stuff
Jamie Bell (Jumper, Defiance) has been cast as the title character in The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, a motion capture 3D feature film directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the well known series of comics by Herge. A second film in the series is planned, to be directed by Peter Jackson, with the possibility of becoming a trilogy. Also on board are Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, Daniel Craig as Red Rackham, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Thompson and Thomson, Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook. (THR) [imdb]
*dances around for two minutes* Okay, Geeks Of Doom is reporting that Neil Jordan (The Brave One, Interview with a Vampire, The Crying Game) will write and direct a big-screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman's young adult novel, The Graveyard Book. The story of a boy escaped from assassins who is raised by the spirit inhabitants of a graveyard, the book was winner of the 2009 Newbery Medal. Neil Jordan (director of my favourite movie ever, The Good Thief) also has the Colin Farrell starring fantasy Ondine in the works.
Sci Fi Channel has ordered 20 hours of the Battlestar Galactica prequel series, Caprica, starring Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Polly Walker, and Paula Malcolmson. Creator Ronald D. Moore plans to hand over showrunner duties to writer/producer, Jane Espensen (Battlestar Galactica, Buffy, Angel), midway through the season. Also making the move to Caprica are Galactica writers Michael Taylor and Ryan Mottesheard, composer Bear McCreary, production designer Richard Hudolin, and special effects supervisor Gary Hutzel. (Chicago Tribune)
Guardian's must-read list of science fiction/fantasy novels.
The Beast 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2008.
Press photographs of George W. Bush from his 8 years in office picked by the photo editors of AP (The Associated Press), AFP (Agence France-Presse) and Thomson Reuters. (NYT)
Malcolm Knox, a Sydney-based writer, on the ecstasy of surfing. Not being a surfer, but having lived in this city for the last sixteen years of my life, and never more than 30 minutes from a public beach, it's a bit odd for me sometimes to realise that there are people who have never seen the sea in their lives, never swam in it or cooled down in its spray on summer nights, who don't have that - even tangentially, like me - as part of their everyday life, their culture. Including the ugly bits.
'The proximity of surf and city is unique, I think, to Sydney. Perhaps Durban has it, but Durban is nowhere near as big as Sydney and its breaks are neither as plentiful nor as diverse. Honolulu? Don’t start. Los Angeles, San Diego? They have the surfers, but not really the surf. Sydney is a large, for the most part ugly, suburban city based on finance, trade and services; but it also has 30 distinct surf breaks within half an hour of the Opera House.'