Do you plan to read any of the books this season's movies are based on?

I'll answer the question first. I might, though I probably shouldn't say that I might. For each year I make an internal plan to read all of the books on which upcoming films are based. Guess how many I usually get through? But given that I'd never trade F Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" for any film version that might ever exist, I should probably try and read source material quicker once I know it's going to be a movie. I weep proactively, for example, for anyone who sees August: Osage County first as a movie (if it's not good) without having previously known the brilliance of the play. With this year's "Adapted" crowd, I have actually had read/experienced at least five of them... plus all the superhero stuff, 'natch.

intimate knowledge *before* seeing the movies, 2013 edition

This topic is on the mind since I've posted my predictions in the Original and Adapted Screenplay Oscar categories.

What's the difference between ADAPTED and ORIGINAL these days? Well, like the Acting Categories, sometimes screenplays play fast and loose with definitions. The landmark year for "Original" vs "Adapted" shenanigans was 2002 in which both Gangs of New York and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which had presented themselves as adaptations of a novel and play respectively for months on end as they made their way into the public consciousness, suddenly decided they were originals when that category proved conveniently easier to nab nominations in. Oh sure, they had their excuses ("only inspired by" "I wrote a version of this for the screen before I wrote it as a play") but it still smelled like Category Fraud.  

I bring this up because it's possible that some of the films will be classified differently than I've classified them. The most confusing case is probably Foxcatcher since books have been written about the bizarre true story but the film doesn't seem to be based on those books but on an unpublished autobiography (?) by one of its secondary characters (played by Channing Tatum). I'm guessing Adapted for now but that could easily change.

But back to books. Have any of you read any of these pictured? Do you want to?
Which of these ten should I read and write about before the film version?

poll by twiigs.com

WHICHEVER BOOK WINS THIS POLL I PROMISE TO READ / BLOG.

I'll try for two but I will do one. I will,  I will. 

Complete the Sentence...

Michelle Pfeiffer stars in "Malavita" opening October 2013

"While Michelle Pfeiffer is at the grocery store I hope she picks up some  _______________ because ____________."

"Malavita" Before Cameras... All Kinds

Malavita, the new Pfeiffer film we've mentioned a couple of times, is starting its PR trek. The plot concept:

Malavita is the story of the Manzonis, a notorious mafia family who gets relocated to Normandy, France under the witness protection program. While they do their best to fit in, old habits die hard and they soon find themselves handling things the “family” way.

The cast has now gone before the lens, not just movie cameras, of multiple kinds. Like...

Photo Ops They aren't wasting any time announcing themselves since the cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Robert DeNiro, and Michelle Pfeiffer are already posing for cameras. This image is from the new Paris Match. The stars gathered for the opening of their director Luc Besson's Cite du Cinema which is the largest studio ever built in France and is hoping to attract more big productions.

Pity that La Pfeiffer is hidden in the fold!

More Malavita photos after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Pfeiffer Pfridays. Should We Salivate Over "Malavita"?

It was recently announced that the one and only Michelle Pfeiffer is considering a substantial role in the new crime drama Malavita as the matriarch of a mafia family (Robert DeNiro plays the patriach) under witness protection who begin to act out in old violent ways. The film is based on the book "Badfellas" and it leans toward black comedy. The last time Pfeiffer was Married to the Mob, she was brilliant (and Golden Globe nom'ed) and the movie was delightful even in the non-Pfeiffer scenes. Is it wrong that I started to hyperventilate at the notion of Malavita, despite "Robert DeNiro" not doing anything at all for me onscreen since 1997?

Malavita will be directed by Luc Besson and while his films aren't exactly "performance showcases" in the 'actors' movie' sense nor particularly skilled with their comedy elements, he has delivered movies with memorably dangerous female star turns (think Natalie Portman in The Professional, Anne Parillaud in La Femme Nikita, and Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element). So sign on the dotted line, diva. Make that movie!

Bruce Wayne: You've got a bit of a dark side, don't you?
Selina Kyle: No darker than yours, Bruce.  

If the sight of Pfeiffer blowing enchanted attackers to smithereens with a shotgun in Dark Shadows didn't make you smile a little than we can't be friends; Pfeiffer is always most thrilling when she plays a bad girl.

<-- Just after reading the news I was catching up with Mad Men --holy smokes that episode! -- and while scrolling through the commercials this very welcome image appeared (courtesy of People Like Us).

Everytime La Pfeiffer threatens to return to us I remember that she's very skittish about her fame and you never know if she'll vanish again for another 3-5 years. But does this recent burst of activity (New Year's Eve, People Like Us, and Dark Shadows all in a seven month stretch!) suggest that she wants it again? You have to want it and I always hope she'll get hungry again. The internet has been tossing around her name around (along with dozens of other under-employed mature actresses) as ideal casting to play the crazy long-missing mother of Emily Van Camp on Revenge which is a great great soap --holy smokes that finale! --  populated by chilly bad girls. Pfeiffer herself has expressed a love for the quality television of this era but despite the multi-orgasmic notion of watching Pfeiffer throw down with the resurgent delicious Madeleine Stowe, I'm hoping she doesn't actually do any TV. She's one of the great female movie stars who hasn't really gone there post fame. If she ever decides to act full time again, the big screen totally deserves and needs her.

• would you like to see Pfeiffer married to the mob again?
• did she thrill you in Dark Shadows?
• and, sort of Off Topic, who would you die to see as Emily's insane (we hope) mother on Revenge?