FROM A BOOK TO THE BIG SCREEN.

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a favourite BOOK of mine - an extremely short story (it's only twelve or so sentences long), it's the fabulous illustrations that I really love.

Way back in October (was it really that long ago?) I did a POST about the film adaptation, just released in the USA, where many were reporting that it was way too scary. Released here in England on Friday (the 11th of December), what do our movie-goers think of it?

Well, the general consensus seems to be that the 101 minute film is about 80 minutes too long and instead of being fun-packed, 'Max's adventures have become a sort of emotional travelogue to a land of temperamental monsters with issues to work through (and) as a result, adults will feel like children again, and children will feel like running off and having a wild rumpus in the foyer' - the Guardian's Guide magazine.

Hmm, hoping to see the film over the Christmas holidays, I'll reserve judgement until then.

Another book to be adapted for the silver screen, it had it's premiere here in London last month, is Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. I won't go into too many details about the story for fear of spoiling it for those of you who have yet to read it (click HERE for the synopsis if you wish) but, needless to say, the film version isn't going down too well.

Directed by Peter Jackson (of The Lord Of The Rings and King Kong fame) and starring Rachel Weizz, Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon, the film has a PG (Parental Guidance) Certificate and, as such, is missing the major event as occurs in the book.

"Might the fault lie with the source novel? Alice Sebold's best-selling book held up Susie Salmon's (the lead character) innocent fancies as a kind of talisman to ward off evil. It dared to spin a sentimental fantasy out of a grisly tragedy, offsetting the tang of sulphur with the sweet taste of candyfloss. The difference (between this and the film) was that Sebold's novel was not scared to look the central horror in the face.

The screen version, by contrast, is so infuriatingly coy, and so desperate to preserve the modesty of it's soulful victim that it amounts to an ongoing clean-up operation." - An edited version of an article by Xan Brooks, reporting in the Guardian.

Not a film I intend to see, I read the BOOK at my Book Club and was totally unimpressed with it. "The author sets out to use shock tactics rather than any real character development" was one comment I made.

And finally, it had to happen.

Remember my REVIEW of Pride And Prejudice And Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith? Well, a film version is in the pipeline (thanks to Husband dearest for that piece of information) - set to star Natalie Portman though very little else is yet known about the project.