The Way We Live Now: In Bed with Matthew Mcfadyen & Cillian Murphy

This week I spent some time recovering from my recent travels by lolling in bed with the first DVD of Andrew Davies' adaptation The Way We Live Now on my laptop. The always timely subjects known as greed and obsession are at the heart of Anthony Trollope's novel which centers around British speculators and a railroad to be built between Salt Lake City and Vera Cruz. Watching the characters get caught in a web of deceit reminded me of this recent New Yorker article, this, and of course this.

Davies, whose recent Bleak House mini-series earned rave reviews from anyone who's anyone among people who care about that sort of thing, does an excellent job of escalating tension as the drama unfolds. The cast includes P&P's Matthew Mcfadyen, who is in fact so excellent as the louche baronet Sir Felix Carbury that I hardly recognized him, as well as the very pretty Cillian Murphy pictured above, Miranda Otto, and Shirley Henderson. Can't wait to watch the rest. Also, I still have yet to see The Reckoning even though it is a well know fact that I love movies about cute, conflicted priests (even the presence of Shannyn Sossaman can't spoil that for me). But Matthew Mcfadyen apparently co-stars--another reason to finally see it. --Kim

Brokeback Star Goes Bronte

Michelle Williams and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers will star in a film about Jane Eyre author Charlotte Bronte, says Production Weekly. --Kim

Serving Up a Feast

The Book Standard says Morgan Freeman is in talks to star as philosophy professor Harry Scott in an adaptation of Charles Baxter's The Feast of Love, described as an exploration of the magical, mysterious, sometimes painful incarnations of love. I never read it, but predict my friend Meg, who named her cat after the author, will be intrigued. (P.S. Meg's got a witty new blog...check it out.) The film will be directed by the guy who did Kramer Vs. Kramer, so that's got to bode well. -- Amy

"C'est Versailles!"

The clothes, the shoes, the cake! A new French Marie Antoinette trailer is up. (via Goldenfiddle)

New Casting Addition for Girls' Guide

Lost's Maggie Grace (before her character was killed off she played spoiled step-brother seductress Shannon) may join Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin in an adaptation of Melissa Bank's bestseller, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing. According to Cinema Confidential, "Grace will play Chloe, a grounded, down-to-earth swimsuit designer and best friend of Gellar's character. Marc Klein is directing from a screenplay he penned." [my italics] --Kim

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

I rented A&E's 1998 two-part adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles last night, starring Justine Waddell (a terrific actress whom I personally think should have been cast as Jane Austen in Becoming Jane....but I digress.) Although the film has more emotional downs than ups (Hardy might have been a perfect candidate for Zoloft), I enjoyed every minute of it......bonus points for making a pasture full of cows the backdrop for priceless romantic moments between Tess (a down-at-heel dairy maid with a shameful past) and the well-born object of her affection, Angel Claire (played by the dashing, and somewhat "Prince William"-looking Oliver Milburn.) If you judge a movie by its number of swoon-worthy moments, there are plenty to be found in this one, but there's plenty of angst, too, and occasionally, some random voiceover moments that don't really work. Neverthless, Waddell and Milburn have SERIOUS chemistry, and the gorgeous pastoral cinematography is just as stirring as the plotline. When I first read the book, I was sucked in, and the movie version kept me equally captivated. Don't forget the Kleenex. -- Amy

Whereabouts: Matthew Macfadyen

Wondering what Keira's version of Mr. Darcy is up to these days?

This month, he begins work on an adaptation of Ian McEwan's best-selling novel, Atonement, (also starring Keira, incidentally, along with James McAvoy...and....Rue McClanahan??????!!!! You GO, Golden Girl!)

Matthew will also play Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (with co-stars Minnie Driver and Sarah Polley) in Nightwatching, which IMDB describes as "an extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting THE NIGHT WATCH." -- Amy

Great Gatsby Hip Hop Stizz

Ralph Lauren's son, who co-produced Squid and the Whale, premiered his film G, a hip hop version of The Great Gatsby at the Tribeca Film Festival and has also optioned Cast of Shadows. More here. (via TMN) --Kim

A Confession

Can I just say how terribly conflicted I've felt in recent weeks, rolling my eyes at The DaVinci Code billboards everywhere, scoffing at Tom Hanks' intolerable mullet haircut (WHO ALLOWED THAT?), annoyed by every media outlet hopping on the religious conspiracy bandwagons ("60 Minutes" did a segment on the Priory of Sion last night...) and yet still not being able to stifle my strange anticipation for the film, which premieres this month? I know I have friends out there -- reading this blog-- who will be ashamed and annoyed by my confession. I know the book has all the telltale markings of mainstream schlock, and yet, I humbly admit that I read it in one sitting (on a plane, mind you....I was sort of a captive audience. But still.) I feel like my degree in English literature should be revoked and stomped on for allowing myself to be sucked in to the hype. I can only hope I hate the film so that I can at last quit beating myself up and can feel some sense of cultural superiority again (imagined, not real, mind you....after all, this is the girl who told a good friend she'd go see "Stick It.") -- Amy

Brutal Bess

While I've so far only managed to catch Part I of HBO's Elizabeth I, I came away from the first two hours with a new appreciation for our modern ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." From watching an outspoken critic of her highness have his hand chopped off to seeing the queen's would-be assassins disembowled in a particularly gruesome fashion, I ended up having to watch parts of the movie through my fingers. (Don't even get me started on Mary, Queen of Scots and her botched exucution....Not even Quentin Tarantino himself could have done a better job grossing me out.) Still, Hugh Dancy's pretty face was antidote enough for all the gore, and Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons kept me captivated, though I was surprised at how semi-psycho and petulant (In a Joan Crawford, "Mommie Dearest" way) Elizabeth appears at times in this telling. Quite a different version than the strong and stoic Liz Cate Blanchett gave us. Does anyone agree? -- Amy