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I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

Lily: I am very seldom required to wear white by my employers. But, anyway, I always do. It has always been that wearing white reassures the sick that I can never be touched, even as darkness folds in on them from every side, closing like a claw.

A happy 40th birthday to the great Ruth Wilson today! There were several other projects I wanted to quote for her birthday but IMDb didn't have quotes listed from them, so I went with this 2016 horror film which I still have never seen somehow -- it was directed by Oz Perkins (aka Anthony Perkins' son) who also made the stylishly strange Gretel & Hansel a couple years back; I really should see this one, it's been on Netflix this entire time and everything. 

As for Ruth if I was going to do a "The Moment I Fell For..." post for her it'd be a stage thing -- I saw her act with Jake Gyllenhaal in Nick Payne's play Constellations the year before this movie, in 2015, and she blew me away. I'd only been somewhat familiar with her before then -- she has a face you notice on-screen so she stood out in small roles in Anna Karenina and Suite Française, but I still have never seen her play Jane Eyre in the 2006 miniseries version. Is that worth looking up?

All that said my favorite Ruth role is an ongoing one -- her turn as Mrs. Coulter on HBO's His Dark Materials series -- which surprised me! She did not seem like the right casting for the role going in, but she's been truly exhilaratingly terrifying and weird on it; the best reason to watch the show at all. The third and final season is supposed to premiere sometime this year and I can't wait to see what skin-crawling antics she gets up to. What's your fave Ruth role?

Andrew Scott Four Times

I can't read the new chat with Andrew at The Times because it's pay-walled but these are in honor of his new role on the second season of His Dark Materials, playing Colonel John Parry, aka the father of Will, the main character in the second book The Subtle Knife. The new season just premiered in the UK and premieres here in the US on the 16th on HBO. (Sidenote: did y'all know there was a new mini-book out from HDM author Philip Pullman? It's called Serpentine and you can pick it up here. I haven't read it yet but I haven't finished the last HDM book yet -- I kinda trailed off in the middle of it and need to pick it back up.) Anyway here's the trailer for the new season of the show:

Andrew Scott Seven Times

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While we wait to get a good look at all of Andrew Scott's many many upcoming projects -- he's in the His Dark Materials series! He's playing Tom Ripley! He's in Sam Mendes' forthcoming single-shot WWII epic! Hey maybe he'll be in my bed when I get home! -- we also light a prayer candle that more fashion mags will give us photo-shoots like this one that Mr. Porter (via, thx Mac) dropped today. We love our Openly Gay Friend! Hit the jump to see more of the "Hot Priest" dropping the collar...

This Monkey Business Again

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I kind of don't even know what more to say about HBO slash BBC's forthcoming long-form adaptation of the His Dark Materials books at this point -- we've already gotten a few trailers, I'm just here to share the latest one, and I've raved like an expectant madman so many times already... usually I have plenty of such madness to go around but it's hitting the end of the day and I've got enough other immediate stuff to be excited about just now, so I feel like setting this enthusiasm on a back burner. I'll let it singe off my eyebrows closer to the November 4th release. Until then!

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Hot Priest Heads North

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It seems I very much have got to go back and read Phillip Pullman's original His Dark Materials trilogy of books now, because Andrew "Hot Priest" Scott just got cast in the forthcoming HBO miniseries adaptation as a character I can't recall in the slightest, not even after reading the full Wiki entry for him. I mean I know he is playing John Parry aka Jopari, the father of Will,  the lead character of the second book The Subtle Knife. And it sounds like... well, he's got his hands in a lot. It's all spoilery so I don't want to dive into specifics -- it's just been a good 15 years since I re-read the trilogy so it's overdue, clearly, is my point. But hurray for Andrew Scott! Always and always Andrew Scott. Click here if you haven't seen the trailer for the HBO adaptation.

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"So I have summoned you here, and you are to fly me northwards”
When Lee Scoresby met Jopari.@Lin_Manuel #AndrewScott#BehindTheScenes #HisDarkMaterials pic.twitter.com/m0Rv6JlzSG

— His Dark Materials (@darkmaterials) August 19, 2019

It's Daemon Time

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Once Game of Thrones ends this weekend HBO has a couple of big nerdy projects down the pike that might possibly fill that nerdy void -- one would be their Watchmen series, and the other is their team-up with the BBC trying to do a right proper adaptation of Phillip Pullman's glorious His Dark Materials books. That "right proper adaptation" dig was clearly aimed at the 2007 film, which took a point perfect cast and threw them into a mess of an unfocused thing that obliterated the most fundamental aspect at the heart of the series -- its bone-deep atheism -- because that is of course deemed impossible in this dumb country called America. Well now the UK has taken their shit back from the dumb Americans and made it their own, and we're just borrowing it from them, so ha, hopefully Mr. Pullman's getting the last laugh.

