• Let the Hunger Games Filming Begin!

    ByElizabeth
    25 Comments

    Word is out that the folks working on the film of The Hunger Games are looking for unknown talent as preparations begin for the filming for a 2012 theatrical release. Check this link to see the guidelines put out by the folks doing the casting.  The character descriptions are interesting but a little confusing, since both President Snow and Finnick Odair are listed in the lineup, though Snow’s role is minimal in The Hunger Games, and Finnick is not even introduced until Catching Fire. Notable by their absence are Cinna, the prep team, and Caesar Flickerman. I’m not sure why there is a listing for Haymitch, as, no matter how much it costs, they really ought to have Hugh Laurie in that role. More interesting to me, however, is the fact that filming will take place in North Carolina and Georgia. Join me after the jump for some speculations on locations.

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  • Deathly Hallows 2: Severus Dies In ‘Crystal House’

    ByJohn
    1 Comment

    If you’ve seen the trailers for Warner Brothers’ adaptation of Deathly Hallows, you already know that we’re in for some major changes in the finale. Scenes of Harry and the Dark Lord in one-on-one battles around the Hogwarts campus are clue enough that liberties will be taken in the series’ film finish. We learned today, via an interview with the movie’s Art Director (?) on a Mexican movie web site discussed at HPANA and SlashFilm.com (H/T James), that (1) the death of Severus Snape will not be in the Shrieking Shack but in a ‘Crystal House,’ (2) that it will be visible from a boat house, and (3) that Ms. Rowling approved the changes with enthusiasm.

    Can you believe we’re talking about this kind of thing six months before the movie comes out? Mission accomplished, WB marketing staff…

  • Voyage of the Dawn Treader Film Thoughts: The “Voyage” is Bumpy, but the Destination Delivers

    ByElizabeth
    14 Comments

    After my serious qualms with a few issues in the film version of Prince Caspian, it was with some trepidation that I sailed off to the theater to see the just-released Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. For one thing, I knew PC had to be seriously re-worked to function as a film because of its narrative structure, and it’s not my favorite of the Chronicles anyway. VDT, on the other hand, has a big place in my heart, great journey structure, with plenty of fascinating stops along the way, and some fantastic moments of transcendence, including the heartwrenching scene in which Aslan tells Lucy she and Edmund will not return to Narnia. So I was concerned to see how the characters, plot, and most of all, the spiritual payoff survived the transition to the screen. There were some serious liberties taken, but, in the end, the Deeper Magic shines through. Follow me after the jump through the picture frame to get the whole story….

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  • Mailbag: Why is the Latin in Harry Potter So Bad?

    ByJohn
    6 Comments

    Next question from the Contact tab Mailbox:

    Dear Mr. Granger,

    My parents and I saw The Deathly Hallows film last night. My dad (who has seen the movies but not read the books) had a comment. He is a little annoyed by the “obvious” or clunky use of Latin for all of the spells. To him, it sounds cutesy, as if kids are pretending to put together enchantments from little bits of pseudo-Latin roots. And why does it sound so, in a word, dumb?

    Not being a Latin-speaker myself, I gave it my best shot and answered his complaint as well as I could. As you are a Latin teacher, however, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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  • Deathly Hallows (Part 1): A Reader’s Movie Notes

    ByJohn
    16 Comments

    I really struggle with writing movie reviews.

    I don’t know about you, but I roll my eyeballs at film criticism written by serious book readers in which the reviewer just doesn’t get beyond a throw-away acknowledgment that screened images and printed text are different media so the stories are necessarily different. Reading all the changes made in the jump from page to celluloid, be it in the Potter and Twilight franchises or in Narnia and Middle Earth, especially when these changes are noted with disapproval, disappointment, and a dismissive dismay at what the film-going reader experiences as something like heresy or sacrilege, leaves me marveling that anyone in the 21st Century still doesn’t understand that the movie experience is not and cannot be the reader’s experience of story. (Prof. Baird Hardy, of course, gets it just right.)

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