News

The well-reviewed Broadway adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian classic “1984” was ruled ineligible for next year’s Tony Awards, the rules committee announced Thursday. According to a statement from the Tony Awards administration committee, “The show did not fulfill all of the eligibility requirements, as outlined by the Tony Rules and Regulations.” Reps for the Tonys and for the show’s producers did not respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment. Also Read: '1984' Broadway Review: Big Brother Is Back and He's Out to Shock Us Senseless The show, produced by Sonia Friedman and Scott Rudin, starred Olivia Wilde,...

Jennifer Lawrence threw up while watching the Broadway play 1984 — and its star Olivia Wilde says she's "honored."

The visually unsettling adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel — set in a future when critical thought is suppressed by a totalitarian regime, ostensibly overseen by a party leader known as Big Brother — includes extreme torture scenes, as well as special effects such as strobe lights, sudden blackouts and jackhammer sounds. It has caused multiple audience members to become sick since its opening last month. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Lawrence attended Monday night's performance but left her seat and vomited in...

George Orwell’s “1984” returned to the best-seller lists earlier this year on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States. But Robert Icke and Duncan MacMillan’s new stage adaptation, first staged in the U.K. in 2013 and opening on Broadway Thursday, remains joltingly timely even without a direct nod to current events. (And no, this production’s Big Brother does not wear a blond wig.) Icke and MacMillan, who also direct, take a somewhat unorthodox, postmodern approach to Orwell’s story, framing it around a discussion of the authenticity of the text itself. This seems to be lifted.

Big Brother is still watching.

Even though George Orwell's 1984, originally published in 1949, has been filmed twice before — once in 1956 and then again in 1984 — nearly 68 years after its publication it is suddenly the hottest literary property in town. There's a new film project on the fast track at Sony, a stage version heading to Broadway and the 1984 version of the film is being rereleased Tuesday for a one-day engagement. And that’s to say nothing of the book itself, which has received a significant Trump bump. Publisher Signet says 2017 sales of...

George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” has returned to the top of the best-seller lists, and now a new adaptation of the 1949 dystopian classic is bound for Broadway. Sonia Friedman and Scott Rudin announced Thursday they will be producing Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s “1984,” which has had four acclaimed runs in the U.K. at Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse, and the Almeida Theatre, London. The production, which relies on video projections to re-create Orwell’s ominous “Big Brother,” will open on June 22, 2017 at the Hudson Theatre. Also Read: Clive Owen to Star in Julie Taymor's 'M Butterfly' Broadway Revival Like the novel,...

This story originally appeared on fortune.com.

It was a bright cold day in January, and 1984 was back on the best seller list.

Readers have been buying up George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel in recent days, driving it to number two on Amazon’s best selling books list as of Tuesday night. The spike in popularity seemed to come in the wake of Kellyanne Conway defending Sean Spicer’s falsehoods about Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd size as “alternative facts.” Many on social media compared the phrase to the “NewSpeak” employed in 1984.

This is not the first time the...

Are you a Watcher or Player? That’s the question poised by today’s debut trailer for Nerve, the darkly stylish adaptation of Jeanne Ryan’s original novel.

Boasting a plot that reads as though David Fincher’s The Game had been retooled for the Snapchat generation, Emma Roberts and Dave Franco become prey to a series of truth-or-dare challenges, becoming little more than entertainment for viewers at home.

Themes of surveillance and George Orwell’s Big Brother are somewhat lost amid the garish style and frenetic editing, but we remain cautiously optimistic that Liongate’s viral-friendly thriller can carve out an audience. Guiding Ryan’s novel from page to screen are co-directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, best known for their work on Paranormal Activity 4 and, more appropriately, Catfish.

Here’s a synopsis pulled from the author’s source material:

Industrious high school senior, Vee Delmonico [Emma Roberts], has had...

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 to universal acclaim and became one of the most celebrated works in American literature. Despite winning a Pulitzer Prize and earning Lee a Congressional Medal of Freedom in 2007, it was the author's only published book.

News: 'Peter Pan' and 6 Other Beloved Disney Movies Based On Dark, Horrifying Books

On July 14, Lee's second novel Go Set a Watchman will be hitting bookstore shelves, nearly 54 years after To Kill a Mockingbird. The story, which Lee actually wrote before her debut novel but never published, serves as a sequel to Mockingbird, and follows the original book's beloved characters years after the events depicted in Lee's masterpiece.