The cast for this re-do is very good -- James McAvoy's a fine choice for Lord Asriel, and even though Nicole Kidman was the platonic ideal of the "Mrs. Coulter" character I can't wait to see what Ruth Wilson does with her; I just saw Wilson on stage beside Glenda Jackson in King Lear this past weekend and she not only held her own, she might have, gasp, been the best thing on stage? 

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Well I can check “full on sobbed watching Shakespeare be performed“ off my bucket list now thanks to Glenda & Ruth Wilson

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) May 11, 2019

Anyway this is the second trailer I've posted for the series -- see the first one, from the BBC, right here -- even though as far as I can tell we still haven't got any sort of release date for it either in the UK or here in the US yet. But you'll hear from me the minute we do! Until then here, watch, luxuriate, it looks like they might have gotten it right, you guys:

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Oh and in case you haven't read Pullman's books I highly recommend them, and he's actually started an entire new trilogy (which overlaps with the original in terribly interesting ways) recently -- the first part of The Book of Dust series came out in 2017 and it's already got me riveted to where he's taking everything. The second book called The Secret Commonwealth is coming in October! ETA and I just now read this at io9 -- the BBC has already renewed the series for another eight episodes! I don't know what that means about what this first series contains, book to screen wise -- if it's one season per book, or what -- but the more the better. There's enough material here to last as long as Game of Thrones, at least.
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Dust 2 Dust

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I've been reorganizing my bookshelves for what seems like weeks now (it seems like weeks because it has been weeks -- I have a lotta goddamned books!) and yesterday I was situating my pile of Philip Pullman books and thought to myself I sure would like to read the His Dark Materials books again. I meant to when The Book of Dust (the first book in a new trilogy that overlaps with the original threesome) came out in 2017 and that didn't happen -- perhaps I should make a plan of it? Before the next book (which I just learned via Wikipedia will be called The Secret Commonwealth) comes out? Or, since that doesn't have a precise release date yet, perhaps before the BBC miniseries comes out this year? We don't have an exact date for that just yet either but we do have a teaser trailer, just released yesterday! Watch:

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As we reported when they were cast James McAvoy's playing Lord Asriel, aka Daniel Craig in the failed big-screen adaptation, while Ruth Wilson is tackling the Nicole Kidman part -- I loved the original cast in 2007 (sigh, Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala!) but Chris Weitz and the scaredy-cat American studio messed that movie all up, so here's to hoping that the BBC knows not to gut the entire atheistic point of the books. Or else!

Lord McAvoy

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James McAvoy (seen there hooting it up with a more waxen than usual Angelina Jolie via his Instagram) has just landed a pretty spectacular role - he's going to play Lord Asriel in the BBC's forthcoming massive adaptation of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. In the 2007 flop film adaptation this is the role that Daniel Craig played - it's basically the main adult male role, getting more important as the series wears on. I sadly couldn't find any pictures of Jim & Dan in each other's presence in real life so here let's just look at the following and pretend they just had a really hardcore workout, one on one...

Anyway back in March I told you all about this series - it's being shepherded by The King's Speech director Tom Hooper, which means we'll see a lot of the wallpaper probably. Do a good job with the wallpaper, set decorators! I think James is really great casting for Lord Asriel - he will surely wear tweed and grow out his lightly salted ginger beard to look scholarly for it and with that we all win.

I Have Turned To Dust With This News

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That right there is a picture of the actor Tom Hopper. He was on Game of Thrones last season; we've posted on him before, right here. This post is not about Tom Hopper. But I think of Tom Hopper every time I see news about the Oscar-winning director of The King's Speech named Tom Hooper, and then I click on the news and I'm all, "Boo, it's just The King's Speech dude. No nips to be found." Oh well - this is still important news, nips be damned. 

The director Tom Hooper has signed on to direct an eight part (!!!) series adaptation of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials books! EIGHT PARTS! There are three books in the series - The Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights, depending on what country you're reading the series in) which was already turned into a failed franchise-starter back in 2007 with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig; then there's The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. 

