Movies: A Tale Dark and Grimm will be an Henry Selick Movie!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

(breathe. Resume quasi-professional demeanor.)

A Tale Dark and Grimm, by Adam Gidwitz, is one of my favorite fairy tale adaptations of all time. Click here to read my review of it. Click here to read Adam Gidwitz's defense of dark fairy tales.

Now, it is going to be a movie with one of my favorite film artists at the helm, Henry Selick of Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas.

If you watch the trailer you will see how well the story lends itself to Selick's style. 

OUAB has more details about the movie and what the book is about, so check her out. 

MOVIES: Into the Woods Pictures and Questions of Form and Style

I was going to save this post for a little later, but there are a whole slew of pictures from filming Into the Woods that have just come out on Broadwayworld.com.

Many are of Cinderella's wedding with Prince, Cinderella, Stepmother and a non-Lucy-Punch Stepsister action:

Cinderella's dress is beautiful!! And Chris Pine definitely looks charming, if maybe not sincere.

And then we get my beloved James Corden as the Baker and Emily Blunt as a preggers Baker's Wife:

This actually brings home something I was going to write about. I was jarred when I saw this tweet from Anna Kendrick a few weeks ago: "Voice lessons, horse riding lessons, corset fittings. It’s like I’m in finishing school except I’ll be back in sweats by Xmas #IntoTheWoods."

I saw "horse riding lessons" and the weight of Into the Woods as a movie really hit home. For me, much of the charm of Into the Woods is the style, the obviously fake cow that eats a shoe, the flat cut out trees that are layered, the strong conceit that we are watching a fairy tale story being told by a storyteller, the Narrator. The idea that Cinderella would be riding a real horse, through presumably a real forest was difficult to swallow.

It brings up the question: how much of what we love about Into the Woods is the content, and how much of it is the form? Can it translate to real trees and real horses and real cows, or will we loose a lot of what we loved about this complex story told in this deceptively simple and homespun environment? 

Along similar lines, I have noticed that they do not have a Narrator listed in the IMDB credits. They do have a Baker's Father, but no Narrator. This may mean they have not cast the role yet. It could mean that, like the film of Sweeney Todd, they chose to get rid of the highly theatrical narrative structure that made the play special. You could certainly tell the content of Into the Woods without the Narrator, all you would need to do is cut one joke. But you would loose the style. 

In addition, I feel that the style and the content are not mutually exclusive. The Narrator sets up your typical fairy tale with his narration, which makes it all the more astonishing when the characters decided to break out of their roles, when the story becomes all too real, when stories begin to have weight and truth that you never realized before: that "children will listen." If the story is told straight out, without the idea that you listening to someone tell you a familiar story, that you are entering into this "Once Upon a Time" world where you know all the comforting rhythms, we will lose much of the weight of Act II.

What do you think? Do the images so far, including the one below, represent what you loved about Into the Woods? I must admit, they made me excited. Here's hoping that we do not loose the style, or the movie is able to create a new style that serves the form and the story. 

Rapunzel's Tower Under Construction

MOVIES: Into the Woods Update

I did not include this in my general movie overview earlier this month because I felt it deserved its own post.

First, there was a huge uproar when we found out that Disney had cast Sophia Grace Brownlee as Little Red Riding Hood, opposite Johnny Depp's wolf. (see Io9's post as well)

1) People were concerned that it was stunt casting, because Sophia Grace is not an actress, but a child celebrity singer. 2) Sophia Grace is 10. I, like many of my colleagues on the internet, had interpreted the "Hello Little Girl" scene between the Wolf and Little Red, and her subsequent song "I Know Things Now," to be about sexual experience. "Hello Little Girl" uses culinary and sexual imagery in the same breath: "Think of that scrumptious carnality twice in one day." "I Know Things Now" describes how she got "excited and scared" when he "drew me close and he swallowed me down down a dark slimy path where lie secrets that I never want to know." It did not help that the wolf costume in the original Broadway production had a phallus, and that Robert Westenburg was highly suggestive:

On the other hand, in his interview for BroadwayWorld in 2011, Sondheim states that the theme of the play is about parents and children. As one of the two active children in the play, having Little Red as an actual child would enhance that theme. Depending on the interpretation, I could see this song played purely as a "beware of strangers" cautionary tale. I hoped that is the direction they were heading when they cast a 10 year old. 