Now that To Kill a Mockingbird has a follow-up, it's time to go back and see what other famous literary works could use a Part Two. Here are six classic novels that are begging for a sequel.

1. The Catcher...

With the monitoring of e-mails and phone calls a hot topic of late, now seems like the perfect time for a new take on George Orwell’s classic novel 1984. Deadline reports that Sony Pictures is developing the film with Paul Greengrass slated to direct based on a script by Finding Neverland writer James Graham. Scott Rudin is producing, which is a reunion of sorts for Greengrass. Rudin and the filmmaker previously worked on the Tom Hanks film Captain Phillips. Orwell’s tale about a dystopian future where “Big Brother” is watching your every move has become more and more real thanks to increases in technology and our constant fear of terror attacks in the wake of 9/11. This could be the perfect time for a new version of the classic tale to hit the screen...

Read More...

In addition to returning to the Jason Bourne franchise with Matt Damon at Universal, director Paul Greengrass is in the midst of setting up another project over at Sony Pictures. Deadline has word that Greengrass is attached to direct a new adaptation of George Orwell's classic novel 1984, a seminal piece of literature that takes place in a world where surveillance is unavoidable as a perpetual war rages on. The term Big Brother, used to reference government oversight and surveillance comes from this very novel, and in an age of drones, phone hacking, the Nsa's violation of privacy, it's more relevant than ever. The film is in the nascent stages as no actors are attached to the project yet, and James Graham (the man who wrote the musical adaptation of Finding Neverland), will adapt the book. Scott Rudin, who just teamed with Greengrass as producer on Captain Phillips, will produce the cautionary tale,...

George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is once again getting a feature film adaptation. The project is set up at Sony Pictures, and they’ve hired director Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips) to adapt it for the big screen.

The first film adaptation was released in 1956, but most people remember the version that starred John Hurt, which was released in the year 1984. That was a great movie, and I’m curious to see what Greengrass’ vision of this story will be.

The story is set in a world where, due to a constant war, state surveillance is everywhere. The novel introduced the term “Big Brother” to the world, and the themes of the book have caught up with us as it’s a reflection of the modern day controversy of drones, CCTV, phone hacking, and government infringement of privacy laws.

The script is being written by James Graham, and...

If I had to pick my favorite novel of all time, it would probably be "1984". I, like most people, picked up George Orwell's tale of a totalitarian government in high school, and I was hooked from the famous opening line: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. If that does not get you hooked, I don't know what can. Orwell's view on a state of constant surveillance is so specific that the two previous film adaptations, Michael Anderson's in 1956 and Michael Radford's in 1984 (starring John Hurt), have struggled to fully capture it. They are not terrible movies, by any means, but they are working with such a dense, patient source material I think is very difficult to translate. amz asin="0451524934" size="small"Well, Big Brother is going to get another chance to scare people on the big screen. Deadline is reporting Paul Greengrass,...

George Orwell's novel is being re-tooled as a heartstring-plucker. Don't despair – share your dystopian visions of how bad it will be

The literary world is agog, reeling, aghast, at the news that Kristen Stewart is going to star in a romantic remake of 1984. You read that right. Romantic. Remake. 1984.

I've had to check to make sure it isn't 1 April. It isn't. This is happening, people. "Equals is an adaptation of the 1956 film 1984, which itself was based on George Orwell's classic novel about rebellion in a futuristic society," runs the story. Stewart told the AP that the remake is "a love story of epic, epic, epic proportion", where "things go wrong because you can't deny the humanity in everyone". "It's the most devastating story," she said. "I'm terrified of it. Though it's a movie with a really basic concept, it's overtly ambitious."

Indeed.

Anyway, the news has sent literary types into a flat spin.

CBS’s “Big Brother” has easily topped “Million Second Quiz” in the ratings. But George Orwell’s Big Brother might look admiringly at how much personal information NBC was able to gather through the show’s app. More than 300,000 people played online and answered a series of questions about their habits and foibles in hopes of getting on the show. NBC says it is not sharing the information with advertisers, who want to tailor their messages as specifically as possible, but may use it to help decide what kinds of shows and ads to offer. Read the ‘Million Second Quiz’ Application To get on the.