But wait! The series just got longer with Pullman having dropped what is meant to be the first book in a three-book series called The Book of Dust this past October, which I am suddenly realizing with dawning horror that I totally forgot about and haven't read yet. I posted about it and everything, and yet it totally slipped my melon. Anyway that will make six books turned into eight parts, apparently. I suppose if you add in the two short companion books called Once Upon a Time in the North and Lyra's Oxford it all adds up.

Anyway there are two actors signed on so far - the little girl from Logan named Dafne Keen that everybody fell for is going to play our leading lady Lyra, and she's probably excellent casting - I wasn't as nuts about Logan as everybody else was but she was a force of nature. And then in the role of the Texan Balloonist (yes really) Lee Scoresby (who was played by the pitch-perfect Sam Elliott in the 2007 film) there's a lil' someone called Lin Manuel Miranda signed up. Okay!

Those are two big roles but there are several great big roles left to fill, including Lyra's scientist-uncle Lord Asriel (who Daniel Craig played in the film), the witch queen Serafina Pekkala (played by a delicious Eva Green), and the big bad Mrs. Coulter, played to absolute icy perfection by Nicole Kidman back when. When I read the books years before the 2007 I'd pictured Kidman in my head while reading them - she was ace casting and I'm not sure they can find anyone better. Just hire Nic again.

Then again I'd actually be fine if they hired all the original actors - they were all great! (Poor Dakota Blue Roberts.) The problem with the original film was the Hollywood Studios adapting the story gutted everything interesting about the books, which tell some extremely dark stories tearing down Religion and the very idea of God itself. The folks making the new adaptation say they're staying true to the source material this go around - they're keeping it out of the U.S. for one, I think making this the most expensive UK production of all time? BRING IT ON.
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Great Moments In Movie Shelves #97

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It's weird -- I really remember there being a big beautiful library in the opening scenes from 2007's The Golden Compass. But my memory is wrong -- the most you see of any bookshelves in the college where Lyra and her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) scamper about are those dusty ones you glimpse at the right side of his office there. How weird! But seeing as how it's Daniel Craig's birthday today and I will always welcome the opportunity to glare at him bearded and tweeded in this movie (not to mention the recent news about a new trilogy of books in this series from author Phillip Pullman!) we'll stretch the definition of "Great Shelves" to their breaking point today to fit our needs.

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Get Ready For The Book of Dust!

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It doesn't matter to me that this news isn't about a renewed interest in reviving the film series -- if there's news about Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, then I will illustrate such news with a photograph of Daniel Craig in character in the movie version because Daniel Craig in tweed with a beard just gives me energy to go on. And boy is there ever new news about Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials! The author has just announced he is writing an entire new trilogy!

Okay. Have you woken up on the floor? I will give you a minute to situate yourself. Take deep breaths. It it true. The Guardian wouldn't lie to us!

"The Book of Dust, an epic fantasy trilogy that will stand alongside his bestselling series, His Dark Materials, will be published in October around the world. The as-yet-untitled first volume of The Book of Dust, due out on 19 October, will be set in London and Oxford, with the action running parallel to the His Dark Materials trilogy.

... Pullman’s brave and outspoken heroine, Lyra Belacqua, will return in the first two volumes. Featuring two periods of her life – as a baby and 10 years after His Dark Materials ended – the series will include other characters familiar to existing readers, as well as creations such as alethiometers (a clock-like truth-telling device), daemons (animals that are physical manifestations of the human spirit) and the Magisterium, the church-like totalitarian authority that rules Lyra’s world."

Pullman has already finished the first two books and is at work on the third, so it doesn't seem like we have to worry about any kind of George RR Martin situation here. Anyway I was just looking at my copies of the original HDM books on my shelf the other day and considering a re-read and obviously, the time is perfect. Y'all have read the books right? I'm not surprised that the big-screen Hollywood version failed - they were never going to have the balls to make the movies about what the books are about. The BBC was supposedly working on a new TV miniseries based off of them but I haven't seen an update on that in awhile and it's not mentioned here.
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Give Me Your Best Grace Kelly

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I haven't been able to stop thinking about yesterday's news that Phillip Pullman's brilliant book series His Dark Materials is getting rebooted by the BBC for a miniseries - if you've never read the books now's your chance! I mean, every day has been your chance, but this offers yet another one! No judgment! (I am judging you until you read them.) Anyway our pal Nathaniel mentioned the news over at TFE today and pointed out an excellent point:

"Good luck besting Nicole Kidman's Miss Coulter."

