The New York Times is reporting (via the Independent of London) that author Naomi Klein has removed her name from Michael Winterbottom’s documentary adaptation of her mega-bestseller The Shock Doctrine.

Klein was originally set to write and narrate the film, which is due to air on British television tomorrow (September 1st) , but withdrew from participation due to vigorous disagreements over how the filmmaker explores the book’s central thesis (capitalists and governments exploit disasters for their own gain).

This is unfortunate. I’m a big fan of both parties, and it’s a shame that they couldn’t see eye-to-eye on this.

If you’re not familiar with Winterbottom, he directed 24 Hour Party People, The Road to Guantanamo, and A Mighty Heart. Furthermore, he is currently wrapping up production on an adaptation of Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me…can’t wait for that one!

Perhaps my favorite film of his is a loose adaptation of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman called A Cock and Bull Story. The novel is a bedeviling exercise in post-modernism, before modernism even existed and the film more than matches the task.

Check out the trailer.

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I don’t know much about football, or most sports for that matter.

So, it was with detached interest that I read this post at Bookavore pondering what if bookselling were more like professional football.

My favorite comment was “And we’d still get paid the big bucks for all sick days due to paper cuts and box cutting injuries.”

My own comment would be that if independent bookselling were more like professional football, every time and independent bookstore were looking down the barrel of financial ruin, they could threaten their city with leaving them to move somewhere else, and enjoy all the financial incentives said city would cough up to keep the store.\

(via Richard Nash – www.twitter.com/R_Nash)

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Care Bares on Fire is a band whose members are all too young to drive, and whose drummer Izzy is the daughter of two founding editors of Tin House.

Here they are making their network television premiere on The Late Show With David Letterman.

While their brand of punk is poppy and naive (what would you expect, Sex Pistols covers?), it’s a very good start.

Personally, if more ten-year-old girls listened to this instead of the Jonas Brothers, the world would be a much better place.

(via Jacket Copy)

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A while back, I posted a video where Douglas Rushkoff explains how he feels that big publishing is on the ropes, just waiting for the knockout punch.

Here’s the video, so you don’t have to leave this page.

At Publishers Weekly, he revisits publishing, but spends a bit more time on the subject, essentially saying that the future belongs to smaller, more sustainable publishing models.

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First up is Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Senior Editor at Tor Books, speaking with io9 about the role that technology will play going forward in science fiction/fantasy publishing.

It doesn’t exactly break new ground, but I had to applaud when he said “I wish [fanfic could go legit]. For most of human history, remixing narratives in circulation has been how culture worked”.

Next is Orbit Books publisher Tim Holman, who sees a future where the dominant strain of the genre will be urban fantasy (such as Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series), and gives us some pie charts to illustrate his point.

(Illustration by Jon Foster is the cover to Boneshaker, an upcoming book from Tor-via io9)

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Arriving September 1st to save the day is R. Sikoryak’s Masterpiece Comics (D&Q HC 9781897299845 $19.95).

I received a promotional sampler of this book and it promptly vanished into thin air. For the next few weeks, many co-workers commented about seeing it and how great they thought it would be, but I never saw that sampler again.

The reason I bring this up is because it is rare for non-comic-geek booksellers to get into a graphic novel or collection of ’sequential art”.

C’mon, check out the strip below, and tell me you’re not intrigued.

That being said, I suspect that this will be one of three high-demand graphic novel titles this Fall (the other two being David Small’s Stitches- due September 8th, and The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb- due October 19th).

These may not shift Watchmen numbers, but I would advise erring on ordering a few more than you think you’ll need…especially if reprints become an issue (I haven’t heard anything, but you never know).

(Images via Drawn & Quarterly)

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Does anybody, especially Stephenie Meyer’s young adult readers, need to have a prefabricated stalker?

I guess since nobody seems to find a 100+ year old vampire with the hots for a teenager problematic (and yes, I pondered this while watching Buffy too), nobody should be surprised that some clever entrepreneur has created a wallpaper silhouette of Twilight vampire Edward Cullen.

Here is the copy from the website selling this

Let everyone know that you are a true Twilighter by giving Edward Cullen a home! Or you can keep him to yourself… put him on the back of your bedroom door so he can be intrigued while you sleep! He’ll be keeping an eye out for any roving carnivorous vampires searching for a snack, while reminding you to “Be Safe”.

Even more scary…this is already sold out!

Personally, I prefer my outrageous product tie-ins along the lines of My Little Cthulhu Pony (below).

(via Topless Robot)

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Hope you didn’t order a zillion copies of Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island in anticipation of the scheduled October release of Martin Scorsese’s film adaptation.

Seems that the release has been postponed until February of next year. Word is that the studio (Paramount) is putting all of its marketing and publicity muscle into their other big book adaptation, Peter Jackson’s Lovely Bones.

In case you haven’t seen the trailer,  watch it below. However, I must warn you that you will have to endure about 1.5 minutes of inane babble from some online host. The only thing more painful than hearing the words come out of her mouth is the fact that she is obviously relying on a Teleprompter.

As an added bonus, here is a safe-for-work version of King Missile’s song Martin Scorsese, which isn’t nearly as much fun with all the f-bombs removed, but is entertaining nonetheless.

(via SpoutBlog)

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I imagine that there will be a bit of buzz around this at the Fall regional trade shows.

According to Jacket Copy, Elizabeth Gilbert’s sequel to Eat Pray Love will be titled Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage, and is scheduled to be released January of next year.

Of course, the real bonanza on this title won’t arrive until the book is released in trade paper, but still, this is good news for readers and booksellers.

And kudos to Viking for not rushing it out in the already crowded Fall season.

Jacket Copy blogger Carolyn Kellogg was thoughtful enough to link to this TED (I really need to spend more time there) video of Gilbert discussing creativity, so I’m including it here as well.

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Recently, I posted a piece about how David Mamet was going to write and direct a new film adaptation of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl.

Well, it turns out that the satirists at The Onion took the idea and ran with it.

Go on; read it and then feel guilty for laughing.

By the way, have I ever mentioned I played a Nazi stormtrooper in a 6th grade stage version of the play. It was one of those situations where everybody in the class had to be involved somehow. So I played the guy who stood on the side of the stage, banging on the door, yelling Mach schnell!!!

(via Bookninja)

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