(I hate letters, too. They don't strike anybody else as cheap expository techniques?)

Epistolary novels were the first flourishing of the book-as-we-know-it, they're a very old form indeed. It's more that they're hard to do well, and keep the interest of the modern reader with plot arcs, et cetera.

I'll x-post this in the Buffy thread, but Jonathan Woodward (he of the ME trifecta) is playing Bettie Page's boyfriend in THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE.

I saw Thank You for Smoking last weekend. I found it loads of snarktastic fun.

Eee!

The comic filmmaker, who made a monster hit musical out of his 1968 movie "The Producers," says he is adapting another of his classic film comedies for the stage -- this time the 1974 "Young Frankenstein," a spoof on the Frankenstein saga which he says is perhaps the best movie he ever made.

With no deadline set, Brooks says he is in the middle of writing the score, including a song for scary Frau Blucher, the caretaker of the Frankenstein castle still madly in love with that late, unlamented mad scientist.

"It is going to be wonderful," Brooks said in a telephone interview, just before he burst into a German-accented version of his Frau Blucher song:

"He vus my boyfriend/He vould come home in a snit/He vould have a terrible fit/I am the first thing he vould hit/But I didn't give a s---/He vus my boyfriend."

Have you read Pride and Prejudice?

Yep. Didn't like it much. Read Emma and Sense and Sensibility too. I tend to find Jane Austen to be an author whose brilliant stories generally make it worth the effort of wading through her (in my opinion) incredibly frustrating, over-expository prose, though not always. Emma is the only one I could honestly say I like, I think, and even that is a middling like.

I'm not a big fan of the expository letters from Lydia, etc, in the book, though I admit that the letter Elizabeth writes to Mr. Darcy is one of the few moments in the book that I didn't feel the drama was crippled by Austen's style. I can see the director's issues in catching the drama on film, however.

In quality movie news:

Jessica Simpson is set to take over Pamela Anderson's role in the long-awaited big screen version of beach TV show Baywatch. The sexy singer is set to don the infamous red swimsuit adored by many fans of the popular lifeguard series when she plays CJ Parker, the role which launched Anderson to stardom. A source tells British newspaper The Sun, "Jessica really caught the eye in The Dukes Of Hazzard film last summer. She was the unanimous choice for the Baywatch role. Jessica has all the assets to make Pam's part her own." Producers hope David Hasselhoff will agree to star in the film in his original role as Mitch Buchannon.

and

English film-maker Gurinder Chadha is in talks to direct the movie adaptation of 1980s soap opera Dallas - a week after Robert Luketic walked out on the project. Luketic abruptly quit the 20th Century Fox-produced movie last week amid reports he was unhappy with the casting choices. Jennifer Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, John Travolta and Luke Wilson are currently in negotiations to play Sue Ellen, Miss Ellie, JR and Bobby Ewing respectively. Kenyan-born Chadha is known for her work on Bend It Like Beckham, What's Cooking? and Bride and Prejudice.

God, just thinking about the letter at the end of Persuasion gets me all melty.

I think it's safe to say that you're not the target audience.

I think it's safe to say that you're not the target audience.

I'd have to agree.

ION, [link]

The producer of Terminator 4 - slated to begin production in Australia next year - has said the project will certainly go ahead, whether Arnold Schwarzenegger can make a cameo appearance or not.

According to UK tabloid the Mirror, Andy Vajna said: "We would like Arnie as a cameo. We want to go on with the Terminator and turn it into a real sci-fi picture - there is a very interesting role for Arnold if he wants it. But I'm not sure where he is with his politics - we'll see."

Vajna. That's an unfortunate name to have to use in English-speaking places.

Possible surprise endings to Snakes on a Plane:

After single-handedly killing all snakes on board and landing the plane, Jackson steps onto the tarmac and removes his trench coat only to reveal that he is, in fact, made entirely out of snakes.