HOWEVER.

Disney recently swapped Little Reds, replacing 10 year old Sophia Grace with 12 year old Lilla Crawford, a stage actor with several Broadway shows under her belt. 

This certainly addresses the first concern: stunt casting. Yet, however mature Lilla may be, 2 years (though an important 2 years) is not a huge difference. We can safely assume that Disney will not emphasize the sexual nature of the scene, but judging from the change, they are apparently taking the public's concerns into consideration. 

Anyway, you can now see the completed cast list here, which includes most of the people we have seen before, but with one exciting addition: Annette Crosby (the sassy fairy godmother in Slipper and the Rose) will play Little Red's Granny. I am also ecstatic about Lucy Punch playing an evil stepsister, as she seems to have made a living in fairy tale films playing exactly that (and Sally Shepherdess from 10th Kingdom). It also includes character descriptions so you can get a glimpse of what they deem to be the essence of the character.

Movie: Gods Behaving Badly

So this is happening, and I am so frikkin excited about it! According to I09, there is a movie coming out based on the book Gods Behaving Badly, a personal favorite of mine. The Greek Gods have not disappeared. They have adapted to circumstances, and are living in an apartment in London (well, NY in the movie). They are still squabbling and screwing as usual, but lack of belief has depleated their powers to almost nothing. Then, two hapless mortals stumble upon this celestial group house, and are caught up in a story that not only tests them to their limits, but may signal the end of the world as we know it.

The cast looks amazing! Christopher Walken is Zeus (who has shut himself away in the attic), Nelsan Ellis  is Dionysus (now a DJ), Sharon Stone is Aphrodite (a phone sex operator), Edie Falco is Artemis (a dog walker), John Turturro is Hades, Rosie Perez is Persephone, Phylicia Rashad is Demeter, and Oliver Platt is Apollo, which I am so excited about! And Alicia Silverstone is one of the hapless mortals.

It is in post-production according to IMDB, and is labeled as coming out in 2013, but there is no trailer yet, or any further information, so I will keep you posted! This is Joseph Campbell at his best!

Fairy Tale Roundup: Disney's The Beast, New Frozen Trailer and Culturally Diverse Fan Art, NEW FABLES VIDEO GAME, and Fairy Tale Scholarship

by Anne Lebovitz

Disney's The Beast Movie
Yes, folks. ANOTHER Beauty and the Beast movie. Once Upon a Blog is amazing as always, catching us up to the 3 Beauty and the Beast adaptations either currently running or in the works. This version focuses on the Beast (obviously). It is live-action, and supposedly a "darker" retelling, but honestly, how dark will Disney go? But it apparently has a few good things going on for it! Click the link to find out! I honestly hope that they try something new, rather than create a live action version of the animated feature from a different POV. No yellow dress, no talking furniture, no inventor father. I'd love it if they did an adaptation of Donna Jo Napoli's book Beast, but it doesn't look like that is happening.

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By weepingrockrock

REAL Frozen trailer
Well, an international Frozen trailer is here, and it looks slightly better than the Moose and Snowman Comedy Hour. I am a little disappointed with the Rapunzel look-alike, though I LOVE that the community is speaking out, creating their own ethnically diverse versions of the hero and heroine. Perhaps Disney will listen, and make better choices in the future. (Click the link for the pics Once Upon a Blog's aggregation of the controversy!)

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A Fables Prequel Video Game

Telltale Games (who brought us Monkey Island and The Walking Dead episodic animated games) brings us a Fables video game, called The Wolf Among Us, set before the Fables comic book series begins. Ichabod Crane is deputy mayor, and the story follows our beloved Bigby as sheriff investigating a murder. AND [SPOILERS] you get to see stirrings of his feelings for Snow White. It seems to be very character driven, and the choices that the player makes will lead you down different paths. The creators say the game is different each time you play it. There will be fights, but they will all be narratively motivated. And actions have consequences: if you take too many punches, you will be bloody and bruised. If you pick too many fights, it might effect your relationships with those you care about. The art is also stunning! The lead writer, Pierre Shorette, has immersed himself in the world of Fables, making the art his computer background, even digging into the original fairy tales that inspired the characters. SO EXCITED! (Also, Once Upon a Blog speculates about the Fables movie)

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The Different Ways to Analyse Fairy Tales

And now for a little meat and potatoes after the wonderful pop culture confectionery delights above. Tales of Faerie, a brilliant and scholarly mind as always, has compiled for us a list of different ways to examine fairy tales: Fairy tales as myth, psychoanalytical, gender politics, structural, collective unconscious (Jungian), etc. Though I am surprised that it did not include anthropological, the study of fairy tales as they related to the time and place they were told?

