10(ish) Books I'd Like to see on the Big Screen

I saw this tag going around (on Facebook) and there are LOTS of books I would like to see on the big screen.

All of these must be done true to the book.  Some alterations are ok, because obviously not everything translates well from the page to the screen, but as long as it's a good adaptation I want to SEE IT!!!

Here we go.

1.  The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (why hasn't this been made before????????????????)

2.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (trilogy)  (I think it is being made... yay!)

3.  The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (this is one of my favorite Narnia books... but I say that about all of them.... :)

4.  Savvy by Ingrid Law (This would be LOVE)

5.  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (I know there's already an excellent movie adaptation of this one.  And updated version would be awesome too though.  If it was done right.)

6.  The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall (I <3 The Penderwicks.  There should be more fiction like this for kids.  And there should be movies so kids also have great things to watch.)

7.  Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (I have heard rumors of this one being in the making for YEARS.  It needs to just get DONE!)

8.  The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Um, it's awesome.  'Nuff said.)

9.  Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (On 2nd thought maybe it should be a TV miniseries.  In order to do it right it would have to be like a 10 hour movie... so, maybe a miniseries would be good.)

10. Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (There's a niche for it.  It would sell. Make it!)

11.  Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (Any of Shannon Hale's books would make beautiful movies.)

12.  This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti (I'm actually surprised that some Christian movie making company hasn't picked this one up yet.)

13.  A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (It's a classic. More people should know about it.)

14.  The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (The Benedict Society books are the books I hold all other Kids' Fiction up to as a standard.  Everything should be this clean, this exciting, this educational.)

XIV is the new X.  :-P

MOVIE TAG

This is a tag that was going around on Live Journal and I thought it looked fun to do.
01] -- Look up TEN of your favorite movies on IMDB.com.
[02] -- Click the "trivia" link in the sidebar.
[03] -- Post a fun and random bit of trivia from each film.
[04] -- Tag five people!


I want you all to know I had a hard time coming up with 10 movies.  I mean... I'm kind of a movie lover, so it was hard to just pick 10.  And I even cheated a little.  :)


I hope you all enjoy!  I had a lot of fun finding these fun facts!
Comment and tell me if you enjoyed it!

August Rush

• Two of the songs that Jonathan Rhys Meyers' character, 'Louis Connelly' sings, 'This Time' and 'Break' were considered as nominees for the category of 'Best Original Song' in the '80th Annual Academy Awards'

The Pursuit of Happyness

• The homeless people who worked as extras were paid a full day's minimum wage (which is $8.62/hr in SF) and given free catered meals as compensation for appearing in the film. For some it was the first money they'd made in a while.
• 
  
• Speedcubing champions Tyson Mao and Toby Mao and Lars Petrus were hired to coach Will Smith to solve a Rubik's Cube in under two minutes.
•  
• Jaden Smith stars as Christopher, Chris Gardner's son in the movie. Jaden Smith is Will Smith's son in real life, Christopher is actually Jaden's middle name.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

• During production, Liam Aiken grew four and a half inches (11.4 cm), requiring adjustments to his costume throughout. By the end of the movie, he is visibly taller than Emily Browning who portrayed his older sister.
  
• When the children first meet Count Olaf and Jim Carrey says, "Wait, give me that last line again," was not actually in the script, it was Carrey staying in character and wanting to try it again, but they kept the cameras rolling and felt it worked the way it happened.
• Filming stopped on several occasions after one of the twins playing Sunny (Shelby Hoffman and Kara Hoffman) fell asleep.

The Princess Bride

• While rehearsing for the film, André the Giant's thick accent prevented many of his lines from being understood. To remedy this, actor Mandy Patinkin slapped André in the face to get him to concentrate harder.

• Westley's character is loosely based on Errol Flynn's character in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Director Rob Reiner even used the same conversation found in "Robin Hood" for Westley: "Are you finished?" "Finished? I'm only just beginning." Ironically, in 1993 Cary Elwes would go on to play Robin Hood in 'Mel Brooks (I)''s Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).

• Vizzini's advice on not getting involved in a land war in Asia is derived from principles stated by Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery (Viscount Alamein) in a speech in the House of Lords on 30 May 1962: "Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war is: 'Do not march on Moscow.' ... Rule 2 is: 'Do not go fighting with your land armies in China.'