When I read the books eons ago even then I knew that the only person right for the villainous Mrs. Coulter was Nicole Kidman -- it was one of those perfect preordained bits of casting that thankfully worked out. And considering this today I realized we've currently got yet another example of such an occurrence -- nobody but nobody but Cate Blanchett was right for the role of Carol Aird in an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's story The Price of Salt, and thankfully the fates aligned and made is thus. (Here's my review of Todd Haynes' Carol.) But since we always feel the need to put everything into competition with everything else, we must ask...

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I Am Link

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--- Lady's Boys - The hot similar looking dudes of American Horror Story: Hotel are fully aware that they all look similar, thank you very much. (Thanks Mac) It's seemed like a silly non-story to me because clearly it was intentional; look at those twin children Lady Gaga breeds! Clearly she's into types. She's like Bert from Sesame Street with his closet full of the same outfit. (Bad analogy actually since Lady Gaga changes outfits per scene, but whatever.) Anyway I did appreciate Cheyenne Jackson's comment on the twin thing:

"There are worse things than to be compared to Matt Bomer."

--- From Gods To Men - Bryan Fuller has poked his head up out of the writing room for his upcoming adaptation of American Gods to talk to Crave about both that project and where it stands and the just announced reboot of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories that he is doing for NBC. Sounds like Spielberg is much more involved than it seemed when the project was announced - he recruited Bryan personally to make the thing because he loved Hannibal! In other Bryan Fuller News, Bryan was asked recently what his dream reboot would be and he said he's love to bring the British spy series The Avengers back from the dead. (thanks Mac)
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--- Daemon Lover - This is hopefully good news, fingers crossed: the BBC is planning on making a television series out of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials books! You might recall the movie The Golden Compass with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and Eva Green (who really all were ace casting) flopping violently back in 2007 - they made some good choices but they neutered the story for audience approval and ended up erasing why the story matters in the first place. So let's hope the BBC learned from that, and stick to Pullman's hardcore anti-religious guns because there's a hell of a story to be told here.
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--- And Speaking of Nic, apparently Nicole Kidman is in talks to play "a high-ranking Amazonian Warrior" in the upcoming Wonder Woman movie starring Gal Gadot, spinning off from the Batman v Superman of next summer. People are theorizing that this means she'll be playing Diana's mother Hyppolyta, who is the Queen of the Amazons. Listen I love Nicole but she usually makes reeeeally bad choices when it comes to mainstream movies so I'm not sure whether I'm excited about this or not.
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--- Scrubbed Clean - The Playlist got their greedy mitts on the first picture from Park Chan-wook's upcoming film called The Handmaid, which returns him to Korea after making Stoker here in the States. The movie is an adaptation of an English-language book called Fingersmith (it was turned into a BBC miniseries in 2005) but he's switched locations; now it "is set during the Japanese rule of Korea and follows a handmaid who employs the services of an heiress, con man and pickpocket." See our previous post here. No word on a release yet though.
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--- Just Shoot Me - The first pictures of James Franco and friends in the upcoming Stephen King adaptation 11.22.63 have been released, see them over here - I can't recall whether I knew Josh Duhamel was in this show or not but hells yeah. And also Sarah Gadon! And Cherry Jones! And Chris Cooper! Did I just forget this thing had assembled such a stellar cast or what? Maybe somebody went back in time and erased my memory. Anyway I really liked this book, which is about a dude going back in time to stop JFK from being assassinated; did anybody else read it? The series will premiere on President's Day (so clever you guys!), February 15th 2016.
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--- Forever Filthy - I think John Waters has been given like five interviews a week lately and I've posted links to all of them, but we should be happy he won't shut up dammit! Happy as snapping clams. He chatted with Michael Musto in the new issue of The Advocate and while he refuses to take Musto's bait on the trans issue he did offer up this bit of hilarity about Divine:

"He didn’t want to be a woman. He wanted to pass as a monster."

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--- Herky Jerky - This will take forever because stop-motion always take forever but it's still pretty cool news for like ten years from now -- Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline and everything good stop-motion-animated ever, is teaming up with comedians Key and Peele (!!!) to make an animated movie called Wendell and Wild, which is about "two scheming demon brothers who must face their arch-nemesis, the demon-dusting nun Sister Helly, and her two goth teen acolytes." I will watch that!
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Today's Fun Fact

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Somehow I never knew that Dominic Cooper played Will Parry in the original stage version of His Dark Materials in 2003. (Insert "He can poke me with his subtle knife any time" joke here.) Anyway, huh! Learn something every day!

I'm so sad we're never gonna get a full film version of these books. How long until they can try again? Ten years? Twenty? Maybe Dom can play Lord Asriel by then.