There is some kind of irony in the latest news to be making the rounds. You may have already seen this on Twitter or Facebook, but in the wake of the Nsa scandal and whistleblowing by Edward Snowden about the U.S. government's massive surveillance operation on the public at large, including tracking online communication and interaction, sales for George Orwell's prophetic classic novel "1984" have spiked. On Amazon, it jumped to the 100th best selling title on the site from its previous spot of 11,855, and apparently the folks buying the story about a dystopian future in which Big Brother controls almost every fact of life, engages in mind control and mass surveillance, really haven't read the book. Or missed the point. All this to say, that if you want another way to experience Orwell's grim tale of the future, you've got a couple of options. There's the lesser known,...

George Orwell warned us, and perhaps we didn't listen. But now the author of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is enjoying posthumous sales of his dystopian novel in the wake of the Nsa spying scandal. With whistleblower Edward Snowden's leak of the Nsa's data collection strategy from Americans phone and internet records, it seems that some of Orwell's Big Brother (a phrase Orwell coined in the book) concerns are coming true. As a reward for his long-coming foreshadowing, sales of Orwell's 1949 classic are skyrocketing up hundreds and even thousands of percentage points at Amazon. Also...

‘The future is broken’ bellows the Stephen Hawking-a-like Voice Over for the second series of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian drama ‘Black Mirror’; and by the looks of things, no amount of duck tape and blue tack is gonna fix it!

Back in 1948 George Orwell was spreading a similar warning about humanity’s future; ‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.’ He correctly predicted security cameras on every street corner and mindless drones accepting what ever the media injected them with. Complete with lack of true talent or ambition (fans of Towie anyone)?

In 1984, our trust in the government and the responsibilities we grant them with has been betrayed to lock us into a totalitarian hell, ruled by the party and its leader Big Brother (no kids he wasn’t named after That show) who feeds on a cult of a personality.

Tags: Stevie NicksSkinsGLEEPretty Little LiarsThe L WordGrey's AnatomyWAPTwilightIMDb

Stevie Nicks encountered the ire of classic literature fans over the weekend when she compared Twilight to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights at the Breaking Dawn Part 2 movie premiere: "It's a huge love story. It’s like Wuthering Heights, it’s that kind of story. It’s like Jane Eyre ... It’s a totally timeless kind of story that we can relate to." Bronte-ites were like, "How dare you, madam!" While Shakespeare-ites were like, "Oh, good. Y'all holler for a little while. Our throats are sore from defending Romeo and Juliet all these years."

But when you think about it, Stevie Nicks really does have a point. Jane Eyre was kind of a helpless waif of a thing who fell in love with a dark, sometimes-sinister older guy who kept being like, "Love me! No, don't love me! Yes, love me!" for 600 pages while a petulant,...

Imagine Entertainment confirms it will develop a big screen remake of author George Orwell's classic science-fiction novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four", to be adapted by writer Noah Oppenheim.

.

First published June 1949, Orwell's 'dystopian' novel focuses on 'Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the 'Party'.

Life in the Oceanian province of 'Airstrip One' is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance and incessant public mind control, accomplished with a political system euphemistically named 'English Socialism' (aka 'Ingsoc'), administered by a privileged 'Inner Party' elite. Everyone is subordinate to the totalitarian cult of 'Big Brother', the deified Party leader who rules with a philosophy that decries individuality and reason as 'thoughtcrimes'.

Protagonist 'Winston Smith', is a member of the 'Outer Party, working for the 'Ministry of Truth' (aka 'Minitrue'), responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism, rewriting past newspaper articles so that the historical record is...

According to Deadline Oceania, Imagine Entertainment has come one step closer to our totalitarian future-past. Noah Oppenheim has been chosen to pen the script for the upcoming remake of 1984. To quote Deadline, this film is a “cautionary tale about a totalitarian future society, and a man whose job it is to rewrite history tries a bit of rebellion by falling in love, a move that runs afoul of Big Brother.” Okay, so there’s a lot more to it than that Mickey Mouse explanation. George Orwell’s dystopian classic novel from 1948 is a seminal piece of literature about the dangers of government intrusion, totalitarian rule, and the control of the media. It’s not as much a love story but rather one about a world where free thought is crushed, and one man dares to love. You should really just read the book. Orwell’s novel has been adapted for the screen a few times already, most...

