1. Perelandra, the second chapter in C.S. Lewis‘s “space trilogy”, was turned into an opera between 1960 and 1964, with Lewis’s consent. However, shortly after Lewis’s death on November 22, 1963 — exactly 45 years ago today — someone bought the film rights, and as a result, the opera could not be performed in public any more. But that will change next year, in June, when the “theatrical oratorio” receives its “second premiere” in Oxford. Of course, as a film buff, what I want to know is what happened to those film rights. Does anybody own them now? If so, who? — Soul Food Vancouver
2. Warner Brothers has acquired a sci-fi script called The Days Before, and, as a fan of both time travel stories and stories that are told in reverse chronological order, I love the premise: “Story centers on aliens invading Earth by traveling backwards through time and wiping out humanity — yesterday by yesterday — while one man stays a yesterday ahead of them, trying to convince the world that the end is coming again.” — Variety
3. New Regency has bought the rights to an out-of-print Isaac Asimov time travel novel called The End of Eternity. The story is “a futuristic tale in which humanity is controlled by a ruling class called Eternity, member of which can manipulate time to alter history and prevent disasters or wipe out undesirables. One of the time cops flirts with disaster when he breaks the cardinal Eternity rule and falls in love with a woman from another time period.” — Variety
4. Aaron Eckhart has signed on to star in Battle: Los Angeles as the leader of the marines who engage some aliens in combat in the streets of L.A. — Hollywood Reporter
5. Klaatu will go through “phases” as he changes from an alien form to a human form, the sphere that deposits him on Earth will go through emotion-related colour shifts, and one of the filmmakers was thinking of casting Keanu Reeves as Klaatu as far back as 1994. These and other facts are revealed in a couple of newly-unveiled reports from the set of Scott Derrickson‘s remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. — ComingSoon.net (x2), JoBlo.com
6. Having recently finished his page-by-page analysis of the book version of Left Behind, Fred Clark has now embarked on a scene-by-scene analysis of the movie version. — Slacktivist (x2)
7. Navidad S.A., AKA Christmas Inc., has had the widest opening of any domestic film in Mexico’s history, but it might not become the year’s top earner. The film is a “dark comedy” that sets the Santa Claus story “in a world where commercialism has wrecked the Christmas spirit and global warming has melted the North Pole.” — Variety (x2)
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