Look at this gorgeous girl! I first noticed British actress Imogen Poots in the zombie movie 28 Days Later. She was still pretty young in that movie, but she caught my attention. I think its her big expressive eyes that just reel you in.
Media and Arts
Girl Crush Friday: Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black
I know that hit Canadian TV series Orphan Black has been around a while – in fact, I’ve had the entire first season waiting for me since last year – but since I just finished season 1 this week I’m late to the party. I heard so many good things about Orphan Black and the reviews are right. It’s a kickass series with a kickass lead actress.
Girl Crush Friday: Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson in The Fall
Or should I say, woman crush Friday? Sounds weeeird. Anyhoo, I found out about BBC TV series The Fall when I was reading an article about American actors in UK TV shows. The beautiful Gillian Anderson was on the list and I remember the article saying her ‘convincing’ British accent probably stemmed from the fact that she lived in London when she was a young girl. I know, that’s such a random and irrelevant detail to remember, but I love crime drama so I was intrigued by The Fall and decided I must watch it.
The show is one of those series with hour-long episodes and short seasons. Season 1 only had five episodes. Gillian Anderson plays Stella Gibson, a senior police officer who’s leading the task force investigating the murders of young women in Belfast. Stella Gibson is beautiful, strong, successful, calculating, focused, and very driven. She comes off as unfeeling and her colleagues seem to think she doesn’t have any emotion at all, but we can see that that’s not entirely true. She feels deeply for the murdered women and won’t stop until she catches the killer, who happens to be played by the equally beautiful Jamie Dornan a.k.a. Christian Grey (ugh).
Girl Crush Friday: Gina Rodriguez from Jane the Virgin
Yup, I’ve a new girl crush. I’ve been girl-crushing on Gina Rodriguez (Twitter, Instagram) ever since I started watching her TV series Jane the Virgin late last year. I’m actually a couple of episodes behind since I haven’t kept up with the series after the mid-season break, but I’m gonna catch up soon, you can be sure about that. It’s just a really fun and entertaining show.
If you’re not familiar with Jane the Virgin, the story is basically like this: Jane, who is in her early 20’s, is a virgin and she’s pregnant. Not by a miracle, of course (Gasp! Inmaculada!) but by accident – she was mistakenly artificially inseminated by the gynecologist who was filling in for Jane’s actual doctor and was feeling out of sorts after she caught her wife cheating, and who happens to be the sister of the baby daddy and the secret ex-lover of their father’s hot wife. Are you still with me? Hah.
Books to Movies: Stardust
Basic info. The novel Stardust was written by renowned author Neil Gaiman and was first published in 1999. The movie came out in 2007 with an all-star cast that includes Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert de Niro, Mark Strong, and more.
What’s the story? To prove his love, Tristan, a young man from a small English village, makes a promise to Victoria, the village beauty, to retrieve a falling star. He goes beyond the wall separating the village from the forest and finds himself in an entirely different world. Not only that, the fallen star turns out to be a young woman named Yvaine and she’s also being hunted by two other parties – three witches who want her heart to make them young again and the dead king’s sons who are after the throne.
Catching up on a little ‘books to movies’ action
Or rather, this is the “Oh, hey, I’ve failed to post for the last few days, so here are my books-to-movies posts of the past” post.
Yep, I had a list and a schedule for the 31 Days, but I did not account for how much work each post will actually take and the times when I will be out of the house and away from my computer. That was the long weekend, by the way. I managed to get a post in last Saturday and started on what was supposed to be for Sunday but I ended up publishing that on Tuesday. Oye, what a crazy thing this is.
Anyway, we’re going away again this weekend – flying out tomorrow in fact and won’t be back til Monday night – so I’m going to be behind again. I had planned to base my post on books that I have already talked about in the past, but it looks like that’s not gonna happen right now, so I just want to leave you with the links to a couple of them.
- Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru) by Koushun Takami – This is one of my favorite books to movies ever! I enjoyed both the book and the movie. The movie is a riot, by the way. So hardcore. ;)
- The Children of Men by PD James – Another interesting one. The movie won this round for me.
Books to Movies: Must Love Dogs
Basic info. Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook was published in 2000. A movie of the same title came out in 2005 with Diane Lane, John Cusack, Dermot Mulroney, and a bunch of other great actors.
What’s the story? It’s about a new thirty-something divorcee named Sarah and her dating adventures. Sarah’s family is very supportive and keeps encouraging her to start dating. Her two sisters sign her up on an online dating site and she meets several men, including John Cusack’s character, also a recently divorced man.
Which one did I experience first? I saw the movie first some time after it came out. I didn’t even realize it was based on a book. I read the book in December of 2012. The Kindle version was free on Amazon for a time and I decided to get it. If it wasn’t free, I don’t think I would’ve downloaded it. Hah.
Books to Movies: Angels and Demons
Basic info. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown was released in 2000. The movie came out in 2009, a couple of years after The Da Vinci Code came out. The movie brought back Tom Hanks and also starred Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, and Stellan Skarsgard.
What’s the story? Renowned cryptologist Robert Langdon is called to decipher a mysterious symbol that was branded on the chest of a physicist murdered inside a research facility. He discovers that the symbol points to an ancient underground brotherhood called the Illuminati. It seems the secret organization has surfaced to do some damage to their supposed adversary, which is the Catholic Church. To make things even worse, someone planted a bomb somewhere in the Vatican, where cardinals of the world are gathered to choose a new pope.
Which one did I experience first? I saw the movie first and later on I decided to read the book so, you know, I’ll know the real basis for the movie. By that time, The Da Vinci Code was already out for two years and everyone already knew the Robert Langdon character, and I think everyone was just curious about the ‘new’ Dan Brown book-based movie. So you know, me included. I wanted in on the bandwagon. Hah.
Books to Movies: The Da Vinci Code
The basic info. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was published in 2003 and became a bestseller all over the globe. Of course they decided to make a movie out of it. The movie came out in 2006 and starred Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Paul Bettany, Jean Reno, Ian McKellan, and Alfred Molina.
What’s the story? Robert Langdon, a symbologist, gets called to the scene of the murder of the curator of the Louvre. The curator left a clue that led to more clues found in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci. With the help of French cryptologist Sophie Neveu, Robert discovers that the curator was part of a secret society dedicated to protecting a religious relic. Robert and Sophie follow the clues while trying to evade an unknown danger that seems hell bent on getting their hands on whatever it is the secret society is protecting.
Which one did I experience first? I read the book first and it was during the time when it was already very popular and everyone was mostly raving about it.