Noah Oppenheim has been given the duty of adapting one of the most famous, revered and iconic novels of the 20th century, George Orwell’s 1984. The great novel centers on a dystopian society Oceania, where Big Brother (ruler’s name and where the term comes from) has its people under the control of an all knowing, [...]

Read similar posts to George Orwell’s 1984 gets big screen treatment on Filmonic...

Last we heard, Imagine Entertainment's new adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four was "out to writers". Imagine has now finished scouring the Ministry Of Screenplays and have found their man. It's Noah Oppenheim. Double plus good! The novel, as you know, was written in 1948, and is a satire of the totalitarian regimes of the mid-century. It centers on Winston Smith, a pen-pusher for the Ministry Of Truth, whose job is to rewrite news and history as propaganda for the all-seeing but never-seen political behemoth Big Brother. Smith secretly hates the system, keeping a diary which, if discovered by the Thought Police, would - and does - land him in immense trouble ("Thoughtcrime does not entail death; thoughtcrime is death"). And he embarks on an affair with the similarly rebellious Julia, until they are discovered and given life-changing appointments in the terrifying Room 101...Much-studied and massively...

Originally published in 1949, it’s amazing just how much George Orwell got right when he warned that Big Brother would be watching your every movie in the novel “1984″. Government spying on its citizens? Check. The Thought Police in full force everywhere you look? Double check. The Orwell book was last adapted for the screen in 1984 (see what they did there?), starring John Hurt, Richard Burton, and Suzanna Hamilton. Imagine Entertainment is now moving ahead with another adaptation, this one to be scripted by Noah Oppenheim, who is also banging away in an attic somewhere on that “War Games” remake for MGM. We hope he doesn’t hurt himself too much on that one. For the uninitiated, “1984″ is set in a “totalitarian future society” and concerns “a man whose job it is to rewrite history tries a bit of rebellion by falling in love, a move that runs afoul of Big Brother.

Deadline is reporting that Noah Oppenheim will be adapting a new version of George Orwell‘s classic novel 1984, which will be brought to us from Imagine Entertainment.

For those of you who are not familiar with the novel, it is a “cautionary tale about a totalitarian future society, and a man whose job it is to rewrite history [who] tries a bit of rebellion by falling in love, a move that runs afoul of Big Brother.”

You may recall that the novel was turned into a big screen film that actually came out in 1984, which starred John Hurt and Richard Burton (his last film). As far as getting the plot down, it did an ok job, but those who have read the novel will remember it more as one of ideas and atmosphere rather than plot. In this sense, I felt the Hurt version did not do as well as it could have,...

In the future, Big Brother won’t just be watching our every move, spying and totally cramping our fun, but it’ll also be remaking all of our movies. Oh wait, did I say in the future? I mean, it started 10 years ago. Run, kids, run!!!!! Anyhoo. Imagine Entertainment is remaking George Orwell’s “1984″, and has set Noah Oppenheim to bang out a script for them. Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent even in the mind.

Noah Oppenheim has been set to pen the new adaptation of George Orwell’s classic sci-fi parable "1984" for Imagine Entertainment says Deadline.

Set in a totalitarian future society, the story follows a man whose job it is to rewrite history. He soon falls in love, a move that runs afoul of the all-seeing Big Brother. Oppenheim is also penning remakes of "Snabba Cash" and "WarGames".

Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures is in negotiations to pick up Brian Duffield's spec script "Monster Problems" which Shawn Levy will produce says Heat Vision.

The story is described as a post-apocalyptic road movie in the vein of "Mad Max" and "Zombieland", albeit one with a "John Hughes-esque love story" at its heart.

Imagine Entertainment is bringing a new take on George Orwell's 1984 to the screen. Deadline reports that Noah Oppenheim, who is also currently scripting The Secret Life of Houdini for Gary Ross, as well as remakes of Snabba Cash and War Games, has been tapped to adapt the classic novel about a future Britain under a totalitarian regime overseen by an omniscient Big Brother. For those that didn't read the book in high school, 1984 is the story of Winston Smith, who works for the Ministry of Truth destroying evidence of anything that contradicts the government's current positions. The plot takes shape when Winston flouts the ruling party by falling in love with the elusive Julia.