• There really was a "Dread Pirate Roberts" (Bartholomew Roberts) who operated in the Caribbean in the early 18th century. He is reckoned by many to have been the most successful pirate of all time.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe

• Each design carved into the wardrobe signifies an important event that occurred in the book "The Magician's Nephew," the Narnia book that takes place chronologically before the events in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
  

• Professor Kirke presents three choices to the other Pevensie children of what to think about Lucy's claim about Narnia: that she is lying, that she is mad, or that she is telling the truth. C.S. Lewis was a vocal advocate of Christianity, and in his book "Mere Christianity" presented three similar choices about Jesus' claim to be the Son of God: Liar, Lunatic, or Lord. This is known as his "Trilemma" argument, and is still often used by Christians today.

The Incredibles

• In order to give Dash a realistic out-of-breath voice, Brad Bird made Spencer Fox run laps around the studio.
  

• In the Singaporean version of the film, the company "Insuricare" is translated into "Black-hearted insurance company" if read literally in the Chinese character subtitles.

National Treasure

• Good guys in the movie use Google and bad guys use Yahoo! search engines. 

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

• To make his voice hoarse for the filibuster scene, James Stewart dried out his throat with bicarbonate of soda. However, both Frank Capra and Stewart revealed in interviews that his throat was periodically swabbed with mercuric chloride.
  

• James Stewart knew this was the role of a lifetime, one that could place him near the top of the Hollywood heap. Jean Arthur later remembered his mood at the time: "He was so serious when he was working on that picture, he used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and drive himself to the studio. He was so terrified something was going to happen to him, he wouldn't go faster."

• The scenes where James Stewart wanders around in amazement at the Washington monuments were "stolen", since the US Parks Service had denied the studio permission to film near them.

The City of Ember

• There were so many sets built for the film that some of them wound up never being used. They do sometimes feature prominently in the background, like the hairdressers, but they play no part in the story.

 Cranford

•  Sue Birtwistle found out about the novel Cranford after finishing another project. Despite liking it immensely, she felt it wasn't enough to create a drama series, so she read a large portion of Gaskell's other material, and came up with the idea of adapting three of Elizabeth Gaskell novellas into a BBC Drama series; hence Cranford. The three novels were "Cranford", "Mr Harrison's Confessions" and "My Lady Ludlow." Birtwistle and her co-creator Susie Conklin spent several weeks in Birtwistle's apartment in New York using color coded cards to piece the stories together. When writer Heidi Thomas came on board, she mentioned that they had married off someone twice.

(Ok, so there are actually ELEVEN... but how can you leave out Superman?)

Superman Returns

• The truck which Martha drove during the opening was the exact truck used for the first Superman movie. The producers managed to find that truck and rented it for use.
  

• When Bryan Singer became interested in possibly hiring Brandon Routh, he arranged for them to meet in a coffee shop. When they met at their table, Routh stumbled and spilled hot coffee all over the table. Although he panicked, thinking he had just lost the part, Singer laughed and said it actually helped him get the part. The incident convinced Singer that Routh could pull off the clumsy, bumbling Clark Kent.

 I TAG EVERYONE THAT WANTS TO DO THIS!

Look what came in the mail today...

                                                                           *Grin*

I love The Incredibles!

BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE)

The robot's in the financial district. Which exit do I
take?

HELEN (ELASTIGIRL)

Traction Avenue.

BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE)
That'll take me downtown. I take Seventh, don't I?

HELEN (ELASTIGIRL)

Don't take Seventh!

BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE)

Great, we missed it!

HELEN (ELASTIGIRL)

You asked me how to get there and I told you. Exit at
Traction!

BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE)

That'll take me downtown!

HELEN (ELASTIGIRL)

He's coming up! Get in the right lane! Signal!

BOB (MR. INCREDIBLE)

Not Traction!

HELEN (ELASTIGIRL)

You're gonna miss it!

Miss Potter

"You see, we cannot stay home all our lives. We must present ourselves to the world and we must look upon it as an adventure!"

Amelia: "I have decided that you and I are going to be friends."
Miss Potter: "Have you?"
Amelia: "Well, Noman tells me that you're unmarried, as am I, and that you're not unhappy about it. And I can't tell you how much that pleases me."
Amelia's Mother: "Why can't you talk about the weather like other girls?"
Amelia: "Well, all the other unmarried daughters in our circle-and believe me there are a great many- they sit around all day gossiping and unaccountably bursting into tears. But YOU have done something. You've written a book. I warn you, I am prepared to like you very much."
Miss Potter: "Well, in that case, I shall have to like you too, Miss Warne."

needless to say, I finally saw Miss Potter. I LOVED it.

