Jane Austen vs. Predator

So...just last week, I talked about the upcoming zombie spoof of Jane Austen's seminal work, Pride and Prejudice, entitled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Now, I receive the following e-mail:

Elton John’s Rocket Pictures hopes to make the first Jane Austen adaptation to which men will drag their girlfriends. Will Clark is set to direct "Pride and Predator,” which veers from the traditional period costume drama when an alien crash lands and begins to butcher the mannered protags, who suddenly have more than marriage and inheritance to worry about.

Wow. Did all of Jane Austen's books suddenly become public domain so everyone's jumping on the parody bandwagon or is there a niche market for sci-fi twists on classic novels that I am unaware of? 'Cause I'll go ahead and admit I always thought an alien invasion would've been a nice addition to The Count of Monte Cristo, and why not have Jean Valjean on the run not only from the French police, but also from a killer cyborg from the future? Hollywood, I am waiting for your call.

Your Week in Zombie News

For some reason, there appears to be a steady amount of zombie-related media being released to the unsuspecting public, and while I am all for anything and everything zombie, I feel the need to point out two of the more recent releases:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Featured on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," and recommended by John Hodgman, one of the stars of the #1 Children's Film in America, this parody of the classic Jane Austen novel features the original text, plus "all-new scenes of bone crunching zombie action!" The book's already reached #88 on the Amazon.com Best-Seller list, and it hasn't even been released yet! Also, that cover is amazing. Zombifying the covers of famous literature needs to be the new Photoshop challenge.Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is just ten bucks from Amazon.com. It's release date is listed as "unknown."

Otto; or, Up with Dead People
a film by Bruce LaBruce

This film and I crossed paths last year when I was a programmer for the Cucalorus Film Festival, and let me tell you, I hope we never see each other again. I am all for more gay/lesbian cinema. In fact, a lot of the entries I viewed were about homosexual relationships, and for the most part, they were all very entertaining and would've been perfect fits for Cucalorus. Bruce LaBruce's gay zombie porn, however, was boring, incomprehensible, and featured embarrassingly bad acting by people who clearly had no need to attempt the fake foreign accents they were trying to pull off. I mean, seriously, how do you fuck up a film taking place in a parallel universe where "gay zombie porn" has become a cottage industry? It practically writes itself! And look at the tagline on the DVD cover:That's right; it says "Bringing sexy back...from the dead." If half the film were as creative as that tagline, maybe Otto would've been shown at the festival. It's still ten times better than the offensively heterosexual Deadgirl, recent Cucalorus entry and my pick for worst film of '08. Otto; or Up with Dead People is on DVD for $24.99 on Amazon.com.

Two New Reasons to Read (or at least to listen to someone else reading)

This October, two of my favorite authors will be releasing new books. This is notable because (1) I rarely read because I sadly don't seem to have enough time to sit down and pick up a tome, so anything new in the world of bookdom is of interest to me and (2) it's my blog and, goldarnit, it's notable, okay?

Sarah Vowell caught my eye when she appeared on "The Daily Show" promoting her travelogue-cum-history-lesson Assassination Vacation. I was somewhat familiar with Ms. Vowell, thanks to her voiceover work as Violet from The Incredibles. Still, what struck me about her interview with Jon Stewart was her casual mention that he makes an appearance on the audiobook version, portraying twentieth president James A. Garfield no less. I'd never heard of an author who invites special guests to perform on her audiobook, and Vowell's latest book, The Wordy Shipmates, has a colorful cast of characters, including actors Peter Dinklage, Bill Hader, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, John Slattery, and "Daily Show" correspondents John Oliver and John Hodgman. The hardcover version of The Wordy Shipmates drops 10/7, as well as the audiobook version, which is totally worth the extra two bucks.

Speaking of "Daily Show" correspondents, resident expert John Hodgman got involved with the show thanks to an appearance on it promoting his first book, a compendium of complete world knowledge entitled The Areas of My Expertise, which in addition to amusing anecdotes about furry lobsters and the Mall of America, also included an exhausting list of 700 hobo names, which have since become the things of internet lore, inspiring an art project and a successful webcomic.

Well, he's back with another massive almanac, this one titled More Information Than You Require, which not only promises to explain "hermit-crab racing" and "how to cook an owl," but also comes with another 700 names, this time of Mole-Men, and will also include their occupations, whatever that means. While Hodgman's television personality (which includes portraying a PC in the incredibly popular Apple ads with him and Justin Long) is one thing, his style of writing is most definitely another, and while people who enjoy the former may not click with the latter, it's worth noting that if you can crack the dense layer of irony that comes pre-packaged with every Hodgman novel, sweet confectionery goodies lay beneath. More Information Than You Require drops 10/21. More info, including the entire book jacket, can be found on Hodgman's (awesome) official website.