Fairy Tale Roundup: Casting News for Cinderella and Into the Woods, a "Fairy Tale Wedding," and the International Percy Jackson Trailer

Quick round up! LOTS of casting news coming out of the next two fairy tale films, and I have to say I am pretty excited about this:

Disney's Cinderella Movie
The Cinderella cast for Kenneth Branagh's live action Disney movie is now as follows: Lilly James (Downton Abbey) as Cinderella, Richard Madden (Game of Thrones' Rob Stark) as the Prince, Cate Blanchett as the Wicked Stepmother and now introducing Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother! While I feel it is a little awkward to cast the person whom you cheated on your wife with in yet another movie, casting Helena seems to be a good sign for Cinderella. You will get a very specific kind of fairy godmother out of her. Once Upon a Blog has some great commentary about it, and how, perhaps she will be like our mutual favorite fairy godmother of all time, Annette Crosby in The Slipper and the Rose. She also directed us to The Hero Complex' commentary regarding the casting:

"Though the fairy godmother in the 1950 animated feature was a grandmotherly dumpling, Bonham Carter’s casting would suggest that the updated “Cinderella” might be embracing a darker tone; the actress is known for playing offbeat, exaggerated roles, including the villainous Bellatrix Lestrange in the “Harry Potter” films, the twisted Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd” and clownish thief Madame Thénardier in “Les Misérables.”...It’s too early to say whether the film will follow in the whimsical, color-saturated footsteps of “Alice in Wonderland,” or whether it will take a more classic approach, but producers have said they want the film to feel “modern.”"

The cast will also include Sophie McShera (Downton Abby) and Holliday Grainger (The Borgias) as the stepsisters. This movie appears to be using the 1950s Disney movie as their basis, because they call the Stepmother Lady Tremaine, and Sophie McShera's stepsister as Drizella. Not sure how I feel about that. It seems like...I don't want to say "masturbation" when it comes to a Disney movie, but I can't really think of another word for it. [EDIT: Thank goodness for small mercies. Once Upon a Blog has discovered from Variety that Sophie McShera's stepsister name is Noemi.] According to Io9 yesterday, the movie will come out  March 13, 2015.

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Into the Woods Movie 
Once Upon a Blog has been scrambling to pin down the cast of Into the Woods, and her research, plus Io9's post this morning has confirmed that Anna Kendrick (squee!) is in talks to be Cinderella. She would be joining James Cordon as the Baker, Emily Blunt as the Baker's Wife, Meryl Streep as the Witch, Johnny Depp as the Wolf, Jake Gyllenhaal as Cinderella's Prince, Chris Pine as Rapunzel's Prince, Tracy Ullman as Jack's mom, and Christine Baranski as the Stepmother. This is a crackerjack cast. Granted Once Upon a Mattress in 2005 had a crackerjack cast too and it went splat, but finger's crossed!

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(from Asshole Disney)

The Concept of the Fairy Tale Wedding
Tales of Faerie reflects on the idea of Fairy Tale Weddings. What does that really mean?

The "fairy tale wedding" is, in theory, the couple's ideal, dream wedding. This coming from the misconception that fairy tales themselves are ideal. And in one sense, the happy endings do generally tend to be ideal, but they're more of a well-deserved rest for the main characters who have been through hell (sometimes literally) and back. But even then, you don't hear much detail about what makes it so happy, or the wedding itself, even though many fairy tales do end with a wedding. Some folktales end with a line about being invited to the wedding, and eating their fill and having wine run over their beards (see my beyond happily ever after post), but I highly doubt this is what bridal stores have in mind when they use the phrase "fairy tale wedding." 

Oh the truthiness of this.