Toy Story

AKA: "Buzz and Woody" Luke's birthday movie.

"Buzz Lightyear Mission Log. Stardate 4072: My ship has run off course en route to sector 12. I've crash landed on a strange planet. The impact must have awoken me from hyper-sleep.on the squishy surface of the bed. Terrain seems a bit unstable... No read-out yet if the air is breathable... and there seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere --"







ALIEN #1 A stranger!

ALIEN #2 From the outside!

ALIENS Oo-o-o-o-o-o...

BUZZ Greetings! I am Buzz Lightyear! I come in peace!

ALIENS Tell us! What is it like outside?

Princess Bride

Inigo and the Dread Pirate Roberts are having a duel....

Inigo: I admit it, you are better than I am.

Dread Pirate Roberts:Then why are you smiling?

Inigo: Because I know something you don't know.

Dread Pirate Roberts:And what is that?

Inigo: I am not left-handed. (switches sword to right hand and resumes fighting)

Dread Pirate Roberts:You're amazing!

Inigo: I ought to be after twenty years.

Dread Pirate Roberts:There is something I ought to tell you.

Inigo: Tell me.

Dread Pirate Roberts:I'm not left-handed either.

Nancy Drew

If you had been in a theater in my hometown a few nights ago, you might have heard me mumbling under my breath during the opening credits of the movie.

"Please don't change Nancy Drew, Please don't change Nancy Drew..."

Then you might've heard my sister elbowing me in the rib cage and saying "SHHHH!!!!"

I'm not sure why she did that tho' since the only other people in the theater were in our group.

Anyway, I went to see the Nancy Drew movie. I was very nervous. Nancy Drew has a special place in my heart. I have many fond memories of curling up under a blanket or laying on my front lawn with a Nancy Drew book in my hand. I love Nancy Drew. I always have.

So, like I said, I was nervous.

But, I was very pleasantly surprised!

The script writers DID change Nancy. They made her 16, and a peppy over achiever who likes "old fashioned things".

Nancy has been a smart, but mostly serious 18 year old girl for 75 years!!

Despite that, though, the movie makers did manage to keep the overall feel of a Nancy Drew book. I can't tell you how many times I elbowed my sister.

"Of course, there's always a haunted house"

"Chloroform. The bad guys always use chloroform when she gets kidnapped"

"I love the high speed chases in Nancy's blue mustang roadster"

I think my sister wished she had sat next to someone else.

My favorite line: "I just hate it when people try to kill me. It's so RUDE!"

So, all in all, I liked it. It was pretty good even though the Nancy Drew I saw was this one.

Maybe someday I'll write my own Nancy Drew screenplay. But, my screenplay will be about THIS Nancy.

Movie Review...

This movie should come with a warning: You will need 2 boxes of Kleenex to watch this movie!!!!!

Picture this: A man and his son... all alone... sleeping on the floor of a bathroom in a subway station. They have nowhere to go. No one to help them. No money. Their only hope is that the man's unpaid internship at a stock brockerage company will turn into a real job. He has a 5% chance of getting this job. They have to make it through the next 4 months on $22.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I loved this movie. LOVED it. Based on a true story. In the beginning of the movie (actually to be more accurate... the first 90% of the movie) everything goes wrong for Chris Gardner. But, even in the middle of everything going wrong amazing things happen.
Rated PG-13 for language (if I took a guess... I'd say maybe 10 swear words)

Amazing Grace...

Last night we went to Dubuque to see Amazing Grace It was awesome!!! If you haven't seen it yet, I definitely recommend it!!

I never knew much about the emancipation of the slaves in England. Of course we are all familiar with the Civil War here in the States, but it's incredible how it happened in Great Britain, too!

Go see it!

"10 THUMBS WAY UP" - Sigwarth, Sigwarth, Sigwarth....

Men O' War....

Here is one of my favorite movies... it's got everything, a hero you will love, a villian you will despise, comedy, daring sword fights. It's adventure on the high seas! Check it out!!!!

Oh, did I mention it's 5 minutes long?

Men O' War