Yet More Trouble A-Bruen …

It’s still only Wednesday, and already it’s a good week for Sir Kenneth of Bruen. First off, he’s been nominated in the ITW’s ‘Best Short Story’ category, with the full shortlist looking a lot like this:

BEST SHORT STORY
Between the Dark and the Daylight (Ellery Queen Magazine) by Tom Piccirilli
Last Island South (Ellery Queen Magazine) by John C. Boland
The Edge of Seventeen (The Darker Mask) by Alexandra Sokoloff
The Point Guard (Killer Year Anthology) by Jason Pinter
Time of the Green (Killer Year Anthology) by Ken Bruen

  For all the details on all the categories, clickety-click here. The winners will be announced at ThrillerFest 2009, July 8-11 …
  Meanwhile, more casting details for ‘London Boulevard’ have popped up, with Ray Winstone, David Thewlis and Anna Friel joining Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley. Quoth Variety:

Ray Winstone, David Thewlis and Anna Friel are set to join Keira Knightley and Colin Farrell in ‘London Boulevard.’ William Monahan directs the crime drama this summer in London, with financing coming from Graham King’s GK Films. Drama revolves around a freshly paroled London criminal who becomes involved with a reclusive young actress. Winstone will play a former crime boss. Thewlis will play the reclusive actress’ agoraphobic business manager, while Friel will portray the criminal’s sister.

  Ray Winstone as a former crime boss? Altogether now: “You caaaaaaaaant ...”

Mad About The Boyne

I bumped into yon John Boyne this morning. He was in terrifically good form, which was unsurprising given that was standing in the foyer of the cinema which had just preview screened the movie of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, with the added bonus that the movie is a smashing version of the book. I personally prefer his most recent novel MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY to THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS, but the movie really cuts to the heart of what made the latter a multi-million selling phenomenon.
  David Thewlis turns in an excellent performance as the epitome of the banality of evil in his role as a concentration camp commandant, and the father of Bruno, the flawed hero of the piece who meets the strange boy in the striped pyjamas who lives on a farm behind barbed wire. It’s young Jack Scanlon as Shmuel who steals the show, however – with his rotten teeth, shaven head and potato-shaped skull, the emaciated little boy is a heartbreaker, and Scanlon’s naturalistic performance is the stand-out.
  Fans of the novel will be pleased to hear that the downbeat ending has not been altered so as not to offend the sensibilities of the mainstream movie audience, but while the finale makes perfect sense in terms of the story’s narrative arc, I still have my reservations about the direction of its emotional thrust, and would have preferred to see the emphasis placed on Shmuel rather than Bruno. Not that I told John Boyne that, of course, mainly because to change the emphasis would make a farce of the narrative arc that had gone before. And it would have been rude.
  Anyhoos, the official word from Chez Grand Viz is that John Boyne is a charming and surprisingly understated bloke for a multi-million selling author, and I’d be surprised if the movie of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS didn’t sell another multi-million of the novel. While you’re in the bookshop? Buy MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY too. You won’t be disappointed.

The Boyne In The Striped Pyjamas

It’s all going off MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY-shaped for John Boyne right now, folks, but come autumn it’ll be wall-to-wall pee-jays. The movie of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS (John on the Budapest set, right, which we’ve half-inched from his interweb blog yoke) hits an Irish / UK screen near you on September 12, with the Walt Disney Ireland blurb elves ponying up thusly:

Berlin, 1942 – Nine-year-old Bruno (ASA BUTTERFIELD) knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that his father (DAVID THEWLIS) was promoted and he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do and no-one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel (JACK SCANLON), a boy who lives a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence and who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of striped pyjamas. Bruno’s friendship with Shmuel will take him from innocence to revelation, as their secret meetings result in a friendship that has startling and devastating consequences. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS cast includes David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Jack Scanlon, Rupert Friend, and Asa Butterfield (The Son of Rambow), who plays Bruno. The film is adapted from John Boyne’s critically acclaimed internationally best-selling novel of the same name by Mark Herman (Little Voices; Hope Springs), who is also the director and executive producer. The film is being produced by David Heyman for Heyday Films (The “Harry Potter” franchise; Taking Lives).

Hurrah! There’s nary a hint of a trailer on the interweb as yet, but John has good news over at his other electronic hidey-hole:

“Scenes from the film adaptation of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS will be screened at this year’s Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival, followed by a public interview with me and director Mark Herman. Separately, I will also be reading from MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY.”

Make Hay-on-Wye while the sun shines, people …

The Boyne In The Striped Pyjama Party

'Twas as inevitable as death 'n' taxes - John Boyne's runaway crossover smash, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, is getting the silver screen treatment. Miramax have commenced filming in Hungary, with Mark Herman (Little Voices, Hope Springs) adapting and directing. David Thewlis stars as the 'Out With' concentration camp commander, with young Asa Butterfield debuting as his son, Bruno, and Jack Scanlon in the eponymous role. As for the killjoys who castigated the book for not conforming to their perception of what a novel about the camps should be - Boyne's a talented writer, people, and if he'd wanted to ape Primo Levi, he could have done it in his sleep.