Adaptation

A young filmmaker has adapted Tom Drury's New Yorker short story, "Path Lights"--an excellent combination of Raymond Carver prose, hardboiled private detectives, and metafictional tricks.

The film will first screen through the David Lynch Foundation, a nonprofit founded by the Twin Peaks and Eraserhead director to support arts and meditation. The film will debut on the foundation's website on Dec. 2. The short film was directed by Zachary Sluser, and the cast includes John Hawkes and Xander Berkeley.

Here's an excerpt from the original story: "One day, a bottle almost hits us. It's a brown quart bottle that falls out of the sky. We are in the arroyo, the dogs and me, walking ... I think of the pilot tossing a Coke bottle from a plane in the movie 'The Gods Must Be Crazy.' But, as a detective once told me, 'Most of the time, we find that the thing that probably happened? Is the thing that did happen.'" UPDATE: This post was corrected to fix an erroneous statement about the film's financing.

Following more than a year of delays, the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" will finally arrive in theaters for Thanksgiving.

Watch the trailer here. The future is uncertain, as the film opens beside "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." However, the film is loaded with great actors, from Viggo Mortensen to Robert Duvall.

Welcome to our adaptation rating system--testing passionate GalleyCat readers' opinions about upcoming cinematic literary adaptations. Watch the trailer, and add your thoughts in the comments: yay or nay for this literary film?

The cinematic adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" has already shattered two opening weekend records, as the vampire books struck multiplex gold once again. UPDATE: Gawker reports that the film earned an estimated $140.7 million over the weekend.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the film pulled in $26.3 million in midnight screenings in the wee hours of Friday, beating the $22.2 million record previously held by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." The article also notes that the film earned $72.7 on Friday, topping the previous one-day records held by comic franchises: "The Dark Knight" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

GalleyCat has been archiving Twilight ephemera all week, starting with Twilight Tattoos. Next, find out what America's most critically acclaimed writers thought about this bestselling series in this timely GalleyCat video from the National Book Awards. Finally, read our interview with an author who studied the mysterious world of Twilight tourism and one town's annual Stephenie Meyer Day.

Disney has stopped production on a projected $150-million adaptation of a classic Jules Verne novel, a script co-written by novelist Michael Chabon (pictured, via).

According to the LA Times, Walt Disney Studios head Rich Ross axed the project that began under his predecessor; an adaptation entitled: "Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." The film studio had already spent a reported $10 million assembling the crew for the movie. Towards the end of the article, an anonymous source speculated that production could eventually resume.

Here's more from the article: "Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,' had just written a draft of the Burbank studio's forthcoming production 'John Carter of Mars,' an adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and the first live-action film to be directed by Pixar Animation Studios director Andrew Stanton." (Via.)

Literary tattoos require a powerful commitment to a book, a few readers exhibit such blockbuster dedication as Twilight fans.

As the highly anticipated release of Twilight: New Moon nears this weekend, The Daily Beast studied the novel's fans who actually tattoo parts of the book on their bodies. The photo montage captures everything from full length page tattoos to tattooed autographs.

Here's more about the tattoo pictured here: "Erica Collins found and loved a quote from New Moon, the saga's second installment, before she even heard of the Twilight series. Edward Cullen tells Bella Swan, 'Before you, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars--points of light and reason,' a phrase which now adorns this fan's back."

Stumbling away from our desks after a long Tuesday, here are some morsels of publishing news for your enjoyment...

As her memoir hits bookshelves today, Sarah Palin lashes out at Newsweek's cover story art (pictured) in another Facebook missive: "The Runner's World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness - a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now."

Science fiction blog io9 rounds up the top seven comic books that no director could possibly adapt.

The Palm CEO knocks Android cell phones, comparing the two machines battling for smartphone eBook readership (via Mike Cane).

Check out the staggering line-up of authors for the Moth Ball benefit tonight.

Finally, one last Palin Memoir Release Day links, Sarah Palin and Levi Johnston are analyzed on today's Morning Media Menu.

Despite a huge showing by the disaster blockbuster "2012," an indie adaptation of "Precious" by Sapphire managed once again to score impressive ticket sales at less than 200 movie theaters this weekend.

Here's more from Box Office Mojo: "[The film] had a robust expansion, grossing an estimated $6.1 million at 174 sites. That's the second-highest grossing weekend on record for a movie playing at less than 200 sites, behind only Paranormal Activity, and its total stands at $8.9 million in ten days."

Entitled "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," the film tells the story of Precious Jones--an illiterate teenager who is sexually and physically abused by her parents before meeting an inspiring teacher in Harlem. The film was executive produced by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, adding some blockbuster support to the small film.

GalleyCat readers have spoken, harshly judging the new movie trailer for Clash of the Titans. The 2010 release will remake a 1981 film by the same name--but both movies were adapted from the literary adventures of the Greek hero, Perseus.

Here are the results of our first "Booked it or Blew It" adaptation rating feature. "Where's the mechanical owl??" asked reader Robyn Andrews, raising a crucial question about the remake.

Reader James Enge noted: "Neither movie seems really close to, say, Ovid (or any other literary source for the Perseus legend). That's not necessarily a problem: Ovid's stories might be hard to storyboard."

"The trailer isn't terrible, but 'Titans Will Clash'? Really? Seriously?" noted reader Robert Fleck.

Reader Guy LeCharles Gonzalez was unimpressed: "Meh. Looks like a fun DVD when the Netflix queue gets thin, but nothing worth getting a babysitter for."

That's the heavy metal-driven trailer for Clash of the Titans, a 2010 remake of a movie that rocked this GalleyCat editor's world in 1981--both films were adapted from the literary adventures of the Greek hero, Perseus.

Suvudu rejected the film: "I know so many original screenplays not getting the treatment they deserve. These are new, original stories, books and screenplays that are quality, that are being pushed aside so movie studio executives feel a bit safer in their job."

GalleyCat picked this adaptation for our first Book It or Blow It feature--testing passionate GalleyCat readers' opinions about upcoming cinematic literary adaptations. Add your thoughts in the comments: did they book it or blow it?

Director David Fincher will remake a 1970s movie based on a long out-of-print novel, Reincarnation of Peter Proud.

Fincher's last film adapted an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story into an epic Oscar-nominated film, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." According to Paste magazine, the new adaptation will focus on headier material. The original was directed by J. Lee Thompson (director of Cape Fear) and caused a stir with incest themes. The new film will be written by Andrew Kevin Walker and produced by the same crew behind Fincher's darkest film, Seven.

Here's more from the article: "The original version of The Reincarnation of Peter Proud centered on a man who has flashbacks and visions. When he investigates them further, they lead him to a mysterious woman and her daughter, and he begins a love affair with the latter ... Fincher intends to contemporize Proud, adhering as closely to the source material of Max Ehrlich's novel as possible.