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Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters International Trailer
In keeping with my attempt to integrate myth into my blog, here is the international Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters trailer:

I have a confession. I have not read the books. I only saw the first movie in a hotel room because nothing was on....and I LOVED IT. I am ridiculously excited about this movie (partially b/c Nathan Fillion is Hermes). Aside from the storytelling, the main reason I am excited is because the author of the books created the series to break open mythology for teens. To introduce them to the stories and characters. He has Rick Rirodan has another series about Egyptian Mythology, and he is currently writing a series on Norse Mythology. Maybe we can make myths the new popular genre! 

Fairy Tale Roundup: Mercer Meyer's Beauty and the Beast, an eclectic Fairy Tale Film collection, SWATH sequel, and Disney's Frozen

Oh, it makes me so sad that I don't have time for anything more than Fairy Tale Roundups right now! I am in the middle of rehearsing two plays, working my 9-5 and taking two classes for my master's degree, one of which requires me to read two (boo) YA books (yay) a week. I have many interesting ideas in the pipe, I just have to have the time to develop them and write them. In the mean time, I will point you in the direction of the genius of my fairy tale blogging colleagues:

Beauty and the Beast by Mercer Meyer
Tales of Faerie explores the beautiful illustrations of one of my favorite adaptations of Beauty and the Beast, by Mercer Meyer and Marianna Meyer. I love the sumptuous detail of the images! She riffs off of Jerry Griswald's analysis in The Meanings of Beauty and the Beast: A Handbook (which I now have to grab a copy of!)

Once Upon a Blog continues to be a never-ending font of awesome:

A New Journey into Fairy Tale Films from Fandor
Gypsy has discovered an online fairy tale film collection. Discerningly curated, the collection includes a 1902 Jack and the Beanstalk, Betty Boop's Poor Cinderella, the erotic film Cinderella 2000, a stop motion Pied Piper of Hamlin,  a Korean Hansel and Gretel, and Sita Sings the Blues. I know what I will be doing when I have more time!

Snow White Drifts To the Dark Side in SWATH Sequel?
She also tells us of the new Snow White and the Huntsman sequal, and confirms a theory I had when I saw the first one! The evil queen may be gone, but the mirror remains. Power corrupts.

The Snow Queen Cometh
Last, but certainly not least, Gypsy informs us that Frozen, the Disney movie looooooosely based on the Snow Queen, is nigh. She goes into a wonderful analysis of why it could be good, and why it could be bad. I am certainly not heartened by the character portraits. I am interested in the whole 'the Snow Queen is her sister" angle! And Disney's first female director....wha? Isn't it the 2000s? It seems like this should have happened before now. And the talking snowman.... Didn't we learn from Hunchback that you don't need to have the talking inanimate objects to make a good movie?

P.S. Oh god. The trailer is horrible. It is trying to be Ice Age, I guess? We don't get to see any of the characters that actually look interesting, and it tells us nothing about the story:

TV: OUAT Spinoff of Alice in Wonderland to feature Paul Reubens

First, OUAT has a spin-off, apparently called Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (according to IMDB). Deadline states:

 "[The series takes place before the curse in Wonderland] The story is told through the point of view of Alice (Sophie Lowe) who has a generous heart but carries the scars of a long hard life. She is joined by Cyrus (Peter Gadiot), Alice’s love interest, and the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha), a sardonic adventurer."

It will be lead by Ralph Hemecker, who directed some of the more interesting and meaty episodes of OUAT like "7:15am," "Hat Trick," "Broken," "Queen of Hearts," "The Miller's Daughter," and "Selfless, Brave and True." It will also be executive produced by Jane Epsenson, whose episodes of OUAT are some of the best written of the series.

Second, they have cast Paul Reubens as the White Rabbit.

Now, I have concerns. OUAT is known for it's shitty CGI, and it appears this series will take place in the green screen Barbie Palace that was Wonderland. Also, even though I watch it every week, OUAT is an incredibly uneven show. I worry that they are trying to capitalize on it's popularity, will spread themselves too thin, and not concentrate all their resources on making OUAT live up to it's potential consistently week to week and moment to moment. In addition, no one has got it right yet (at least in recent years). All the fairy tale shows and movies of recent years have had problems. None have solidly delivered a satisfying, quality fairy tale adaptation (whereas there are thousands of satisfying book adaptations. Take the hint, Hollywood and do what you do best. Adapt a book).

However, this team is definitely intriguing and I am looking forward to seeing where this goes! Especially alongside the sexy CW Wonderland tv show. With all the books being made into TV shows in the Fall, we could be looking a literary shitstorm, or a heyday for TV and books.