1984 is pretty much the gold standard of both dystopian science-fiction and literary political fiction. It casts a huge shadow over popular culture and is the source of concepts including Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, and memory hole.

Exclusive: Imagine Entertainment is moving forward with a new version of George Orwell’s 1984. Noah Oppenheim has been set to adapt the cautionary tale about a totalitarian future society, and a man whose job it is to rewrite history tries a bit of rebellion by falling in love, a move that runs afoul of Big Brother. The new version of 1984 is being produced by Imagine’s Brian Grazer, along with Julie Yorn and Rick Yorn. Oppenheim’s scripting The Secret Life of Houdini, which has Gary Ross attached at Summit, and the remake of Daniel Espinosa’s Snabba Cash and a remake of War Games. He’s repped by CAA and Management 360. 1984 will be exec produced by Gina Rosenblum, who was producer of the last major adaptation of Orwell’s classic, the Michael Radford-directed film that starred John Hurt as Winston Smith. Street artist Shepard Fairey will also be exec producer.

Author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury passed away last night at the age of 91, and he’ll be missed for a whole lot more than just those books on your high school reading list. Today, as you head into the theaters to see The Hunger Games and Prometheus, stroll down you bookstore aisle to pick up the latest hot dystopian Ya novel, or flip on your ginormous flat-screen TV, you owe something to Bradbury. As much as we refer to George Orwell’s Big Brother of 1984, rail against the dangers of Aldous Huxley‘s Brave New World and conjure up nightmares of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, those book-burning “firefighters” of Fahrenheit 451 strikes fear into the hearts of many a reader and writer. His sci-fi writing (in short stories, The Ray Bradbury Theater TV show, and elsewhere), has also inspired many too follow in his imaginative footsteps. Granted...

Stars of the small screen reveal their TV secrets

The stand up: Jo Brand

Jo Brand bats away the suggestion that she's a national treasure. "To me that's someone who has a global reach, like Helen Mirren, or someone who's extremely good, like Stephen Fry. I don't have that. I've just calmed down a bit, and that's only because once I had children I was so bloody knackered I could be nothing but calm." Though her audience has widened as she's written novels, appeared on panel shows and acted in the superlative comedy Getting On, Brand says she's planning to go back to stand-up. "The world has become a horrible place for women again and I want to be gobby about it." Before then, though, she's very happy to talk about TV. "I had aspirational working-class parents who thought you shouldn't let your kids watch crap on telly. If my...

by Matt Adler

Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Dictator” has invaded theaters, featuring His Excellency, the incomparable Admiral General Aladeen, in his feature film debut.

But the beloved Admiral General is far from the only despot to reign over the big screen throughout the years, so as a celebration of this momentous occasion in his glorious reign, we thought it might be instructive (not to mention entertaining) to take a look a back at some of filmdom’s other most feared (or mocked) tyrants.

Pharaoh Rameses II

A heavyweight among our lineup of autocrats, Rameses II has roots that are not just historical, but biblical to boot. But it was the screen presence of Yul Brynner that brought him to life in modern times, as the vindictive and arrogant Pharaoh in 1956’s "The Ten Commandments," who just doesn’t know when to quit, even after Moses (Charlton Heston) tells him to “Let my people go!

Could an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 survive a trip to Hollywood? Ryan looks at the best and worst case scenarios…

Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984, as we’ll refer to it here for search-based reasons). What more can we say about one of the most influential and widely read sci-fi novels yet written? A common set text in English lessons, and full of ideas and terms that have since seeped into our everyday language, it’s easy to forget just how brutal and urgent George Orwell’s novel is.

Already adapted several times since its publication 63 years ago, 1984, we learned last week, is going to Hollywood. Two production companies (Lbi Entertainment and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment) are teaming up to bring a new version of Orwell’s dystopia to the big screen. A screenwriter is still being sought – and there’s no word yet as to who will direct it...

