse.
Hoffman was set to reprise his role as Plutarch Heavensbee in the next instalment of the “The Hunger Games” franchise, “Mockingjay. Showtime recently announced Hoffman would star in “Happyish,” a TV comedy series about a middle-aged man’s pursuit of happiness.
Crouse says in interviews, Hoffman wasn’t interested in talking about his craft as an actor, but would speak passionately about books.
Hoffman began his acting career on stage. He studied theatre as a teenager with the New York State Summer School of the Arts and the Circle in the Square Theatre. He then majored in drama at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Hoffman performed in revivals of “True West,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “The Seagull”, a summer production that also featured Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. In 2012, he was more than equal to one of the great roles in American theatre, Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman”.
Hoffman was three times nominated for a Tony, but never won.
Josh Hutcherson grew up on film sets. As a child actor he worked with Julianne Moore and Annette Bening in the Oscar nominated The Kids Are Alright. He also appeared with Tim Robbins and Kristen Stewart in Zathura. So it’s safe to say he’s used to seeing stars on set. While shooting The Hunger Games, however, he saw stars of a different kind when Jennifer Lawrence “threw an incredibly perfect kick right to my temple.”
“It was a complete accident,” he says, “but I went down and saw stars. She was crying and saying how sorry she was and I was trying to comfort her, even though I was the one in pain.”
Taking a kick to the head was one of the challenges of making the action film, but Hutcherson says the main test was making a movie that was true to the spirit of the book.
“The world outside Hollywood has this idea that when a big book is made into a movie it’s only so Hollywood can cash in on it. That is not at all what our mission was. We didn’t want this to be the book on tape version, but we wanted to tell the story as if you were reading it in the book. Pretty much everyone involved with the movie from the actors to the cameramen and grips on set loved the books and wanted to see it done properly.”
The story, he says, resonated with him but it was the character Peeta that drew him in.
“I liked who Peeta was as a person,” he says. “He really believes strongly in not changing his beliefs no matter what kind of circumstances he’s in, and that is something I’ve always prided myself in believing in.”
As a result he makes an indelible impression as the idealistic Tribute from District 12.
“If there is one character I want to be known for it is definitely this,” he says. “The books are extremely powerful and the character is someone I really connected with.”
The process of making the film so satisfying, says the nineteen-year-old actor, that even if he didn’t get to play Peeta again–but don’t worry, he will–he is happy.
“Liam (Hemsworth) said if something happened and we didn’t get to make another one of these, we’re so happy having this be the one, and I agree,” he says. “We don’t feel like an open wound where it needs to be healed up. This is its own, free-standing thing.”
Now that Harry Potter has cast his last cinematic spell and “Twilight” is fast fading into that breaking dawn, Hollywood is looking for the next best young adult sensation.
But how do you replace one of the biggest movie franchises of all time and the series that gave us warring werewolves and vampires?
How about with a blockbuster that feels like an indie film? “The Hunger Games” is poised to become a massive hit, but it feels more like a character study than the start of an epic payday for Tinsel Town.
Based on the first book in Suzanne Collins’s mega-successful series, “The Hunger Games” is set in Panem, a dystopian world ruled by a fascistic leader (Donald Sutherland). Each year the state hold The Hunger Games, a battle to death between twenty four players, two from each of the country’s districts. The televised games are equal parts “Miss Universe,” “American Idol” and “Death Race.” The story follows two “tributes” from District 12, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), two reluctant warriors whose survival is at stake.
From its opening moments “The Hunger Games” feels more intimate, thanks to some inventive hand held camera work, than you’d expect. And that’s a good thing.
As fans of the books know, the focus of the story is the characters. Sure they are thrown into a wild situation, but knowing and caring about Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark—admiring Katniss’s inner strength and courage or Peeta’s big heart—is as important to the success of the story as are the action scenes or the dystopian premise.
The result is a film that feels more mature than the “Twilight” series, although all the Young Adult tropes are very much in place.
Jennifer Lawrence has found the role that she will, likely, forever be associated with and brings substance to it. She imbues Katniss with a rich inner life—you can see the machinations of the character churning behind her eyes. This level of performance is critical to the success to not only this film, but also the inevitable sequels.
She is ably supported by Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Donald Sutherland Lenny Kravitz (who could easily have a second career as an actor) and Josh Hutcherson, but make no, mistake, this is her movie. She’s in virtually every scene and her growth from venerable shy girl to sly competitor is the beating heart of the story.
I enjoyed the subdued feel of “The Hunger Games,” but I couldn’t help but wonder what a truly visionary director like Terry Gilliam might have done with this material. Likely not handed in a PG-13 movie, but his imaginative, twisted take on a world where kids kill one another in reality shows would have been interesting to see.
Which is not to say director Gary “Seabiscuit” Ross has dropped the ball here. Not at all, he’s made a film that is both epic and intimate, timely—imagine the Kardashians with knives and bloodlust—which doesn’t pander to its audience.
“The Hunger Games” is somewhat formulaic in its approach, but it also is a (potential) blockbuster that puts the story and characters first and the special effects second. That’s a welcome formula.
At six-feet, two-inches with all-American good looks (even though he was born in Vancouver), Alexander Ludwig doesn’t look like a super villain. But to fans of The Hunger Games he is the baddest baddie of them all, Cato, the brute from District 2.
“He was born and raised a killer and that’s all he knew how to do,” says the 20-year-old actor.
“But he’s not your everyday villain. There’s a lot more substance and depth to this guy. You can tell he’s had a tortured life.”
Trained as a killer, Cato has spent his whole life preparing for his turn in The Hunger Games, a kind of murderous reality show.
“I’m playing the most feared guy in the arena so I didn’t know how I was going to be received by everyone else in the cast,” he says of his co-stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. “I was cautious about it, but everyone was amazing.”
One thing is for sure; he made an impression on one stunt man.
“I hit a stunt guy across the face with the butt end of a rubber bat when I was filming,” he says, “but once you do that you have keep going because they’re going to kick your ass if you don’t. ‘What are you doing? That was the perfect sell because you actually hit me.’ I felt so bad.”
He says that despite the movie’s dark subject matter and the odd bruised stunt man, the mood on set was light.
“It is important to have contrast when the material is so dark. There’s all this tense energy and right after they yell, ‘Cut’ you can breathe.”
He’s also breathing a little easier now the movie is done and fans have embraced him.
“I have been so, so happy about the way I have been received because it could go either way,” he says.
“Everyone’s been very excited to see me and meet me. No one has said, ‘Screw you, Cato!’ I hope it stays like this. Everyone likes being liked and I chose this role knowing that it could go the other way.”
“I’m just riding this crazy experience. You really can’t think about it because you don’t know what to expect. Every day is a new experience.
I walked out of my hotel room this morning and there were fans outside. I can’t believe this is happening to me. It’s wild.”
SIDEBAR: “Everyone’s been very excited to see me and meet me. No one has said, ‘Screw you, Cato!’ I hope it stays like this. Everyone likes being liked and I chose this role knowing that it could go the other way.” Actor Alexander Ludwig, on playing the evil Cato in The Hunger Games.
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.