Movies: NPR's Bob Mondello on Fairy Tales for Millennials and Upcoming Adaptations

Molly Quinn in Hansel and Gretel get Baked

Bob Mondello over at NPR examines the new fairy tale movie adaptations that cater to teens and young adults coming out this year. He remarks upon Jack's lack of initiative in Jack the Giant Slayer, possibly commenting on or catering to the image of the millennial generation (I do not necessarily subscribe to this stereotype, being a cusp of millennial myself). They don't take destiny into their own hands, like Jack from the original tale, but are swept up in events beyond their control. This is perhaps appropriate for teens and young adults entering a work force that has no jobs for them:

"At age 6, as Disney long ago established, abandonment by your parents is terrifying. So is illness, so is the unknown, and so is that scary old dude down the street. But when you're 20, there's a whole new set of fears — fear of commitment, fear of getting pregnant, fear of unemployment. Or maybe of getting busted for drug use.

In the upcoming Hansel and Gretel Get Baked, a witch lures teens with marijuana, then eats them to stay young. It's a horror movie — clueless teenagers getting in trouble because they're clueless teenagers, just going with the flow, passively.

That's different from the more active tykes who populate storybooks. In the old English folk tale Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack is maybe 12, and a schemer. He steals gold from the giant, chops down the stalk, killing the giant, and lives happily ever after with his stolen gold. I'll leave it to parents to find a moral in that, but at least he went up the stalk on purpose; it was his idea.
In the new movie Jack the Giant Slayer, Nicholas Hoult is playing Jack as a 19-year-old who's kind of a slacker and is trying to impress a girl when the beans sprout under him and he gets carried up to Giant-land very much against his will. Once there, he proves less incompetent than you might expect, but he's basically reacting to things, not making them happen.

The girl is the one who's looking for adventure, though for plot purposes — she is a princess, after all — she'll spend most of her time getting rescued.

There's no real "risk" in any of this. The Brothers Grimm wrote stories that were actually grim — designed to scare children. Hollywood's new grown-up fairy tales may quicken your pulse a little, but they're centrally soothing. Yes, there's an army of giants coming, but pluck and optimism will carry the day — a reassuring thought if you're a 20-something and staring nervously at an uncertain, recessionary future. It's especially reassuring if that thought is couched in a fairy tale so familiar and comforting, you've half-forgotten it. So get ready for lots of grown-up bedtime stories."

He also updates us on the upcoming fairy tale movies:

"I was going to say we're not in Kansas anymore, but we kind of are. There are nine — count 'em, nine — Oz movies currently in the pipeline, including the prequel Oz: The Great and Powerful, a story involving Dorothy's granddaughter that's just called Oz, and a martial-arts oriented Oz Wars. Also dueling Pinocchios, from Guillermo del Toro and Tim Burton, the horror-masters behind Hellboy and Beetlejuice. Not to mention Angelina Jolie assaying the title role in Maleficent, which tells the Sleeping Beauty tale from the evil stepmother's point of view."

 NINE???? NINE Oz movies. Geeze, think of something original, people.

Fairy Tale Catch Up: Bizarre Adaptations and Meryl Streep

Wow, guys. I have been in a black hole of putting up a play (come see The Pirate Laureate of Port Town if you are in the DC area!) We have finally opened, and now I can catch up on all the fairy tale news and ephemera that has been cropping up lately!


Hansel & Gretel Is the Platonic Form of “So Bad It’s Good”
Io9 thinks Hansel and Gretel: Witchhunters is silly and fun! "If you're looking for a serious reinterpretation of the Hansel and Gretel story, this movie isn't going to cut it. Even the "dark" bits where the siblings try to figure out why their father left them alone in the woods are plain ridiculous. But if you want to laugh your ass off and see some witchslapping, it's the perfect thing. Gemma Arterton as Gretel is particularly adept at chewing the scenery in the most awesome way possible. What I'm saying is that you should turn your brain off and mainline some fairytale this weekend." I have yet to see it, but I must admit, I love the idea that Hansel now has diabetes from the witch candy and needs insulin shots. Honestly, I will see it for the fairy tale ass-kicking alone!


