Philip Kindred Dick, aka Philip K. Dick, aka PKD, was often considered a science fiction writer that was way ahead of his time. He was critically acclaimed and won several writing awards, but was not particularly successful commercially for most of his career. Much of his writing was dystopic and unnerving, but filmmakers have found […]

 
As I sit across a small table from Frank Darabont in an upscale hotel suite, it becomes apparent that the talented writer and director of The Mist not only excels at translating Stephen King’s other literary works into Oscar nominated films (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile). Additionally, he brings bits of King’s supernatural tendencies to […]

 
It’s high season for Oscar bait, and multiplexes are filled with literary adaptations, including the Coen brothers’ bloody take on Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men” and Mike Newell’s film of Gabriel García Márquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera.” Coming later this fall are big-screen versions of Ian McEwan’s “Atonement,” Philip Pullman’s “Golden […]

 
When it comes to interpreting author Stephen King’s work to the screen, two names usually come to mind, one being Mick Garris who has adapted some of King’s weightier novels as TV movies, but the only director who has earned more respect for his adaptations of King’s work is Mr. Frank Darabont.
Although Darabont has shied […]

 
Steve Martin crosses the lobby of New York’s Algonquin Hotel in what I at first take to be a disguise of some sort. It’s not entirely his fault: the toothbrush moustache he wears is a condition of his lead in the second Pink Panther movie, currently filming in Chicago. But the wide-brimmed hat, our-man-in-Havana-style suit […]

If you were going to play the parlor game of arranging the most interesting, improbable, imaginary conversation among American entertainers, you could do worse than the one that took place in midtown Manhattan earlier this month. The participants were the filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, known for smart, stylish and slightly silly movies like Fargo […]