Camus famously summed up the story like this: A man who does not cry at his mother's funeral will be condemned. Thus, the novel begins: 'Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know,' introducing Meursault's flat, noncommittal tone.
The new trailer for Masters of the Universe goes deeper into the ascension of Adam Glenn as he transforms from mild-mannered Earthling to He-Man, super-powered defender of his father's home planet Eternia.
Baz Luhrmann reinvented Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as a gangbanger love tragedy of the present day, with Mexico City standing in for an imaginary urban place called Verona Beach. The result was a terrific success, more of a success, I suspect, than Luhrmann ever had again; it was irreverent and questioning in just the right way, a sunburst of energy, but instinctively respectful to the story.
The film distils the Blytonesque spirit of adventure and outdoorsy fun... and transfers it to a new world in which all generations are longing to escape electronic devices and AI.
There have been so many impactful films made about the Holocaust, but two things drew me in as a writer. One was that this man kept his secret for 60 years, which I later found out was quite common among survivors. So, the idea of holding on to a secret until you're in your early 70s, even from your children and your family, was compelling.
Director Ben Gregor wanted his cast to interact with the fantastical surroundings as much as possible. And so, on their sound stage in Reading, Gadsdon found herself filming in a grove of marshmallow trees, surrounded by giant flying-saucer plants and Haribo strawberry beds. I did eat a few, she confides. The Land of Birthdays was just as fun she was filmed in those scenes in the middle of a giant cake, as rollerskating elves disco-danced by.
What Maggie O'Farrell so brilliantly did, not just with Agnes and Shakespeare's wife, but also with Hamnet, their son, was to bring these people ... and give them status beside this great man. ... [And] give the full landscape of what it is to be a woman.
Taken from a widely read novel by Ken Kesey, it is a prime example of how a subject which must have looked destined for the cultural ghetto of the art circuit can be hoist by its bootstraps into the commercial field and festooned with Oscar nominations. You can do this of course only by making compromises by engaging a star with redoubtable box office muscle by jollying your audience along a little before the real crunch comes.
The second film adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's 2004 eponymous novel, this new one is considerably inferior to Edge of Tomorrow from 2014, Tom Cruise's own Groundhog D1ay with mechs. It's not a question of budget or aesthetics simply a gaping hole of engaging characterisation and inner spark that makes this time loop a grinding chore, rather than a thrilling jailbreak from eternal recurrence.
The important thing about adaptations isn't what's taken out but what's put in. Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights"-or, as she'd have it, " 'Wuthering Heights,' " complete with scare quotes-is the season's second Frankenstein movie, because Fennell takes bits and pieces from Emily Brontë's novel and, adding much of her own imagining, reassembles them into a misbegotten thing that wants only to be loved. And paying audiences seem to love it, even if many critics don't.
Unless you've been living under the straightest rock imaginable, you've surely heard of, read, watched, and rewatched Red, White & Royal Blue. And perhaps you've heard, it's getting a sequel! This 2023 romantic comedy tells the story of Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar-Perez), the son of US President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman), who falls head over heels into a cake with Prince Henry of Wales (Nicholas Galitzine).
This weekend brings the wide release of Saltburn director Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. As is befitting Fennell's established style, the movie offers over-the-top sexual titillation (though, crucially, zero nudity) and elaborate production design. Plus, a contemporary pop soundtrack from Charli xcx. A horny film version of a 19th-century novel is as adult-skewing as it gets at the box office these days.