10 of the Most Bizarre Fairy Tale Adaptations
Flavorwire gave us a facinating list of strange fairy tale adaptations: Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente (set in the Wild West, and written by an amazing writer!), I Was A Rat!, Philip Pullman (about Cinderella's rat footman who didn't get turned back at midnight), The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival, Louise Murphy (Hansel and Gretel set in WWII), and more! Most of them seem pretty mainstream to avid fairy tale adaptation fans (like Anne Sexton's Transformations, and The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter), but as widely read as those are, yeah, they are weird.



Adorable Gender-Swapped Fairy Tale Princes by Yudi Chen
Flavorwire, yet again, gave us this beautiful series of gender-swapped fairy tale art: a long-bearded Rapunzel, a merman saving an Inuit princess from drowning, a beastly beauty, a king jealous of his stepson, and several others that display a fresh look at fairy tales with surprisingly unforced tenderness.



Meryl Streep is a huge Witch in the Into the Woods movie
WHAT? Amazing. She is simply in talks for the role, and this is by no means final, but Meryl Streep would play a fantastic witch in the Into the Woods movie. While I am still nervous about Disney doing my absolute favorite musical of all time, this seems to be a step in the right direction.

Movies: No Dark Cinderella and Maybe Witch Hunters is Awesome?

Photo by Dark Cherry on DeviantArt/ Official Movie Poster

The Cate Blanchett/ Mark Romanek Cinderella is a Bust
Gah! Just when we thought we might have a top-notch dark fairy tale coming down the studio pipe, Disney has decided that Mark Romanek's Cinderella is too dark for Disney. Click the link to hear Io9 rant and rave and echo my anger at this development. Fingers-crossed that some other studio has the gumption to snatch that project up. Disney doesn't need another regular Cinderella, or another modern twee Cinderella. Disney should have had the balls to delve. </rant>

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters Might Not Suck?
In other news, it turns out that Witch Hunters may not be so bad afterall? The new redband trailer has a tongue in cheek flavor to it:



My fellow blogger Drown My Books will probably disagree with me, but Jeremy Renner still has yet to earn a "I will see anything he is in" card from me. Gemma Arterton, on the other hand, from her performance in St. Trinians, I can definitely get behind. Something to Read for the Train (Cate, who is in fact a girl) weighs in with some really thoughtful remarks about the nature of fairy tales to reflect the values of the times, and how, while many had moral lessons, they were meant as entertainment. She also treats us to my favorite version of Little Red Riding Hood to illustrate her point.

I have a feeling it's gonna be an awesomely terrible action romp, with the cool fighting moves and awesome slow mo and dead-pan badass one-liners (I admit it! The "we'd do this shit for free" line in the trailer hooked me.) And I'm kind of ok with that. (Though, my fairy tale racism argument still stands!)

End of the Year Roundup: Cinderella Movie, Cinderella in the News, and Maria Warner on The Brothers Grimm

Chadwick Tyler's photo of Imogen Morris Clarke

Well, well, ladies and gentlemen. I have kind of dropped the ball for the end of the year! And I am ok with that. Rather than focusing on trying to get every little bit of fairy tale news that comes down the pike, this year, I am going to focus on the things that really spark my interest, that I really feel passionate about. This will mean that my posts are fewer and farther between, but it will also mean that I will be able to devote some quality time to the posts I decide to write.

Here, however, is a digest of some other news items we missed in the mean time:

Cate Blanchett to play Evil Stepmother in New Cinderella Movie
While, yes, I still feel that we need a greater diversity of fairy tale movies, I love me some Cate Blanchett. Here's hoping that her endorsement of the movie means it has a good script. The director is Mark Romanek who directed One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go, so here's hoping he does it as awesome as those!

We Are the Folk, Volume II: Cinderella in the Closet and Blood in the Shoe
Something to Read for the Train examines two more news stories that smack of fairy tales in modern life, and not in a happy ending kind of way. She explores schadenfreude in a way that shed new light on the idea for me (the comfort not only that we are not getting shat upon by life like those guys over there, but that we are not the crazy ones so we will be ok). She also delves into a horrible case of child abuse as a parallel to Cinderella, insisting that the marriage and the slipper do not a Cinderella story make; it is about a girl who rises from the ashes of abuse. She goes on to discuss why we shouldn't shy away from the scary or the gory in fairy tales (a favorite tune of mine): "What I would claim is that a child who hasn’t been sheltered from fairy tales is going to have a little bit more in her mental arsenal when the shit hits the fan, if only because they might have just that much more faith that all will turn out well, and that help, in whatever form, is on the way."