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Quotes of the Day

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I'm mashing together two different bits into one post because I can. Deal with it! First up, in an interview with Werner Herzog at AICN, Herzie's asked (yes I called him "Herzie") about something Nic Cage said recently, that they ought to do a sequel to their Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans that follows Val Kilmer's character and call it Badder Lieutenant. Herzog just laughs and says this:

"As usual, I have a home invasion of burglars of five, six, or seven other feature films that are pushing me, so no. I haven’t made AGUIRRE 2, 3, 4, and 5 either, so I wouldn’t completely exclude it, but at the moment I’m really headed for other things."

Who else but Werner Herzog would categorize his artistic impulse as a home invasion and his films as burglars? And I might just spend the rest of the day picturing what Aguirre would look like as a big budget franchise with multiple sequels.

And that poster image there at the top is via this gallery at AICN of fan-made posters for the movie which y'all oughta check out; there are some great ones in there.

And secondly! Listen, I flirt with a deep-seated hatred of the Twilight franchise myself, based pretty much entirely off of Stephanie Meyers' Mormonism, but even though a good deal of the massive amount of money the second film made this weekend might find its way into that monstrous religion's coffers I can't help but find a great deal of humor at watching the Dark Knight fan-boys splutter and rant and rave about their precious pathetic box-office records being beaten by - gasp! - a bunch of tween girls! Not girls! The horror! The cooties!

All that isn't my second point at all but I felt the need to get it off my chest. No my second point is even if the film sucks I'm glad that director Chris Weitz got a successful fantasy flick out there after the failure of his Golden Compass film and is taking the opportunity to finally let off some steam about the latter's failure. Weitz says (via) the studio took Compass away from him and cut out 30 minutes, and that:

"It was an utter violation of my status as a director and the worst thing that has happened to me professionally. I was treated badly, it was almost like they never read the books. They seemed frightened of offending the right."

Weitz always seemed to get the books better than the final film did so I always wondered what sort of compromises were crammed down his throat. A shame. There's a great trilogy to be made out of Phillip Pullman's series and I guess we're never gonna get it. Boo.
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Catch The Compass, If You Dare

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What would happen if you took the two sides of Indiana Jones - scholar and adventurer - and then basically neutered him of everything interesting? You'd unfortunately have Daniel Craig's turn as Lord Asriel in The Golden Compass, out on DVD today. I don't blame Craig, of course - at least he cuts a dashing figure in tweed - and I don't blame Phillip Pullman's source material, of course (Asriel's much more interesting in the books). I blame the shredder they edited this story in.

But that's the biggest problem of The Golden Compass film-edition, one that hits all the bases, and not much of anything survives completely unscathed (that said, everything bounces off Nicole Kidman like that old school-yard chant "I'm rubber, you're glue..."). It's still an alright movie, which is why I'm reminding y'all it's out today and you ought to catch it if you haven't caught it already - it's just not all it could've been.

And every day that passes with more Hobbit-related news-bites is another day this franchise turns to dust. Sigh.
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Don't Count Lyra Out!

There's a pretty long article in Variety today talking about the fact that The Golden Compass just passed the $300 million mark overseas while not even reaching $100 million here in the US, and why it might've failed here, and so on... the part that caught my interest was the film's producer Deborah Forte talking about her commitment to getting the sequels, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, made. Says Forte:

"'This was a success as a family movie in most countries, it's a very strong family franchise, it won an Academy Award. We have to make the second and the third movie...

I will make 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass,'" she vows. "I believe there are enough people who see what a viable and successful franchise we have.'"

Stick to your guns, Deborah! And while you're at it, maybe work a little harder on the quality too. Just a loving suggestion from a big fan of the books who saw The Golden Compass twice in theaters in the United States.
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What's That B.O.?

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Well, according to DH, The Golden Compass has crossed the $300 million mark thanks to the overseas markets. Why am I bringing this up? Me, a person who claims to loathe box office discussions? Because, as I read the news, I felt a deeply buried twinge of hope, and then I wondered about whether such a hope was wise, and then I wondered whether wondering about the wiseness of said hope-twinge said what. Huh? Exactly.

What I'm saying is, do I even want a sequel? Compass certainly wasn't the worst thing I saw all year or anything (Hi Transformers!) but it was sloppy, and it could've been so very much more with its source material. So while not the worst, it was maybe my biggest disappointment of the year.

But... from my perspective, the books only get better as they go along. There are things in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass that I'd give up a testicle to see on-screen (if only movies were funded with nuts!). And that's a double-edged sword because, if they keep up with the quality-lessening, I'll only get angrier at each successive film.

