The Good: information on the anticipated shooting schedule for the remaining Narnia books, as well as insight into Walden's philosophy behind adapting children's books into movies.
The paragraph that gave me pause:
Filmmakers who work for Walden say the company is surprisingly -- and refreshingly -- hands-off. "They are not keen on fart jokes, dirty words, and unintelligent, cheap solutions. Fortunately, neither am I," says Rugrats co-creator Gabor Csupo, who's currently directing Walden's adaptation of Katherine Paterson's trip-into-fantasyland Bridge to Terabithia.OK, I'm hoping that the director knows what this book is about and it's a clueless reporter -- but damn, someone on staff at EW should have let the reporter know that describing Terabithia as a "trip into fantasyland" is like describing Veronica Mars as a TV show about a cheerleader.
Tho, to be fair, I read Terabithia during my fantasy phase and did indeed pick it up expecting a Narnia like fantasy. Boy, was I surprised. But my excuse is I was ten at the time, and not a reporter for a national magazine.
4 comments:
No fart jokes? Hmm..check out the TV spot for the forthcoming Walden Media production of Charlotte's Web at http://www.charlotteswebmovie.com.
Bridge to Terabithia is not only an amazing story, but a famous one - and I _still_ am shocked every single time I recommend it to a teacher or parent and he or she says, "I've never heard of that. Is it new?" etc. AAAH. Also, I tell them to come back and see me AFTER they've read it so I can recommend more titles then - I don't want to spoil the ending in advance.
Yes, I thought the trip-into-fantasyland quote was a bit odd, as well. Still, I can not wait to see this movie. Bridge to Terabithia is the reason I started writing children's books.
Walden has a great record of turning books into movies. But they'd better pay particular attention to this one and NOT SCREW IT UP!
- Jay
I'm glad that Monica pointed out the fart joke connection with "Charlotte's Web". On the other hand, the article pointed out that the directors are the ones who shape where any given production will go. Blame Gary Winick who brought us "Uptown Girls".
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