George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 is on track to be adapted into another feature film. Noted street artist Shepard Fairey is said to be co-producing the project, but we’re still highly confident Hollywood will find a way to ruin it. Here are 19 simple ways Hollywood can do exactly that: 19. CGI’d Big Brother 18. Victory Gin Replaced With Ciroc 18. Constant Winking Allusions To ‘Future’ Events 16. Movie re-set in the distant, dystopian future year of 2014. 15. Foster The People cover Prince’s “1999″ (rewritten as “1984″) over the opening and closing credits (and quietly on the Truth Radio in the background of one scene) 14. Slogans “War Is Peace,” “Freedom Is Slavery,” and “Ignorance Is Strength,” joined by fourth phrase, “Impossible Is Nothing – Adidas” 13. 60% of footage recycled from V For Vendetta 12. Other 40% of footage recycled from Mars Needs Moms 11. All characters are in flying cars throughout entire movie. 10. Big Brother is gonna be “Tough, edgy,...

Imagine Entertainment confirms it will develop a big screen remake of author George Orwell's classic science-fiction novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four", with street artist Shepard Fairey on board as a possible co-producer.

First published June 1949, Orwell's 'dystopian' novel focuses on 'Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the 'Party'.

Life in the Oceanian province of 'Airstrip One' is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance and incessant public mind control, accomplished with a political system euphemistically named 'English Socialism' (aka 'Ingsoc'), administered by a privileged 'Inner Party' elite. Everyone is subordinate to the totalitarian cult of 'Big Brother', the deified Party leader who rules with a philosophy that decries individuality and reason as 'thoughtcrimes'.

Protagonist 'Winston Smith', is a member of the 'Outer Party, working for the 'Ministry of Truth' (aka 'Minitrue'), responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism, rewriting past newspaper articles so that...

You might know Shepard Fairey as the street artist responsible for the Barack Obama "Hope" poster, or maybe you know him from Banksy's fantastic 2010 documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. But might he soon be known as Shepard Fairey, film producer? Fairey has teamed with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment to snag the rights to George Orwell's dystopian classic 1984 with sights set on a new film adaptation. Orwell's 1948 novel follows a middle-class worker who hopes to rebel against against an oppressive and paranoid society perpetually in a state of war and controlled by the faceless Big Brother. THR reminds us that 1984 has been adapted a few times before, most recently in the actual year 1984 in a version starring John Hurt and Richard Burton. But the problem with making a fresh adaptation of this story is that Orwell's novel has had such a profound impact ...

Though it certainly wasn't the first, George Orwell's 1984 is probably the most pivotal and influencial work of dystopian fiction the world has ever seen.  Considering that, it's pretty surprising that the last major adaptation of it was the John Hurt film released back in..uh..1984.  Well, audiences might get the chance to watch Big Brother again, as Imagine Entertainment, Ron Howard's production company, has announced it's intentions to create a new adaptation of the story.

George Orwell’s trend-setting dystopian society novel, 1984 is being brought to the big screen again. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment production house is helping to co-develop the project, alongside Julie Yorn’s Lbi Entertainment banner (We Bought a Zoo).

This new 1984 film adaptation is (appropriately) being spearheaded by counter-cultural American graphic designer and street artist Shepard Fairey, who is perhaps best known for creating the iconic Barack Obama “Hope” poster used during the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Orwell’s 1984 (a.k.a. Nineteen Eighty-Four) novel concerns an everyman named Winston Smith, who eventually rallies against the government he has long served – one which thrives on restricting creativity, reconstructing facts to better serve its nefarious purposes, and maintaining a state of paranoia by keeping the populace under constant surveillance.

Such widely-recognized terminology like “cult of personality,” “Big Brother” and “thoughtcrimes” were ...

Click to continue reading ’1984′ Adaptation from Shepard Fairey...

Get ready for another flurry of dystopian science-fiction on the big screen, folks. With The Hunger Games expected to do gangbusters at the box office this weekend, studios are scrambling to find similar properties that might be able to capitalize on its success. Over at Imagine Entertainment, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer have taken it upon themselves to revisit the granddaddy of them all, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. No word yet on if this is a project that Ron Howard wants to direct himself, but strangely, street artist Shepard Fairey will be involved in some capacity after helping them secure the rights to the book. Word on the street is that he may take on a producer role in the film. According to THR, Imagine Entertainment was negotiating for the rights to Orwell's seminal 1948 novel separately from Julie Yorn of Lbi Entertainment, so they decided to team up and develop the new movie together.

