Karen Moncrieff to Direct "The Year of Fog"

Karen Moncrieff will direct San Francisco author Michelle Richmond's page-turning New York Times bestseller The Year of Fog. Get more details on Michelle Richmond's blog. I absolutely can't wait to read Michelle's new book No One You Know. I'll be picking up my copy at the book launch party tomorrow night at 6:30 in Books Inc. --Kim

More upcoming Bay Area dates on Michelle's book tour:

July 9, Kepler’s, reading and signing
1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA

July 15, The Booksmith, reading & signing
1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA

July 16, The Depot, reading & signing
87 Throckmornton Ave, Mill Valley, CA

July 17, Rakestraw Books, reading & signing
409 Railroad Ave, Danville, CA

New "Lear" Won't Have New Look

It's official: Anthony Hopkins will play King Lear and his daughters will be played by Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, and Keira Knightley. Director Joshua Michael Stern says there's more inspired casting to come, but he assures The Guardian he won't do a modern twist on the Bard's original telling, preferring to keep it "Pre-Roman, Celtic, and very raw."

The Duchess of Langeais

Jacques Rivette's adaptation of Balzac's novel The Duchess of Langeais opens today. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune has this review. He calls it "odd," "idiosyncratic," and "dark." It stars Jeanne Balibar and Guillaume Depardieu. I'm intrigued.... --Kim

Good Girls Gone Bad...

First, I am confronted with images of Billie Piper whoring herself out in a martini glass. (Yes, Meg, I said it.) She's starring in some new Showtime series called The Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Lord. Fanny Price and Sally Lockhart, please avert your eyes.

Now comes word that Sienna Miller is going to be playing a bitchy, evil version of Maid Marion in Ridley Scott's revisionist version of Robin Hood, in which he subverts all the characters, so that the Sheriff of Nottingham, I suppose will be a good guy, and Russell Crowe (Robin) will basically play himself.

Collaborative Coelho Adaptation...

This is interesting.

Young Muskies Unite!

Millenium Films is planning a prequel for Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers, which will tell the story of how Athos, Porthos, Aramis (and maybe) D'Artagnan first came to be all for one. Swashbuckling hotties with plumed hats and swords? I'll take it. Who should be cast?

Source: Variety

Asia Argento Does Adultery...

Proclaimed one of the most sexually explicit costume dramas ever made, The Last Mistress hits theaters in New York and L.A. at the end of the month. It's an adaptation of Jules-Amedee Barbey d'Aurevilly's scintillating and shocking 19th century novel. The premise is as old as the ages: French libertine marries good-girl virgin but can't get his insatiable lover of the last ten years, La Vellini (played by Asia Argento), out of his head (or bed).

Here's the trailer.

Is Keira "My Fair Lady?"

The Guardian reports that Keira Knightley is eyeing the role of Eliza Doolittle -- yes, that's Audrey's role -- in a remake of My Fair Lady. Hepburn, you'll recall, didn't sing her songs in the film, and it turned out, well... okay. Would Keira lip-sync, too, or would her singing voice be loverly?

Watch this clip to see the chanteuse test her pipes in the forthcoming Dylan Thomas biopic, The Edge of Love.

An Austenesque Analogy of Corporate Sponsorship

Exxon Mobil is to PBS's Masterpiece Theater as Willoughby is to Marianne Dashwood: The oil company proclaimed its love, support (and funding) for a while, but then unceremoniously dumped MT on its ass in 2004.

Now it's back, courting the boring "Miss Sophia Grey," a.k.a., Nightly Business News and NOVA.

I guess their giving money to PBS in some capacity is preferable to callously seducing Colonel Brandon's helpless underage ward (which seems like the thing big oil companies do these days). But whatever.

Source: MediaWeek

Madge's Man Goes Sleuthing

Guy Ritchie will write and direct a new take on Sherlock Holmes for Warner Bros., basing his depiction of the Conan Doyle detective on Lionel Wigram's action-packed comic. In other words, look for the sleuth to be something of a Victorian action figure, complete with sword-wielding and Bond-worthy fisticuffs. Sherlock Holmes has been adapted to film more than any other fictional character, being portrayed by 75 different actors in 200 films.

Sugar is Sweet and so is "Miss Pettigrew"

Exhausted (and book-less) Saturday night after working on set all-day at a photoshoot in L.A., I ordered room service, slipped into my PJs, and settled in to watch the adaptation of Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. The sets, the dialogue, the costumes, and the acting (particularly Amy Adams) were dizzyingly charming--just like the bright young things being portrayed in the film. If you're in the mood for a vintage love story (and I almost always am), Miss Pettigrew is as sweet and satisfying as that old-fashioned sugar-rimmed cocktail, the Sidecar. I can't wait to see what Amy Adams will do next and Frances McDormand and Ciaran Hinds (Amazing Grace, Persuasion, Excalibur, Prime Suspect, etc.) were reliably brilliant as always. --Kim

Austen Auction

A kind of cool-looking locket made with what's purported to be a lock of Jane Austen's hair is expected to fetch a pretty penny in the UK.

Place your bids on June 18th, if you've got approximately $10K burning a hole in your pocket.

From The Guardian