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What I do

So – I get on the internet after a couple of weeks away, and after catching up on emails and news, I check up on the entertainment world (happy birthday to me…). I have my faves: ew.com, gofugyourself, cleolinda, aintitcoolnews, themoviebox, etc. I also check up on Garbage, Tori (she’s created blogs for the 4 archetype characters who sing on American Doll Posse, and I guess each was inspired by a Greek Goddess, and the new album is suppossedly highly political. Rock.)

Anyways, this just in, courtesy of cleolinda:

Edward Gorey’s Work is Finally Making it to

 the Big Screen!

Considering all of the books that get picked up for movies, many before they’re even published, it’s amazing that it has taken so long for an Edward Gorey story to get feature treatment. We’ve got Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket and a million other strange worlds heading to the screen. However, while the macabre writer and artist has influenced the likes of the Nine Inch Nails song The Perfect Drug, and the opening credits of a PBS miniseries called Mystery!, he’s never gotten any adaptation love. Finally, seven years after his death, Gorey is getting a live-action feature, helmed by Canadian director Brad Peyton, through Walden Media and the Jim Henson Co.

The tale in question is the rhyming couplet world of The Doubtful Guest, as adapted by Matthew Huffman. Originally published 50 years ago, it is about an uninvited creature who moves in with a family in a mansion, and is a terrible nuisance that tears pages from books and peels soles of white canvas shoes. To put a spin on things, after years in the house, he’s never asked to leave. Obviously, Henson’s Creature Shop is working to create the creature, and as Lisa Henson describes: “It’s hard to come up with a creature that you’ve never seen before in any medium, and he’s a unique little creation who is very appealing without being cute or cloying.” While it will be an animatronic, the creature will also get some CGI treatment. There is no word on cast as of yet, as it seems they’re focusing on creating the guest before they find the family it will torment. If you’re a Gorey fan, how do you feel about this being the tale to finally inspire a feature film?

If anyone could do it well, it would be the Henson company. But Gorey’s work is so incredibly medium specific, I’m not sure they’re taking the right track with it as a live action piece (if it is a straight ahead thing). I would go with something like Sin City or 300 where the original art is mimicked.



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