George Orwell’s seminal 1949 dystopian novel, “1984,” arguably has as high a profile now as it ever did. In fact, if you say "1984" to someone they’d probably think of the book before they think of the year. Even for those that haven’t read the book, the title is synonymous with totalitarian politics, propaganda and the surveillance culture, and "Big Brother" is now even an established global brand of exploitative reality television.

The story follows a man named Winston Smith in a world which has been through a nuclear war. He works for a government branch called the Ministry of Truth, but harbors desires for both a rebellion and an illicit love affair. The book was last adapted for the screen back in (you guessed it) 1984, in a less than memorable flick directed by Michael Radford and starring John Hurt and Richard Burton. The book is now set for a...

Has "The Hunger Games" inspired a surge of dystopian movies?

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment are looking to bring George Orwell's "1984" back to the big screen.

Orwell's Big Brother-esque novel, published in 1949, tells the story of Oceania, a society where government surveillance and mind control are a constant presence. The book centers around Winston Smith, a man who challenges the intrusive tactics of those in charge.

The future adaptation wouldn't be the first time Orwell's iconic story has been made into a film. On top of three made-for-tv movies, the novel was also brought to life in the 1984 flick starring John Hurt and Richard Burton.

This isn't the first major novel Howard has been attached to in recent weeks. Deadline.com reported that Howard was close to reviving his long-gestating plans to make Stephen King's "Dark Tower" into a...

Has "The Hunger Games" inspired a surge of dystopian movies? According to the Hollywood Reporter, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment are looking to bring George Orwell's "1984" back to the big screen. Orwell's Big Brother-esque novel, published in 1949, tells the story of Oceania, a society where government surveillance and mind control are a constant presence. The book centers around Winston Smith, a man who challenges the intrusive tactics of those in charge. The future adaptation wouldn't be the first time Orwell's iconic story has been made into a film. On top of three made-for-tv movies, the novel was also brought to life in the 1984 flick starring John Hurt and Richard Burton. This isn't the first major novel Howard has been attached to in recent weeks. Deadline.com reported that Howard was close to reviving his long-gestating plans to make Stephen King's "Dark Tower" into a...

It’s been over sixty years since the book was first published and twenty-eight years after it’s aforementioned prophesied date, but the ideas and themes put forward in George Orwell’s seminal work ‘1984’ seem more and more relevant with each passing day. So it would make sense that now comes word that Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment and Julie Yorn over at Lbi Entertainment are teaming up to develop a new adaptation of Orwell’s work.

Set in a dystopian future, the story takes place in a society called Oceania, forever locked in a state of war, overseen by the seemingly omniscient Big Brother who controlled everything via ‘The Party’, where individuality is outlawed and propaganda, surveillance, mind control and paranoia are everyday concepts.

The story focuses on Winston Smith, a man who works for the Ministry of Truth, where he alters the facts and histories...

Published in 1948, George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is considered one of the classic novels of all time, with many of it's terms and concepts, such as Newsspeak and Big Brother, have become part of contemporary vernacular and popular culture. Set in a future world, Oceania, it describes a society where reason and individuality are outlawed, and is ruled through surveillance and mind control by the oppressive government known as Big Brother. In this world, one man, Winston Smith, decides to rebel. The novel has been adapted for film, T.V. and stage many times, a 1984 movie, with John Hurt as Smith, being the most famous. Imagine Entertainment, alongside Lbi Entertainment and street artist Shepard Fairey (best known for the iconic Barack Obama "Hope" poster), have recently acquired the rights to the material, and working on bringing a new take on the story to the big screen. Source: The...

Imagine Entertainment and Lbi Entertainment are teaming to develop a new film adaptation of George Orwell’s seminal dystopian literary classic "1984" says Heat Vision.

Set in a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control, the story centers on Winston Smith who works for the Ministry of Truth which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism.

Because of the childhood trauma of the destruction of his family — the disappearances of his parents and sister — Winston Smith secretly hates the ruling Party, and dreams of rebellion against them and their deified Party leader - Big Brother.

Written in 1948, the property has previously been adapted several times before - most notably in 1984 itself starring John Hurt and Richard Burton. More notably however the novel has had major influences in the artistic, cultural and even political arenas over the past few decades with concepts from it becoming synonymous with denoting totalitarian authority.

