The work of Edgar Allen Poe, who died on this date in 1849 under what can only be called aptly mysterious circumstances, has never had trouble being adapted for TV and movies. Going by this IMDB list, there’s been at least one Poe-related film or show made almost every years since 1908. That’s a whole lot of Tell-Tale Heart Crew jackets.
Though there was a recent movie made about Poe’s bizarre final days, however, there has not yet been a full-on biopic.
Well, look who is seeking to rectify that situation:
As for the Poe pic, Stallone wants to get it done, and done right. He’s conscious of the demands of such a role, and he recognizes that, passion project or not, this might not be the vehicle for him to headline. “Of course, I’m not playing Poe,” he told Empire. “‘Yo, Poe!’ It won’t work! It’ll be some young actor because he dies at 39, but it’s gonna happen.”
“Yo, Poe!” heh heh heh… he’s still got it.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 marks the 128th anniversary of Billy the Kid’s death at 21. Billy (as he shall be known in this article for the simplicity’s sake) was born Henry McCarty, though he also went by the names William H. Bonney and Henry Atrim. Predictably, the details of his life are as elusive and disputed as his identity.
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Renowned political writer Eric Arthur Blair (better known by his pseudonym George Orwell) would be celebrating his 106th birthday Thursday, over half a century after his untimely death at 46. Blair is best known for his uncompromising social commentary on justice and totalitarianism through his dystopian novels Nineteen Eighty-Four and post-war satire Animal Farm. Inadvertantly, he also provided lesser social critics and lazy writers with their favourite anti-government epithet: “Orwellian.”
Beyond his influential work as a novelist, Blair was also a celebrated essayist. My favourite essay of his, “Shooting An Elephant”, can be read in full here.
Toronto-based fiction writer Ibi Kaslik has today received a Trillium Book Award nomination, for her second novel, The Angel Riots, released in March 2008. DRIVEN’s editorial personnel are unabashed fans of the book; it was an honour when Kaslik agreed to interview 2008 Giller Prize-winning author Joseph Boyden for our December issue (read it here: pp38-42).
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Seeing Fight Club and Choke author Chuck Palahniuk in a live setting is somewhat akin to rolling together a black comedy film, a stand-up comedian, and a (comedic!) carnival game. What’s the catch, you ask? Possibly, a penguin.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Palahniuk is currently on a North American promotional tour for his latest novel, Pygmy. Last night, his sold-out “reading” — scare quotes because his shtick is really more of a performance — at the University of Toronto’s Isabel Bader Theatre featured bedtime stories with a modern spin (including his own where a small child unknowingly orders a prostitute), inflatable giveaways, and a few impromptu surprises.
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You like stories about Las Vegas, right? You know, stories about washed-out, recently-widowed, alcoholic card sharks, and the thugs who try to kill them before the one last big game? If you do, and you won’t be scared off by some deftly handled mystical mumbo jumbo along the way, you’ll get a kick out of Last Call. Read More
If you haven’t read the gritty yet gregarious short story written exclusively for the December issue of DRIVEN by 2008 Giller Prize-winner Joseph Boyden, give yourself a little gift and devour it now: “Three Wiser’s Men” (pp32-36 of the magazine).
But that’s not all…
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Posted verbatim and without editorial comment, a paragraph from Elliott Chaze’s noir crime story Black Wings Has My Angel (1953):
“But about the gentleman thing.” She waved her glass. “I want to make it plain as the nose on your face. I can stand anything in the book but gentlemen. Because I’ve spent a lot of time, too much time with them, and I know why gentlemen are what they are…
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