Daniel Kaluuya’s Barney the Dinosaur film to be ‘adult’ and ‘lean into millennial angst’

Posted on July 4, 2023 by Admin

Mattel says the Barney movie will be inspired by Charlie Kaufman, while Barbie director Greta Gerwig is planning two Narnia movies for Netflix

The Daniel Kaluuya-produced movie featuring Barney the Dinosaur will be an “adult”, “surrealistic” and “A24-type” film inspired by Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze, it has been revealed.

In a wide-ranging report on the film-making plans of toymaker Mattel in the New Yorker, Mattel Films executive Kevin McKeon said of the project: “We’re leaning into the millennial angst of the property rather than fine-tuning this for kids. It’s really a play for adults. Not that it’s R-rated, but it’ll focus on some of the trials and tribulations of being thirtysomething, growing up with Barney – just the level of disenchantment within the generation.”

Narnia to Wonderland: Oxford’s Story Museum brings kids’ books to life

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Admin

In a district once ranked bottom for reading, the revamped attraction aims to awaken children to the joy of storytelling

For fans of children’s literature, it is an unmissable sight: Philip Pullman’s own alethiometer, a detailed realisation of the magical symbol reader described in Northern Lights, gleaming with secrets – or possibly even particles of “Dust” – on display at the new Story Museum in Oxford.

An unforgettable peek at the mysterious compass-like device is just one of the unique literary experiences on offer when the children’s museum reopens next month, after a £6m redevelopment.

CS Lewis’s lost letters reveal how wife’s death tested his faith

Posted on March 7, 2020 by Admin

During the final weeks of his life, the Narnia author wrote to a US academic about his struggle with grief and theology

The great tragedy of CS Lewis’s life was the loss of his wife, Joy Davidman, to cancer in 1960. Her death tested the faith of the Chronicles of Narnia author, who was also a prominent Christian thinker.

Now a cache of previously unpublished letters from Lewis, written in the months before his own death, reveal the extent to which his grief remained raw, even as he confronted his own physical decline and mortality.

What’s the next Game of Thrones? All the contenders for fantasy TV’s crown

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Admin

The saga of the Seven Kingdoms may be bowing out, but it has opened the floodgates. Here’s your guide to the next big heroes

Rand al’Thor was found as a baby on the slopes of Dragonmount and taken to Two Rivers, where he grew into a broad-shouldered shepherd boy. But Rand is possessed of immense power, a power as yet untapped, for he is also The Dragon Reborn, destined to be hunted by Darkhounds and Darkfriends as he bids to prove himself a mighty warrior leader. Among other things, Rand’s existence shows that you should always believe ancient prophesies, that even the low-born can save the world – and that characters in TV fantasy series must always have two names.

Rand is just one of the 2,782 characters who appear in Wheel of Time, the bestselling saga of fantasy novels by Robert Jordan. We can only hope the forthcoming adaptation on Amazon will hone the cast down a little, as we follow Rand and his forces towards Tarmon Gai’don, or the final battle between good and evil.