Nov. 2007 Interview with Audrey Niffenegger

I always like interviews with Audrey Niffenegger--she's smart but not pompous or intimidating. I just read this one from a blog and found a few things interesting:

-She mentions that men who like "TTW" are especially interested in the notion of seeing their wives as young girls. Ugh thats kind of creepy and annoying. Creepy b/c I'm sure they still find the girls attractive and annoying b/c I suspect that they secretly want their wives to be innocent and virginal like they were when they were young.

-I'd like to see her show in Chicago

-I'm looking forward to her new book

If you like Time Traveler's Wife--You Will Like This Book

I was floored to find out that one of my all-time, favorite books "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt is also one of Audrey Niffenegger's favorite books.



Audrey lists Donna Tartt as one of her favorite authors in the FAQ section of her official website:

Writers I admire: Donna Tartt, Richard Powers, David Sedaris, Chris Adrian, Geoff Ryman, Henry James, Wilkie Collins, Dorothy Sayers, H.G. Wells, Martin Amis, Ingrid Hill, Jennifer Stevenson, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rex Stout.

Plus, in an interview with Barnes and Noble she lists "The Secret History" as one of her top 10 favorite books and has this to say about it:

"The Secret History by Donna Tartt -- Donna Tartt is a terrific writer, and I envy her ability to make a world that goes down and down, and has no bottom; the characters are so seductive, you love them, and it's painful when things go wrong, as they must. I read The Secret History when it first came out and was entranced by the clashes between Greek ideals and ordinary life, and between desire and the onset of adulthood."

See the full list here

I'm fascinated because there are parallels between the two that I hadn't consciously thought about. There is pain and the characters are certainly not syrupy sweet but you love them. If you haven't read it - go now and get it.

Time Traveler's Wife: Nightmare Movie Cast

Ok this is a 'nightmare scenario' casting:

Lindsay Lohan as Clare Abshire









Wilmer Valderrama is Henry DeTamble









Gomez from Addams Family as "Gomez"









And, the adorable Dakota Fanning as "Young Clare"












That's when I give up and die.

Who is your 'nightmare' casting?

Movie Claire Falling for Movie Henry

Is it me or is Rachel trying to turn him on with her tongue?


Or maybe there was something stuck there.

Must See Films in 2008

Slashfilm.com listed the 55 "Must-See" films coming out in 2008 and guess what's on the list?

The Time Traveler’s Wife

Release Date: November 2008 (estimated)

Director: Robert Schwentke (Flightplan)
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Ron Livingston
The Buzz: Based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife is a romantic drama about a Chicago librarian (Bana) with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, and the complications it creates for his marriage. I’m always game for any time travel movie, although this sounds a bit like the new television show Journeyman.
Trivia: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt made headlines when they bought the film rights to Niffenegger’s novel before it was released to the public.

You can see the whole list here.

I can't believe they said: "this sounds a bit like the new television show Journeyman."

No, Journeyman sounds a lot like "The Time Traveler's Wife". But as I said before, with clothes and a less hot guy.

NBC's Journeyman & TTW

NBC has a new show this season called Journeyman. It's on Monday nights at 10pm EST. It's kind of a mix between Time Traveler's Wife and Quantum Leap (the hit show from the 80's). The biggest difference I see is that when the main character (Dan) travels he keeps his clothes on unlike Henry and there is no cigar-smoking guy named Al (Dean Stockwell) following him around with some stupid remote control that always malfunctions (like in 'Leap').

"Al" (Dean Stockwell) and reluctant time traveler "Sam" (Scott Bakula) from Leap









Call me shallow but the main character Dan (Kevin McKidd) in Journeyman just isn't good-looking enough:

I hear he was good in HBO's "Rome" but I didn't watch that so I can only base it on this.

Journeyman is good--I've watched every ep so far but just not that good. My friend A-Max won't even watch the show because she thinks it's a rip-off of TTW which it is but I'll take what I can get until the real movie comes out in 2008 (no release date yet).

So just in case you're curious Dan is a newspaper man who suddenly begins time traveling--normally back to the 80's and 90's. His wife was suspicious at first but he proves to her that he is indeed time traveling and not cheating or gambling by burying a toolbox in the backyard with her wedding ring and a back dated newspaper inside (whatevs). We find out that his wife was actually his brother's girlfriend in the past and Dan was madly in love with a hottie named Livia who died in a plane crash. Turns out Dan now bumps into Livia in his time travels not just as 'past-Livia' but she too is a time traveler. In each ep Dan must figure out who he has to 'help' in order to get 'back to the future'. Livia has kind of become his 'mentor' in this. While each ep focuses on Dan's time travel assignment we are also unfolding his past and why he scammed on his own brother's gf. I think he got her preggers by accident but we'll see.

Rachel and Ron On Set

Updated Cast with Pics

The cast as it stands now:

Eric Bana as Henry DeTamble

Rachel McAdams as Clare Abshire
Ron Livingston as Gomez
Jane McLean as Charisse
Hailey McCann as Alba DeTamble

Maggie Castle as Alicia Abshire

Michelle Nolden as Annette DeTamble

Philip Craig as Philip Abshire

Brooklynn Proulx as Young Clare

Shaping up very nicely. It all looks good. Thought Gomez was supposed to be blonde but whatever.

More On Set Pics

Ok - so she does have red hair. Red, 80's hair

Bana was Hot in Troy

This is encouraging since Henry is naked so much in the book. I know my friend Amy P. is looking forward to it.

Cast Credits so far

Courtesy of IMDB

Cast (in alphabetical order)

	Rachel McAdams	...	Clare Abshire
	Eric Bana	...	Henry De Tamble
	Ron Livingston	...	Gomez (rumored)
	Hailey McCann	...	Alba
	Jane McLean	...	Charisse (attached)

Bana as Henry but this is Claire?

Where's the red hair? I hope the Uggs are all Rachel

Bana as Henry

Exciting - but the mullet concerns me....

Book Club

In either 2006 or 2005 I was in a book club with a few friends from work and one of the books we read was Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveler's Wife". I not only loved the book I was obsessed. Surprising to me not everyone loved it. The extreme difference of opinions was around Henry. My friend "A' loved the book like I did and found Henry passionate, romantic and sexy. My friends like "W' thought he was mean (especially to Claire), thoughtless and uncaring. The Club was really divided about this book.

I thought it was wildly imaginative. I like sci fi (William Gibson books, TV shows like LOST, movies like The Matrix, etc) and this was a nice surprise--thought I was going to get a sappy romance but instead got a passionate adventure.


So as I said I first read the book 2-3 years ago and now that the movie is starting to be shot... I figured I start a place to talk about one of my favorite books and hopefully a good movie.