stuff

[the_grynne]

• The Prestige
  Christian Bale. Hugh Jackman. Christopher Nolan.
  
  I only have to see those names together and I go nuts. The film is The Prestige, based on the World Fantasy Award (1996) winning novel of the same name by Christopher Priest. And it has a very interesting synopsis...
  
  The Prestige is a novel about two rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London:
  
  In 1878, two young stage magicians clash in the dark during the course of a fraudulent séance. From this moment on, their lives become webs of deceit and revelation as they vie to outwit and expose one another.
  
  Their rivalry will take them to the peaks of their careers, but with terrible consequences. In the course of pursuing each other's ruin, they will deploy all the deception their magicians' craft can command--the highest misdirection and the darkest science.
  
  Blood will be spilled, but it will not be enough. In the end, their legacy will pass on for generations...to descendants who must, for their sanity's sake, untangle the puzzle left to them.
  
  >> ChristopherNolan.net (While you're there, check out the Nolan's very exciting upcoming films page.)

• State of Play
  BAFTA-awarded State of Play was a extremely good BBC series -- a political thriller/drama seen from the perspective of the journalists -- from the writer of Shameless and Clocking Off: Paul Abbott. It had a great British cast that included John Simm (Clocking Off), David Morrissey (Captain Corelli's Mandolin), Bill Nighy (Love Actually), Kelly Macdonald (Gosford Park), Polly Walker (Atia of the Julii on Rome), and James McAvoy (Children of Dune, Narnia).
  
  My previous understanding was that Abbott was working on the second series of State of Play, to follow on from the first series. But according to >> Dark Horizon, Universal Pictures has hired Matthew Michael Carnahan (who on earth is he, anyway? what's he done?) to adapt the story of the series into a screenplay.
  
  I'm not sure how I feel about this... On the one hand, I think it would make for a great film; it raises wonderfully some issues of ethics (journalistic, personal, political), corruption, and the relationship between oil companies and the government. And on the other hand, I'm afraid the cast (which I love) will almost certainly be replaced, and the setting moved to the United States. Which is not necessary a bad thing, but there're an awful lot of places it could go wrong.

• Kitchen Confidential
  *giggles* Aheheh.
  
  Michael Vartan -- late of Alias -- will guest star in the Kitchen Confidential episode called "F@#% the French". Again proving his inability to steer clear of roles named after him, Vartan will play "Michel," an arrogant, womanizing French chef who steals from Jack's (Bradley Cooper) menu and seduces head waitress Mimi (Bonnie Somerville), sparking a brutal feud between Nolita and a rival French bistro.
  
  >> Coming Soon!

• Firefly
  Review for the Firefly Soundtrack:
  
  Don't go lookin' for no themes in this here 'verse. There's colors, instead, and textures, subtle stuff.
  
  >> SoundtrackNet