Disregard the bulk of the mountain, the top is what matters.

I finally got it. Oy. FUN!

Apparently the preliminary investigations are pointing toward a suicide. She had a three-year-old daughter. Damn.

Oh no. The linked item had said things were uncertain, but that's really depressing if true.

The scene where she puts that (killer's) leather coat on Bayliss

Oh, her! What a shame.

Finally saw "The Prestige." Jessica, you were right, they kept to the general sketch and motivations of the characters, but they changed a considerable amount of the details and plot. It was beautifully shot, and the sleight of hand was fantastic. Ed Norton's slight of hand in "The Illusionist" was quite accomplished too, but I was put off by the extensive CGI, particularly of tricks that actually *were* tricks back in the day. The CGI was not nearly as visible or pronounced in this one, which was nice.

I know the person who wrote the novel "The Prestige". He's not getting royalties and such on the movie release. I'd be well pissed off if I were him!

Kevin! That's horrible -- how the heck did that happen? Sounds like his publishing contract sucks. Or was it a trick?

It's possible he sold the movie rights for a set amount without any mention of what happens if the movie actually gets made, et cetera. Or else it's one of those movies where on paper it's a big loss for the studio "somehow" with creative accounting.

I know Mark Sumner from my workshopping days. His book series got optioned for a pilot and he got paid a royalty. Then the series got picked up for a (mercifully, it wasn't well made) brief series on the SciFi Channel... and he got bupkis. Why? Because his contract was for "broadcast channels" which his agent didn't know only included ABC, CBS, etc.

I think the most annoying thing was, the royalties would have only amounted to like $1k-2K per episode. Still, it would have been found money and he could have put it in his kids' college fund. And in the budgeting of a TV cable series, that's still small change.

The movie rights were sold years ago, back in 1998 I believe, before there was any inclination it was going to be a big Hollywood film - he thought it was going to be an independent fair. However, things got changed around about 4 times and it ended up having Christopher Nolan and his brother came on board, which made it become a wide release, obviously.

It's okay, I've told him that the next book he writes should be about two brothers who direct movies for the devil. I'm not sure he'll take me up on the idea, though. (And if he does I totally want $2k per scene royalties).

The worst thing from the situation, to be honest, is that the distributors or producers didn't actually invite him to any of the screenings of the movie. I ended up getting him multimedia press tickets myself, and sent him with those.

The worst thing from the situation, to be honest, is that the distributors or producers didn't actually invite him to any of the screenings of the movie.

That's lame.