Adaptation

Yesterday author and book critic Lev Grossman revealed that Fox decided to pass on the television pilot script based on his novel, The Magicians.

The pilot script was written by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz, the writers who worked on X-Men: First Class and Thor. Nevertheless, hope is not lost for a show.

Here’s more from the post: “From here the way forward for the show gets rockier, obviously. We’re going to take the script to cable networks. We’re also going to renew talks on the feature-film side. I can’t say I’m bitter about it. I wouldn’t have played my cards differently — we got exactly the right people and exactly the right script. It would have been incredible. It still will be, if we can get it to go somewhere else. But no question, it’s a big disappointment. We had a really good shot this time, and it didn’t work out.” (Via Shelf Awareness)

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The parody video (embedded above)  mixes a catchy Lana Del Rey song with the mega-bestselling book series. Follow this link to watch the original song by Lana Del Rey–what do you think?

The song was written and performed by comedian Holly Laurent with some extra lyrics from Martin Wilson. It contains a little NSFW language.

Time Newsfeed has more: “The result of this epiphany is a music video with Laurent doing a dead-ringer imitation of sultry and controversial singer Lana Del Rey’s song ‘Video Games,’ set to lyrics inspired by Suzanne Collins’ dystopian young-adult novel and soon-to-be blockbuster movie, The Hunger Games. The lyrics are as inspired as the pairing, making you laugh and cry in equal parts: ‘I don’t want Peeta to be dead/A pita is a pouch of bread/But that’s his name.’” (Link via)

The trailer for The Bourne Legacy has been released, an adaptation of a novel by Eric Van Lustbader based on a series created by Robert Ludlum.

We’ve embedded the trailer above–what do you think?

While Matt Damon starred in the last three movies in the series, Jeremy Renner plays the lead in the new movie. The adaptation has been a trending topic on Twitter this afternoon as fans grapple with the idea of a Bourne film without Matt Damon. You can read some of those comments below…

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HBO has released a new trailer to promote the second season of Game of Thrones. What do you think?

In the video embedded above, fans can catch a glimpse of some of the series popular characters, including Princess Daenerys, King Joffrey and Jon Snow. The show’s official YouTube channel contains nine other videos about the second season.

The first episode, titled “The North Remembers,” will premiere on April 1st. 

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The Hollywood Reporter just revealed a Hunger Games cover story this month.

The article reported that 7.5 million Hunger Games books have been sold since the first trailer’s release back in November 2011.

The article included the news that Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth (the principal actors) have signed on to star in the full four-movie franchise. The trio was joined by director Gary Ross in the cover photo for this month’s issue of the magazine. Follow this link to see more pictures.

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Sunday Super Bowl commercials will include a movie trailer for The Hunger Games, a film based on a book about a much more dangerous sport. We’ve embedded the new video above–what do you think?

The new trailer gives a glimpse at more actors in the film based on the bestselling novel by Suzanne Collins.

Here’s some excellent commentary from io9: “it provides a stark reminder that the Super Bowl would be 100% more interesting if the game involved Lenny Kravitz, Donald Sutherland, and archery. Most importantly, we catch a glimpse of Katniss evading death during the Games. Looking good, Stanley Tucci!”

According to Publishers Weekly, Fox 2000 has optioned the film rights to John Green‘s The Fault In Our Stars.

Here’s more from the article: “The book, about a 16-year-old girl whose life is pleasantly upended when she falls for a boy who joins her cancer support group, was optioned for producer Wyck Godfrey by Fox 2000, the 20th Century Fox division run by Elizabeth Gabler. Godfrey’s company Temple Hill has worked on a number of high profile children’s book-to-film productions including the Twilight saga (with Summit Entertainment) and Eragon.”

Who would you cast as lead characters Hazel and Augustus? The United Talent Agency represented Green in the deal. The novel was released on January 10th.

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The film adaptation of Katheryn Stockett‘s The Help took three awards at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards last night, including Best Ensemble Cast.

Follow this link for the full list of winners. Lead actress Viola Davis and supporting actress Octavia Spencer (both pictured, via) also won SAG Awards for their roles as Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson. Spencer recently received the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Both Davis and Spencer have been nominated for Academy Awards. The Envelope had this quote from Spencer: “I love taking men home. I would be lying if I didn’t say to you I would love to win an Oscar. But we have a group of brilliantly talented actresses, and it’s not a foregone conclusion that because I’ve won these [awards] then I’ll win [the Oscar].” (Via The L.A. Times)

After the Harry Potter franchise was not nominated for Best Picture this year, Huffington Post writer Linda Kenney Baden suggested that fans of the boy wizard consider boycotting the Academy Awards.

Here’s an excerpt: “Enough already Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences– start nominating movies that are terrific — no matter the genre. Some of the nominated movies are boring, unwatchable, obtuse or totally uninteresting to moviegoers and not just the youth audience that makes up 80 percent of the cinema going public … Is it time for the movie public — the viewers — to engage in a national TV boycott?”

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 received three nominations for this year’s Academy Awards: Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects.

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Over at MTV News, sixteen upcoming movies were pitted against one another to determine the winner of the “MTV Movie Brawl 2012.” In the final round, almost four million votes were cast and Cosmopolis (a Don DeLillo adaptation starring Twilight actor Robert Pattinson) emerged victorious over The Hunger Games (starring Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence).

In an interview with MTV, director David Cronenberg explained how he first learned about the brawl: “Cosmopolis, while I think in terms of what it is as cinema is pretty hefty, but in terms of budget and promotion, it’s an underdog compared to something like the Dark Knight franchise. I really didn’t think we would have much of a chance. That really got my attention.”

In the video embedded above, MTV caught up with Cosmopolis actor Paul Giamatti to get his reaction on the movie’s win. Several of the Movie Brawl film are literary adaptations including John Carter, The Avengers, Snow White & the Huntsman, The Hobbitand The Dark Knight Rises.

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