cleolinda | (no subject)

Horoscope of DOOM: Your finances are stretched thinner than you think. Check your balance again.

I wouldn't be so weirded out by this if I hadn't actually been wondering whether I should splurge on some DVDs or not (see icon), and had aaaaaalmost convinced myself to do it. Yikes. (Ah, well. It's not like I have time to watch them right now anyway.)

Massive linkspam:

A haiku for W.E.B. du Bois, a rare gem floating around at

metaquotes.

The new Harry Potter book covers (as if y'all haven't seen them five times today already).

Anne Rice writing book about Christ. Jesus.

One of the many places to keep an eye on the expatriate Fametracker community.

New Sin City trailer!

New image from The Fountain! I weep for the day this, like so many other stinkin' movies (Closer!, The Merchant of Venice!) was supposed to have starred Cate Blanchett. Not that I don't like Rachel Weisz. I'm just saying.

Los fotos muy gigantes: The New World (Colin Farrell, Jailbait Pocahontas) and A History of Violence (Viggo Mortensen, David Cronenberg, FEAR).

Oh, hey, look! It's a new Beowulf poster with a decent picture of Sarah Polley and... ohhhhhh no. That tag line, y'all. Please tell me it's preliminary? Or fan art? Because I think Vladimir is gonna throw some bullets otherwise.

Casting news on Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. Having read Antonia Fraser's bio of Marie Antoinette, I actually like the casting of Kirsten Dunst. But Asia Argento as Madame Du Barry is... interesting.

Spoiler set pics from Pirates of the Caribbean 2!

Oh dear:

IGN Filmforce is reporting that "Kill Bill" helmer Quentin Tarantino is in talks to write and direct The Ultimate Jason Voorhees Movie, a new "Friday the 13th" movie at New Line Cinema.

While Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash never came together, this new project will be a co-venture between New Line and Paramount Pictures. The site adds that the movie is on the fast-track and could get underway as early as this year.

A rep at William Morris Agency told the site that Tarantino has "not yet" been offered the job, however.

Bad news: A Michael Bay movie called The Island. Good news: video with Ewan McGregor and Sean Bean, two great tastes who ought to have tasted great together long before now.

News on Jonathan Strange, His Dark Materials, and Inkheart:

New Line Cinema has set Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) to adapt Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, reports Variety.

The story concerns a magician and his apprentice who use their powers in the war against Napoleon but are eventually pitted against each other. The project is one of several epic-sized fantasy book adaptations being mobilized by a studio looking to reload after "The Lord of the Rings."

New Line is further ahead on "The Golden Compass," the first installment of the Philip Pullman fantasy trilogy "His Dark Materials." A director will be named soon to replace Chris Weitz, who wrote the last draft of the script. New Line will get a first draft adaptation of the Cornelia Funke novel "Inkheart" from screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire in May. (Coming Soon.net)

Remember when the FBI were following Russell Crowe around at the Oscars a few years back, because of some unnamed "kidnapping threat"? Well, now they've revealed who was after him: AL QAEDA, Y'ALL.

After a shy terrorist cell member at the back of the cave gingerly raised his hand and suggested that kidnapping an Australian actor with a crappy band might not have quite the destabilizing effect Al Qaeda was seeking, they went with, you know, that other thing with the planes. (Defamer.com)

God, this is going to break my mother's heart. I know this for a fact, because she's already bitching about how she knows Dirk Pitt, and sir, Matthew McConaughey is no Dirk Pitt.

Basically ended up taking a week off to be sick, last week sort of off-on to work on LOTR in a way that more closely approximated "noodling" or "dithering," and so this week I've decided to try to knock one out in a couple of sittings, Troy-style. (Hey, at least I feel recharged now.) I'm trying to decide between Spider-Man and Braveheart, for reasons that are whimsically my own and involve "signs from the universe," but I realized I never did see Spider-Man 2, so I'm thinking of buying that this weekend and therefore putting Spidey off until after I've seen the sequel, which would move Braveheart up to this week. And hey, Lost is a rerun tomorrow night, so I have uninterrupted time to do it. (Today was spent reading over my handwritten notes/drafts for both movies. And reading Frederick Douglass for class. Whee.) So if I end up with desperately random nitpick questions regarding the history of Marvel comics or medieval Scottish culture, I expect y'all to be on your toes. ; )