The Average American Male is Optioned

I don’t usually mention news of books or other non-film properties being optioned by studios, but this was too funny not to pass on.

The book, The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen was described in the New York Times book review as “[A] brilliant send-up of the way …the male point of view has been misrepresented by militant feminists.” Normally that’d be enough to sign me on board to read it, but as a promotion for the book, they filmed a few shorts and released them on YouTube back when the book was released in March of this year. Check ‘em out:

Apparently they were a bit of an internet phenomenon earlier this year, but I missed out on it. Hilarious. I bought the book hours after seeing these.

Anyway, the book has been optioned by Fox Atomic. Chad Kultgen is set to adapt his own screenplay, and Betty Thomas (John Tucker Must Die) is on board to produce and possibly direct.

Source: JoBlo

Lots of Dexter News!

The first season of Dexter, the original Showtime series, was released earlier this week, and packaged with the DVD were a few ads that indicate more about the future of the now lucrative Dexter franchise.

First up, the second season will premiere on Showtime on Sunday, September 30th at 9:00PM E/P. Episodes following this will continue on Sundays at the same time.

Several previews of the upcoming season are up over at the Showtime website.

Furthermore, a soundtrack for the series containing the main title theme by Rolfe Kent and original score by Daniel Licht will be released August 28th.

Finally, and most excitingly, the new book in Jeff Lindsay’s series that serves as the basis for the show, titled Dexter in the Dark will be released on September 18th. A description of the story can be found after the link, as it could potentially ruin future seasons of the show.

Loads of Palahniuk!!

Tons of news on the Chuck Palahniuk front today! Let’s start at the start…

MTV has an excellent set report from the currently filming adaptation of his novel Choke starring Sam Rockwell as Victor Mancini and Angelica Houston as his bed-ridden mother.

His novel Invisible Monsters has been in development Hell for some time now, but looks to be sparking interest once again. Slashfilm has the full story.

Palahniuk has another novel slated for 2008. Titled Snuff, It will be the second in an apparant science fiction trilogy started he started with this year’s Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey. Here’s the scoop:

“It’s about the shooting one of the worlds largest [pornographic] movies. It’s basically about three men waiting in the green room among 600 men. Over the course of the first act you learn that this actress plans to die during the production and that most likely one of these three men was a child she conceived and put up for adoption. He’s been trying to contact her for years. She’s never acknowledged him and he’s so desperate he’s shown up for this casting call to try to rescue her before she dies.”

I’m halfway through Rant right now, and it’s very cool. I still recall Survivor being my favorite Palahniuk book, but I know that Choke was up there as well. And hearing Sam Rockwell is cast in the lead couldn’t make me happier; I love that guy.

Source: Slashfilm, MTV

More Harry Potter Epilogue Details

If you’ve finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and feeling a little unsatisfied with the Epilogue, you will be happy to hear this.

In her first interview after the book’s release, author J.K. Rowling revealed a few more of the details (which she apparently trimmed from a much longer epilogue) to Meredith Viera and TODAY.

It’s obviously very spoiler-heavy, but check out the details at MSNBC.

She’s also revealed that she “probably will” publish a Harry Potter Encyclopedia with all the information she wrote to support the novels:

The encyclopedia would include back stories of characters she has already written but had to cut for the sake of narrative arc (“I’ve said before that Dean Thomas had a much more interesting history than ever appeared in the books”), as well as details about the characters who survive “Deathly Hallows,” characters who continue to live on in Rowling’s mind in a clearly defined magical world.

Source: MSNBC.com

Harry Potter 7: By the Numbers

As everybody knows at this point, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installent in the series, was released Saturday, July 21st.

I finished my copy early Sunday morning, and it was outstanding.

Since I don’t currently publish reviews on this website [I've thought about it though...], and since some people are still reading it (no spoilers!), I’ll leave my personal comments at that. However, I thought it’d be fun to post some general numbers related to the book’s release:

12 million: the number of books printed for the U.S. release alone

2 million: the number of copies from the initial printing slotted just for Amazon.com

8.3 million: the number of copies sold in the first 24 hours on sale

1.2 million: the number of copies sold by Borders Group, Inc. in the first day

850,000: number of copies of Half-Blood Prince sold by Borders Group, Inc. in the first day back in 2005

300,000+: number of copies sold per hour

5,000+: number of copies sold per minute

7: number of top best selling items that were Harry Potter related on Amazon.com on Sunday

32.2 million: the number of dollars Order of the Phoenix made at the box office over the weekend while Potter fans were distracted with the book, dropping enough to allow I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry to beat it for the #1 slot

1: number of lawsuits Scholastic is engaging in due to early shipments of the book

Source: AP, NY Times

Harry Potter-Mania Begins!

Having just finished rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix over the weekend, I’m definitely all set for the coming weeks that will not only bring the latest film of the same name, but also the thrilling conclusion to the epic book series.

To celebrate, I have a few treats. Obviously, if you want to go in fresh and unspoiled, don’t read on and definitely don’t click any of the links. I know some people want to be surprised about what was kept in and what was left out of the adaptation of the longest book in the series. If you’ve read the book, however, and don’t mind seeing what you already know, continue on…

Stephen King’s Insomnia

Definitely not first on my list of favorites, nor my list of would-be adaptations, Stephen King’s lengthy Insomnia is apparently next in line for big screen treatment.

Director Rob Schmidt (Wrong Turn) will be helming the project. It seems that King was a big fan of his work on Wrong Turn, and sought out the man directly for this project.

From what I know about Wrong Turn, this seems like they might be going in a different direction than the book. Insomnia always seemed to me, besides a Dark Tower tie-in, a novel about age and death, with a touch of the supernatural. I’m worried they’re going to take the horror route.

Source: JoBlo

Important Character in Harry Potter

As the producers have been making the Harry Potter movies, they’ve been forced (as the books got longer and more complex) to make some cuts. Some are more popular than others, but some aren’t even allowed.

Producer David Heyman has said in the past that J.K. Rowling reads through their scrips as they finish each draft to drop them hints on whether or not they’re taking too much license with the series.

Since the fifth book is the longest, they’ve also had to cut the most out of it. While cutting Quidditch entirely caused a fan uproar, Rowling simply couldn’t let them cut a certain character.

Director David Yates had the following to say: