Awesome Book News | Stone Marshall-Author

See BLACK Ange, The Lost Short That Debuted with the Empire Strikes Back

by Stone Marshall | May 13, 2015 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

I’d never heard of “Black Angel” before today, but there’s a fascinating story that accompanies the 34-year-old short film. It was directed by Roger Christian, the Oscar-winning art director of Star Wars and Alien, and George Lucas commissioned the short to be made so it could debut in front of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in theaters in Europe. It’s a fantasy film that had a big influence on sword and sorcery movies that followed, including John Boorman’s Excalibur (Boorman showed it to his entire crew before filming that movie), and also impacted Empire itself, since Lucas used Christian’s “step-printing” technique to slow down one of the lightsaber fight sequences.

The short was lost for decades and was recently unearthed, and now io9 points us to the full film that you can watch below, including a cool introduction from Christian himself that fills you in on the whole backstory:

See BLACK Ange, The Lost Short That Debuted with the Empire Strikes Back

The Devil Wears Prada musical in the works

by Stone Marshall | May 13, 2015 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

Meryl Streep, Women In Film Pre-Oscar Cocktail Party held at Hyde Sunset Kitchen + Cocktails FayesVision/WENN.com

MERYL STREEP’s hit fashion film THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA is heading to the stage. Tony Award-winning producer Kevin McCollum revealed he is in the process of turning the hit 2006 movie into a musical, thanks to his recent partnership with 20th Century Fox bosses. The Devil Wears Prada, which featured Anne Hathaway playing the assistant to Streep’s insufferable fashion magazine boss, grossed $324 million at the worldwide box office, and earned Streep an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. McCollum is one of the leading producers on Broadway, with recent credits including Sting’s The Last Ship, In The Heights, Avenue Q, and Motown: The Musical. He is currently working on the stage adaptations of films Ever After and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. McCollum also hopes to turn Robin Williams’ beloved comedy Mrs. Doubtfire into a stage show under his partnership with 20th Century Fox.

The Devil Wears Prada musical in the works

Ed Sheeran gives fans a peek at his childhood as he shares family home videos for new single Photograph

by Stone Marshall | May 12, 2015 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

His past music videos haves seen him casting a Harry Potter star to play his lookalike and enlisting top dancers to take the spotlight.

But in Ed Sheeran’s latest video for new single Photograph, the singer is very much the lead star.

The heartfelt music video is made up of home movie footage from the Brit musician’s childhood to his present superstar status.

What a cutie: Ed Sheeran has shared videos from his childhood for his new music video Photograph

Fans have been given a rare glimpse into Ed’s childhood in a montage of videos, which show him as a newborn nestling in his parents’ bed and as a chubby-cheeked baby crawling on the carpet.

The home movie clips, which also feature the singer learning to play the piano and guitar and him busking as a teenager were shot by the Thinking Out Loud singer’s parents.

The 24-year-old shared the music video for the track, the final single to be taken from his second album x, on his Twitter account over the weekend, adding: ‘p.s its me.’

Then and now: The heartfelt video takes fans through the 24-year-old’s life from his childhood to present day

After progressing through his life, the Photograph video ends with a young Ed clambering up some rocks and being asked by his dad, ‘Are you at the top of the mountain?’, before cutting to the star on stage playing for a massive festival crowd.

Ed usually hands over the leading role in his videos to others, with Harry Potter star Rupert Grint playing his look-alike in Lego House.

Earlier this year the singer revealed that he was hoping his pal Benedict Cumberbatch would star in his video for hit single Sing.

Family: The videos were shot by Ed’s parents and see him playing in his childhood home

Talent: There’s footage of a young Ed learning to play a variety of instruments

The star said he planned to have the Sherlock star dancing ‘in a karaoke bar with a load of Korean dudes’.

‘We had a few conversations about it, some dinner – we ate roast chicken. A conversation was about as far as it got,’ explained Ed to the Radio 1 Breakfast Show in February, adding that he hopes to team up with Benedict in the future.

‘I’ll find a better idea and approach him with it, but he’s Oscar nominated now, I don’t know if he’s up for dancing around with Koreans in a music video,’ he joked.

Ed, whose album x has been certified seven times platinum, is currently on tour in the US before returning to the UK for three sold-out Wembley Stadium shows in July.

Dreaming big: Ed’s red locks make him instantly recognisable in the very personal music video

Story of his life: Ed normally stays in the background for his music videos

Ed Sheeran gives fans a peek at his childhood as he shares family home videos for new single Photograph

AN INSPIRATIONAL SHORT STORY FOR MOTHER’S DAY

by Stone Marshall | May 10, 2015 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

A man stopped at a flower shop to order some flowers to be wired to his mother who lived two hundred miles away.

As he got out of his car he noticed a young girl sitting on the curb sobbing.

He asked her what was wrong and she replied, “I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother.

But I only have seventy-five cents, and a rose costs two dollars.”

The man smiled and said, “Come on in with me. I’ll buy you a rose.”

He bought the little girl her rose and ordered his own mother’s flowers.

As they were leaving he offered the girl a ride home.

She said, “Yes, please! You can take me to my mother.”

She directed him to a cemetery, where she placed the rose on a freshly dug grave.

The man returned to the flower shop, canceled the wire order, picked up a bouquet and drove the two hundred miles to his mother’s house.

To all mothers, A HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!

AN INSPIRATIONAL SHORT STORY FOR MOTHER’S DAY

The Future of Quicksilver Discussed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Joss Whedon

by Stone Marshall | May 9, 2015 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

Avengers: Age of Ultron introduced a few great new characters into the MCU. Two of them include Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I really liked these characters, and in separate interviews with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Joss Whedon, they discuss the future of Quicksilver in the MCU.

I can’t really talk about this without going into SPOILER territory, so you’ve been warned:

Those of you who have seen Avengers: Age of Ultron are probably thinking, “what kind of future does Quicksilver have!?” The character met his demise while running into some enemy fire, saving Hawkeye and an awkward little boy from being killed.

But Taylor-Johnson suggested in an interview with CinemaBlend that he may not be done with the character:

“I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed working on [this movie], and I would love to be doing more movies with the guys at Marvel. Maybe there will be some case where that might happen.”

After it was pointed to him that characters in the MCU return from the dead all the time, Taylor-Johnson responded:

“I’d love to find what that loophole is, because I think they’re the best guys I’ve worked with in a long time.”

The actor obviously really enjoyed his time working with Marvel, and he really wants to work with them again, but Whedon says he intended for Quicksilver to stay dead. Talking to the Empire Film Podcast, he said:

“It felt very disingenuous for me, especially the second time around, to make what I refer to as ‘a war movie’ and say that there is no price and everybody walks away. In this movie, we’re saying, ‘Prove to me that you guys are heroes.’ And he’s the guy that does it.

“I knew it would be resonant, and make everything else work better and matter more. The city in the air, that’s just an explosion… Wanda’s grief, that’s extraordinary.”

In the end it’s not really up to Whedon if Quicksilver stays dead or not. That’s up to the executives at Marvel and Disney. He did prepare for Quicksilver to live through the ordeal and even shot some alternate footage for the ending.

“I said to Aaron, ‘The only way you’ll stay alive is if the Disney executives say, ‘Hey idiot, this is a franchise, and we need all these people and you’re not allowed to kill them off!’”

“We did actually shoot him in the last scene, in an outfit, with his sister. We also shot him, waking up, saying, ‘Ah, I didn’t really die from these 47 bullet wounds!’”

As much as I enjoyed Quicksilver in this movie, I really hope that Marvel keeps him dead, otherwise his sacrifice means nothing. It would really take the power out of that scene. I’m done with the Marvel death fake-outs.

The Future of Quicksilver Discussed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Joss Whedon

Diary of a Wimpy Kid translated into Latin by Vatican cleric goes on sale in UK

by Stone Marshall | May 8, 2015 | Awesome Book News | 0 comments

It has sold millions of copies around the world but now Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a book about the travails of school life, has been translated into Latin – by the Vatican cleric who handles Pope Francis‘s Twitter account in the ancient language.

The book, known in Latin as Commentarii de Inepto Puero, was rendered into the language of Cicero and Seneca by Monsignor Daniel Gallagher and is to be published in Britain on Wednesday.

It is the first time that the Vatican has involved itself in translating a popular work of fiction into Latin and forms part of a broad effort to try to keep the language alive.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid follows the misadventures of Greg Heffley, who is bullied by his older brother, irked by his teachers and frustrated by the challenges of scholastic routine.

The book is the first in a series written by American author Jeff Kinney which have sold around 150 million copies.

Rendering schoolboy slang and contemporary vocabulary into Latin was not an easy task, Msgr Gallagher said.

He translated “computer” into “computratum”, “video game” into the relatively straightforward “video lusus” and “heavy metal music” into the literal “musica metallica gravis”.

“It was hard work but it was a lot of fun,” Msgr Gallagher, 45, originally from Michigan, told The Telegraph.

^{Jeff Kinney, left, and Monsignor Daniel Gallagher (Rex/Giuseppe Fantasia)}

He came to Rome as a seminarian 20 years ago and gradually developed a passion in Latin, despite not being taught the subject at school.

“The challenges were not so much finding the right vocabulary, but rendering the modern English into a Latin that captured the spirit of the ancient Romans,” he said.

“Exclamations like “Darn!” were tricky – you try to get as close as possible with the translation.

“It may not read like Cicero, but I hope it demonstrates that everything can be said Latinly – omnia dici possunt Latine – even the hapless but ultimately happy adventures of an undersized weakling like Greg Heffley,” said Msgr Gallagher, who works in the Vatican’s Office for Latin Letters, part of the Secretariat of State, which handles Latin documents and correspondence for the Pope.

The papal Twitter feed in Latin, with the handle @pontifex_ln, has proved surprisingly popular and has nearly 350,000 followers.

It was satisfying to be able to write at length, beyond the maximum 140 characters demanded by Twitter, he said.

The book is aimed at anyone with a working knowledge of Latin, from school pupils and university undergraduates to adults.

The project has the blessing of the Vatican, which is keen to see Latin flourish.

“Latin continues to be the official language of the Vatican because it’s universal, it doesn’t belong to any one country or culture. It doesn’t privilege or favour any one nation, it’s trans-national,” said Msgr Gallagher.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid translated into Latin by Vatican cleric goes on sale in UK

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