News

In an interview with People magazine about her new book “By Any Other Name,” author Jodi Picoult revealed her inspiration for the novel came from the “terrible experience” she had with the 2009 film adaptation of “My Sister’s Keeper.”

“It kind of goes back to when I had a really terrible experience turning ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ into a film,” Picoult said. “It took me a long time to kind of wrap my head around the fact that they didn’t ruin my book. My book is still there. And anyone who reads my book is still getting the story that I intended.”

“My Sister’s Keeper,” starring Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin, sits at a 47% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. However, former Variety film critic Justin Chang gave a glowing review upon its release in 2009, writing, “Unsubtle, uneven and undeniably effective, this take-no-prisoners cancer weepie poses a fascinating moral quandary — a girl...

Exclusive: Dynamic Television is developing adaptations of Jodi Picoult and Mario Giordano novels in Germany and lining up an ambitious French drama series about Concorde. Company chiefs Dan March and Klaus Zimmerman revealed the projects in an exclusive interview ahead of Dynamic’s tenth anniversary.

Dynamic, which began life as a distributor at Mipcom in 2013, has been pushing heavily into active development and production over recent years and is the lead production company behind Apple TV+ wine drama Drops of God. Its next set of scripted projects are at early development stage and don’t yet have networks attached.

The Drops of God maker has acquired rights to make a German version of Picoult’s novel Nineteen Minutes and Germany-based Giordano’s novel The Experiment, which was previously turned into a Hollywood film starring Adrien Brody and Forrest Whittaker. “These are big IP projects for the German market,” Zimmerman told Deadline.

Exclusive: Canada’s Thunderbird Entertainment has optioned New York Times bestseller Mad Honey.

The Vancouver-based producer is planning to turn Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan’s novel into a premium TV series.

The novel focuses on themes of young love, teen angst and parental grief, interwoven with murder and high-intensity courtroom drama. The story follows a mother, who relocates to her sleepy New Hampshire hometown to take over the family beekeeping business, whose son is suspected of killing his girlfriend.

“Jodi and Jennifer wrote such an incredibly moving story,” said Matthew Berkowitz, Thunderbird Entertainment President and Chief Creative Officer. “We believe that narratives on this level can truly make a significant impact on the empathy we have for others and how people view their own actions as we co-exist in the world.”

He added that Mad Honey was “exactly the kind of IP we’re looking for as we...

Lifetime Original Movies have earned a reputation for being movies made for women that usually involve a disturbing amount of brutality towards women. Plot-lines often include domestic abuse, rape, and ripped-from-the-headlines crimes. The Jodi Picoult Collection, which includes Salem Falls, Plain Truth, and The Pact, doesn't exactly break from this trend. Salem Falls is about a high school soccer coach falsely accused of raping an underage student. In Plain Truth, a high-power attorney takes on a murder trial of an Amish girl accused of killing her baby. Finally, The Pact follows a teen couple who make a suicide pact and only one of them dies. While the Lifetime Original Movies might have a weirdly addictive quality to them, the Jodi Picoult Collection is empty TV calories at its best and utterly depressing schlock with anti-woman tendencies at its worst.

Read more...

By Allen Gardner

A Separation (Sony) This drama from Iran won the 2011 Best Foreign Film Oscar, telling the story of a couple who file for a legal separation, with the wife pushing for a divorce. He won’t leave his Alzheimer’s-afflicted father behind, while she is wanting to take their young daughter with her to the United States. After a series of misunderstandings, threats and legal actions, the couple find that there is more than just their marriage that’s on the line. Hyper-realistic to a fault, reminiscent of the neo-realist films that came out of post-ww II Europe, but also repressive and redundant in the extreme, with the characters seeming to throw the same temper tantrum for two hours straight while the story, meanwhile, seems stalled. Wildly overpraised film is a real litmus test, with viewers seeming to be staunch defenders or equally impassioned detractors. It did win an Oscar,...

DVD Playhouse—July 2010

By

Allen Gardner

Two From Powell/Pressburger Criterion releases gorgeous new transfers of two of the greatest films to come out of post-war Britain, from that period’s greatest filmmaking team: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Black Narcissus was originally released in 1947 and caused a sensation with its explosive story about a nun (Deborah Kerr), cloistered in a remote convent in the Himalayas, who must battle elements both external (the punishing weather) and internal (temptations of the flesh over duty to the spirit). Also features stellar turns by England’s greatest actresses at the time: Flora Robson, Kathleen Byron and a young Jean Simmons. One of the most dazzling films ever made, bolstered by Oscar-winning cinematography from Jack Cardiff. Bonuses: New transfer, supervised by Cardiff, editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell; Introduction by filmmaker Bernard Tavernier; Commentary by Powell and Martin Scorsese; Featurettes; Documentaries and interviews; Trailer. The Red Shoes,...

Kelly Preston and Ron Eldard have signed on to star in the Lifetime original movie The Tenth Circle, based on the novel by Jodi Picoult.

In Circle, Preston plays Laura Stone, who teaches at a local college and is married to Daniel (Eldard), a comic book artist. Their idyllic lives are turned upside down when their daughter is drugged and date-raped by her ex-boyfriend Jason.

When Jason later dies in an apparent suicide, the family finds itself at the center of a high-profile investigation that rocks their Maine community. Soon, Daniel's dark, controversial past and Laura's personal secrets are revealed.

"We are thrilled to have Kelly Preston starring in this project along with Ron Eldard in what is an extremely powerful piece about how far parents will go to protect their children," Lifetime senior vp original movies Tanya Lopez said. She also called Picoult "a remarkable storyteller."

Circle, released in 2006, is Picoult's 13th novel. Two other Picoult novels have been turned into Lifetime movies: 1998's The Pact and 2000's Plain Truth.

Circle, from Jaffe/Braunstein Films, is set to go into production next month for a 2008 premiere.