Neil Gaiman's story
Coraline is coming to the big screen courtesy of The Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick and now we've got a deliciously whimsical, cute, surreal trailer for the February release. Dakota Fanning voices Coraline, a little girl who discovers an alternate version of her life — a way better and more interesting version. But when "Other Mother" (voiced by Teri Hatcher) tries to keep her forever, "Coraline must rely on her resourcefulness, determination and bravery to get back home."
When I left my screening of
The Secret Life of Bees I felt comforted and content, and it took me a while to understand why: This movie calls back to older, Southern-set, empowering movies like Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes. Those films celebrate womanhood and the importance (and potency) of female friendship, all against the unique backdrop of the American South. The stories are beautiful and sentimental, with tragedy and heartache going hand-in-hand with love and humor.
It's not every day that the film adaptation of a well-loved book appears to capture the same atmosphere and sentiments that the book does, but in my opinion, the trailer for
The Secret Life of Bees looks like it might do just that. I loved the novel by Sue Monk Kidd; it was one of those books that left me feeling sad at the end because I had to part with characters I'd come to care about deeply.
The story follows 14-year-old Lily (Dakota Fanning) whose mother died, leaving Lily with an abusive father.
I watched the trailer for
Winged Creatures before I knew the full cast list. I already knew that it included Forrest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson and was surprised to find a whole slew of other amazing actors involved, including Jackie Earle Haley, Guy Pearce, Kate Beckinsale, and
Big Love's Jeanne Tripplehorn. In addition, there's Dakota Fanning as a real, live teenager — not a precocious little kid.
Stop the presses! The Fanning sisters — yes, both Dakota and Elle —
have dropped out of the film adaptation of Jodi Picoult's novel
My Sister's Keeper. Now Abigail Breslin will play the role of Anna (previously given to Elle), the girl who sues her parents for medical emancipation.