As we creep further and further away from the actual year 1984, the fears and ideas put forward in George Orwell’s seminal dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (published in 1949, don’t forget) seem more and more prescient. So that might be why Brian Grazer and his Imagine Entertainment team are thinking that it’s time for another screen version of the book. Orwell’s tome focused on Oceania, a society ruled by a dictator named Big Brother, who controlled everything via The Party. Individuality is frowned upon, truths are manipulated and war with other continents seems endless. We follow the journey of Ministry Of Truth employee Winston Smith as he nurtures thoughts of revolution and forbidden love, and the terrible consequences that follow.Artist Shepard Fairey, best known for his Obama “Hope” poster, had been looking into the rights along with Grazer when they discovered that Julie Yorn’s Lbi Entertainment was also interested.

Charles Dickens won't officially turn 200 until February 7, but the Dickens 2012 extravaganza — festivals, theater, exhibitions, readings and so on — is well underway. And today, the BFI series Dickens on Screen opens at BFI Southbank in London for a run that'll last through February.

"No other novelist has been adapted for the screen so often or to such popular acclaim. Around 400 films and TV series have been made so far," writes Robert Douglas-Fairhurst in the Guardian. "In a famous essay published in 1944, the Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein argued that 'only very thoughtless and presumptuous people' believed in 'some incredible virgin birth' of cinema, and that the film pioneer Dw Griffith found many of his storytelling tricks, including close-ups, dissolves and cutting between parallel narratives, in novels such as Oliver Twist. Griffith admitted as much himself. One of his first films was a 14-minute version of Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth (1909) that...

Government worker whose family is too poor to afford a television celebrates with film stars

A poor government clerk from a remote and poverty-stricken region of northern India was partying with film stars on Thursday night after becoming the first person to win 50 million rupees, worth over $1m or £634,000, on an Indian gameshow.

In an astonishing real life version of the plot of the 2008 Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, whose impoverished hero from a tough neighbourhood of the Indian commercial capital Mumbai wins the biggest prize on a TV quiz show, 27-year-old Sushil Kumar answered a final question correctly to take the jackpot of the massively popular local edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

"We can't believe it. The whole village have come to our house. We are worried that my dad will die of happiness," Sunil Kumar Patel, the winner's brother, told the Guardian. "We can't speak to Sushil.

With films inspired by comic books coming out of our ears over the past few years, the release of Priest – which is based on a Korean comic book series – begs the question of whether we really need any more and from such a relatively unknown source? Released last week on Blu-ray and DVD, read our review below to find out the answer!

Priest, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, is set in an alternate world — one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest (Paul Bettany) from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them.

George Lucas is a filmmaker who believes that movies are works that can be revisited and altered as the artist’s vision or his tools change. This has been a hallmark of his dating all the way back to his 1967 USC student film, Electronic Labyrinth: Thx 1138 4Eb. When Lucas and colleague Francis Ford Coppola made it from film school to Hollywood, they wound up getting the money to make a feature-version of the story as Lucas’ film directing debut. A co-production between Coppola’s American Zoetrope and Warner Bros., Thx 1138 was shot and released in 1971 to dismal results.

In the wake of his subsequent success with 1977’s Star Wars, he re-edited the film back to his original 86 minute cut, adding in five minutes, for a re-release. After tinkering endlessly with the Star Wars trilogy, Lucas decided it was time to go back and play with Thx 1138,...

Are you bored of the same old TV shows? Tired of the mainstream? Then check out this round-up of alternative movies and series showing on UK television tonight…

8.00pm Airline Disaster (Syfy)

A passenger jet being flown by the Us president’s brother is hijacked by terrorists, leaving the head of state forced to choose between her family and the lives of her citizens.

9.00pm Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Horror Channel)

Slick slasher featuring horror legend Robert Englund. Leslie aspires to become the next great psycho killer and invites a documentary film crew to chronicle his efforts.

10.00pm Digital Man (Movies4Men +1)

A crack squad of soldiers is sent to hunt down an out-of-control robot inadvertently set loose on a small community. But not all is what it seems when a saboteur is suspected within the unit.

11.00pm The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (CBS Action)

Eric Draven,...