Did you know that Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides is based off the book On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers? Did you also know that On Stranger Tides is considered to be one of the main inspirations for the Monkey Island video game series? It was seem this book is highly influential. I should probably get around to reading it huh?

Anyway, books and pirates! Two of my favorite subjects. Did you see the teaser trailer yet? It doesn’t tease much other than the fact they are making a 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I loved the first, hated the second, and never saw the third. Who knows how I will feel about the forth.

Wes Anderson, the director of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, is a director that people love, yet I have no idea why. His movies are quirky but not “good” in my opinion. On the bright side, Anderson’s continual casting of Bill Murray makes up for his continual casting of Owen Wilson.

This fall Anderson will be releasing The Fantastic Mr. Fox in theaters starring all the people from his previous films plus George Clooney. It’s stop motion and reminds me of The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

I loved Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife. I think it is a fantastic sci-fi love story. So naturally I was looking forward to the movie adaptation, praying that they don’t screw it up.

Sadly, I think they screwed it up. At least Niffenegger’s new book Her Fearful Symmetry comes out in September.

Aardman Animations, the people behind such films as Chicken Run and every Wallace & Gromit feature, have announced that they are making a stop-motion adaptation of Gideon Defoe’s pirate themed novel The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. The Aardman Animation website says that the film will be based on two books from the series (the first two?) and that the screenplay was written by Defoe himself. It will be directed be Peter Lord who directed Chicken Run. Above is some early concept art for the film.

Earlier this month (or late last month, I don’t remember) Defoe finally released the fourth book in the series, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon, in the US (after having been released in the UK last year). Currently that book is sitting comfortably in my To Read pile.

All I can say is YAY!

Hey Portlanders! What’cha doin’ this weekend? You know it’s going to be raining regardless of what the weather man says. So why not check out Wordstock’s Book-To-Film Festival? They will be showing A Clockwork Orange, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Color Purple, Fahrenheit 451, James and the Giant Peach, Jaws, Midnight Cowboy, and Sometimes a Great Notion. Tickets are only $3. For more details check out the wordstock blog.

This sounds like a whole lot better than paying $9 to see Angels and Demons.

Yesterday I was faced with a tough decision. Should I go to my Bible as Literature class or ditch and go hear Marc Acito speak as a guest speaker in some other class (Book Publishing?)?

You’re right. It’s not a tough decision.

So I did. It was interesting. Marc talked about pitching his books and how he came about being a published author and what not.

Here we have Marc marveling at the fact that class rooms nowadays have the internet hooked up to a projector.

I went to see the film based off of the book City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau this evening. I haven’t read the book series, so I can’t really compare the two. As of late it seems that movie studios are trying to adapt as many children’s books in to movies as possible in hopes of rivaling the type of money that the Harry Potter films collect. But most of these adaptations fail for various reasons. The biggest problem I have is that the studios will only adapt the first book of a series in to a movie and will let the movie end with unanswered questions. The Lemony Snicket movie comes to mind. Then there are occasions like the Spiderwick Chronicles where the studios try and condense a five(ish) book series in to a single film. Naturally there are many plot points and characters that are left on the cutting room floor.

Which brings me back to City of Ember (movie). I liked the movie. It was interesting and had a compelling plot. Compelling enough to make me want to pick up the actual book and see what they left out as well as continue reading the series to see what happens after the movie ends.