Maria Warner's 10-Part BBC Broadcast about Fairy Tales
While I have not listened to all of them, the topics look fascinating! She traces the ancient origins, discusses those who contributed to the tales, examines the fate of the tales in the hands of Nazis, delves into the psychology of the tales, the history of their censorship, and the future of the tales. All topics we here at The Dark Forest love to talk about!

That is all for now. For anyone who wants to know, yes I did love Once Upon a Time's midseason finale. They know how to do a finale. I do think that Mulan and Aurora should get together, and damnit Regina is awesome and deserves to be happy, but from what I have seen of the clips from "The Cricket Game," this is not going to happen any time soon. Here's Io9's recap/review.

Movies: Another Beauty and the Beast

Oh for the love of god.

We have another Beauty and the Beast movie coming out (according to Maria Tatar's blog Breezes from Wonderland), this one starring Vincent Cassel and Léa Seydoux. The director, Christophe Gans, says "Although I will keep to a form of storytelling of this timeless fairy tale that is in keeping with the same pace and characters as the original, I will surprise the audience by creating a completely new visual universe never experienced before and produce images of an unparalleled quality. Every single one of my movies has presented me with a challenge but this one is, by far, the most exciting and rewarding.”

This is in addition to the Emma Watson Beauty and the Beast movie, the CW TV show and the ABC TV show. While doing multiple versions of the same tale makes it more possible for at least one of them to be good, one wonders if "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" or "Cupid and Psyche" might have been a better Beauty and the Beast tale to adapt at this point.

TV: Recap of Once Upon a Time at SDCC!

So SurLaLune Fairy Tales did the most amazing job recapping Once Upon a Time's reveals, teaser videos  and panels at San Diego Comic Con! See it here!

Lots of exciting news! I am really looking forward to how they combine the fairy tale world and the real world, and from the look of the videos, some of the characters will take back their fairy tale identity with a vengeance.   And we will finally learn the identity of Doctor Whale. And it BETTER BE GOOD. 

Movies: A First Look at Maleficent

You guessed it! The first official look at Angelina Jolie as Maleficent! No green skin, as some will be sad to see, but she looks damn good. Here is the official synopsis from Disney:

Directed by two-time Oscar®-winning production designer Robert Stromberg ("Avatar," "Alice in Wonderland"), in his directorial debut, and produced by Joe Roth, "Maleficent" is written by Linda Woolverton ("The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast") and executive produced by Angelina Jolie, Don Hahn, Matt Smith and Palak Patel. Co-starring in the film are Sharlto Copley ("District 9"), Elle Fanning ("Super 8"), Sam Riley ("On the Road"), Imelda Staunton ("Vera Drake"), Miranda Richardson ("The Hours"), Juno Temple ("Atonement") and Lesley Manville ("Secrets & Lies").

This is the untold story of Disney's most beloved villain, Maleficent, from the 1959 classic "Sleeping Beauty." The film reveals the events that hardened her heart and drove her to curse the baby, Aurora. Behind-the-scenes talent includes Academy Award®–winning cinematographer Dean Semler ("Dances with Wolves," "In the Land of Blood and Honey"), production designer Gary Freeman ("Saving Private Ryan," "The Bourne Supremacy"), two-time Oscar® nominated costume designer Anna B. Sheppard ("Schindler's List," "The Pianist") and seven-time Academy Award–winning makeup artist Rick Baker ("Planet of the Apes," "Men in Black").>

As you can see, it is a random-ass group of people! Excited for the cast, though! It is scheduled to come out March 14, 2014 in (ugh) 3D.  (See original article from Io9)

Movies: More Fairy Tale Adaptations in the Works

Hailee Steinfield in True Grit and Saoirse Ronan in Hanna

The Telegraph recently posted an article about the fairy tale movie phenomenon, and teased us with other fairy tale and children's book adaptations in the works, an additional "Snow White," two more "Sleeping Beauties," three Peter Pans, two "Cinderellas," one "Beauty and the Beast," one "Little Mermaid," one "Jack the Giant Killer", one "Hansel and Gretel," one Oz, and one "Arabian Nights." And a partridge in a pear tree.:

"Disappointingly, it could then be another 18 months before a third film based on Snow White is released, although Disney plans to have The Order of the Seven, it own loose adaptation of the tale, in cinemas before the end of 2013. The premise should appeal to anyone who liked the Seven Dwarfs but only wished they were taller and more violent: here, they are an elite fighting unit of average height who come to the rescue of a banished English maiden in 19th-century China.