But they could learn from their initial mistakes, right? Maybe stop being so terrified of the property that they're working with and actually make a film that feels like Phillip Pullman's vision and not a tourist's guidebook to fictional other-worlds.

And then, all this discussion is moot anyway, because who knows if $300 mil. is enough to convince anybody to jump back into this particular well... especially with The Hobbit lined up to rescue some corporate asses.

Thoughts? Would y'all be up for seeing another Dark Materials movie? Or did the first one's relatively sickening thud onto the theater floor smother any expectations for the franchise you might have had? If director Chris Weitz were to be given the boot would that allay your qualms? My answers are ALL MAYBE.
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Cut Clip o' Compass

Not sure if this will stay up for too long, but (via DH) here's a full minute and ten seconds of footage from The Golden Compass that got left on the editing room floor from the snipped ending, which was found from inside some video game tie-in thing:

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I saw GC a second time over the weekend and... well, what's good seemed even better, and what's not-so-good seemed even worse; unfortunately, the biggest part of the not-so-good is the butchering the entire plot was given, which... well, it hurts everything. But I'll write more later.
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5 Off The Top Of My Head - Antici......pation

In conversation with the esteemed Joe R. last evening while waiting for P2 to start (quick review: if you go into this movie expecting it to be the worst thing you've ever seen, then you will unexpectedly enjoy yourself thoroughly), the topic came up of what we were especially looking forward to for the remainder of 2007. Two films came immediately to mind, but with a lil' research this afternoon I've discovered that the actual number of films that I would devour a newborn infant on the spot in exchange for the instant viewing pleasure of said films came out to five... which, thankfully, is the exact number that I use for these list thingamajiggies. What a coincidence!

So here they are, in order of the perceived personal derangement to my faculties that I experience when they come up in conversation:

There Will Be Blood -- December 26th

The one I want to see the worst is, of course, the one that's furthest away from me. Paul Thomas Anderson's movies, in my humble-pie opinion, have gotten better and better each time - that's right: Punch-Drunk Love is his finest movie to date! Don't even try to argue with me! - and the accolades being heaped on this thing in advance are bone-quaking. The trailers give me goosebumps every time I see one. Never have I wanted Christmas to be over with already so badly in my life.

The Mist -- November 21st

I vulgarly expressed my excitement for this earlier - let's just say I'm hankering for a prime hunk of monster-movie cheese, with Bible-thumpin' and tentacle-waving galore, and I think this one might be the ticket.

The Golden Compass -- December 7th

It does say something that this movie doesn't swoop instantaneously into my consciousness when I think what I'm looking forward to. It took me a sec to remember it, unlike the first two films on this list. And for this momentary blind-spot I blame all the nay-saying I've heard lately as to its quality or box office hopes or just random Nicole Kidman bashing. I want so badly for director Chris Weitz to nail this thing, so the slim chance that the following two books never get made will vanish before the end of the year. Must have them all! Must be awesome! Must!

Sweeney Todd -- December 21st

I know fans of the stage musical are super-worried about the cast of apparent non-singers but, perhaps because I am mostly oblivious to all the former versions, I've not found myself able to work myself up into anything but a lather of anticipation. The trailer was so lovely to look at that the fact that we still didn't hear anybody singing hardly bothered me. These are good actors attached, first and foremost, and if they don't tear the roof down with their lyrical interpretations of the songs that's not gonna be the thing most on my mind. SMG isn't much of a songstress but, in the Buffy musical episode, when her voice breaks on the line "I think I was in heeeeaven..." so goes my heart.

I Am Legend -- December 14th

Now this is the one where I become the harried-fan of the original source material and get all defensive about how horribly they may be mucking it up. I love Matheson's story so very much, and ever since Will Smith was cast I've had visions of I,Robot's dancing in my head - they're nothing like sugarplums, believe you me! But the latest trailers have sealed my fate - I am doomed to want this movie to succeed desperately. Please make it good!

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For the record, Southland Tales would've been on here but IT'S OUT TODAY!!! I'm not seeing it until Friday (grumble boyfriend grumble) but it's availability as of this very freaking moment in time renders its placement moot. As for a couple of runners-up, we have Juno, I'm Not There, and The Savages all ebbing and flowing in and out of my wanton consciousness most frequently.

And now's your opportunity, beloved reader: what movies that'll hit screens before December 31st are rumbling your tummy with needing 'em now now nownownow?
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