While Snow White gets three films, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan and Cinderella have to make to with two apiece. Hailee Steinfeld, the 15-year-old actress nominated for an Oscar for her role in True Grit, is attached to a feminist take on Sleeping Beauty in which the princess Aurora fights her own way out of the dream world rather than waiting for a handsome prince to pucker up. Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie will play the wicked queen in Maleficent, a reworked version of the Disney animation, told from the villainess’s point of view.

Then there’s Pan, which recasts JM Barrie’s boy who never grew up as a baby-faced kidnapper pursued by Detective Captain James Hook, played by Aaron Eckhart. And indeed Peter Pan Begins, which reveals that the hero and his one-handed nemesis are in fact estranged brothers, with the former fashion model Channing Tatum attached to play either Peter, or Hook, or possibly both. A third script for a Twilight-inspired take on the story called The.Never.Land is currently unoptioned, but the threat remains that it may yet be made.
A live-action version of Cinderella has been developed for Disney by Aline Brosh McKenna, the writer of The Devil Wears Prada, which itself was a modern-day Cinderella story of sorts. When news of this adaptation broke, Universal instantly announced that it too was working on its own production.

This is not The End. Emma Watson was recently cast in a new version of Beauty and the Beast. Joe Wright, whose thriller Hanna was dotted with references to Red Riding Hood, is planning a live-action Little Mermaid. Bryan Singer’s take on Jack The Giant Killer, starring Nicholas Hoult, will be released in the 2013 post-Oscar lull, which does not bode well. The Will Ferrell-produced Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters will star Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, which does.

Sam Raimi’s Oz: the Great And Powerful boasts James Franco as a young version of L Frank Baum’s Wizard. Chuck Russell’s Arabian Nights boasts former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Sinbad. The combinations of stars, plots and settings sound like the results of a strange Hollywood parlour game. “Liam Neeson as Rumpelstiltskin, in an action thriller! Justin Bieber as the Clever Little Tailor, in space!” (Full Article)

While I am extremely excited for all of these, who wants to sign a petition for a movie adaptation of "The Goose Girl"? Or "Wild Swans"? Or "DonkeySkin"? Or "Twelve Dancing Princesses"? Or "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"? I think the movie producers need to delve a little to come up with fairy tale movies that have not been over done.

But I am a bit giddy about the Sleeping Beauty adaptation with Hailee Steinfeld. That girl can do no wrong. And I will watch Saoirse Ronan (the lead in Order of Seven) read a phone book.

Books: Phillip Pullman is Adapting the Grimm's Fairy Tales

 

The Guardian reported today that Phillip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials series, is adapting fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm! The collection, Grimm Tales: For Young and Old, will come out on September 6th, and will include well-tread favorites, as well as lesser known tales (thank god)!: 

This is a project the His Dark Materials author has been working on for a while – he mentioned it to a fansite a year ago, telling Bridge to the Stars that 'this isn't a book for children only', and that he was 'telling the best of the tales in my own voice, and I'm finding it a great purifier of narrative thinking, rather as a pianist relishes playing Bach's preludes and fugues as a sort of palate-cleansing discipline'...

Pullman has chosen his 50 favourite stories, 'from the quests and romance of classics such as Rapunzel, Snow White and Cinderella to the danger and wit of such lesser-known tales as The Three Snake Leaves, Hans-My-Hedgehog and Godfather Death', and is retelling them in 'clear as water' new versions, complete with commentary on each story's history and background." (Full Article)

 He may also include The Juniper Tree and The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces. Phillip Pullman is a fantastic writer and I am really excited for this collection! I will be excited to see how he balances adaptation with 'clear as water,' and I hope the commentary is as delicious as I am imagining.

Other articles about this:
Pullman Rewrites Grimm's Tales for Penguin Press at The Bookseller
Coming This Fall: Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Phillip Pullman at SurLaLune FairyTales Blog