May 25, 2012

Apparently Selena Gomez has been bitten by the Fifty Shades of Grey bug. Watch as she sweats her positively dreamy house painter in this Funny or Die parody, Fifty Shades of Blue. Catch the first five chapters of James Dashner's prequel to his Maze Runner series, The Kill Order, over here! Can the lost be reclaimed? What price is too high to pay for love? Who can be trusted when sin and salvation collide? Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.   Click here to read our review of City of Lost Souls.   If you haven't read Tara Hudson's ghostly romance, Hereafter, now's your chance to grab it for only $.99 on your e-reader before the sequel, Arise, releases.  A group of kids stuck in a superstore, facing the apocalypse without an adult in sight—what could go wrong? Darkness and destruction are coming in this trailer for Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne. Can it be true? Is Robert Pattinson really having his way with another mega-YA franchise? The rumors are rampant that he'll be taking on the highly coveted role of Finnick Odair in Catching Fire (or the official new name, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), especially now that Francis Lawrence, who worked with Rob on Water For Elephants, is on board as director. Apparently it's not enough to be Cedric Diggory AND Edward Cullen, Rob has to take on the sex god of District 4 too. Never mind that he doesn't really fit the bill physically. He's R-Patz! He has an all-you-can-act YA buffet pass in Hollywood. What does this mean for the future of YA movies? Will we even recognize which YA movie we're watching, or will our beloved adaptations all be one R-Patzed-out blur? Will we need to look at the female lead to orient ourselves? Or will R-Patz take those roles over too? Coming in 2013: Divergent, starring R-Patz as Four and R-Patz in a wig as Tris. Kisses brought to you by CGI. (PS - you know we love you R-Patz. BUT COME ON.) The Perks of Being a Wallflower finally has a release date! Mark your calendar for September 14, 2012. As far as we know, Robert Pattinson is not in this movie. But there's still time for him to photo bomb a few scenes before release..... If you're a teen actor and you'd like the chance to be cast in The Book Thief film adaptation, head over here to find out how to submit yourself for consideration! All you have to do is send a video of yourself explaining away your lack of homework. I'm sure this will be tough, uncharted territory for all you goody-two-shoes-ers, but dig deep and you can do it.

Hailee Steinfeld and Douglas Booth do tortured teen romance right in this pic from the set of Romeo & Juliet.

May 23, 2012

Some beautiful covers hit the web over the past week! Click below to see our favorites.   Galen, a Syrena prince, searches land for a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. It’s while Emma is on vacation at the beach that she meets Galen. Although their connection is immediate and powerful, Galen's not fully convinced that Emma's the one he's been looking for. That is, until a deadly encounter with a shark proves that Emma and her Gift may be the only thing that can save his kingdom. He needs her help--no matter what the risk. Click here to read our review of Of Poseidon by Anna Banks.   Need to get yourself caught up on Lucas and Helen's story before the second Starcrossed book, Dreamless, comes out? Get Starcrossed w/ Bonus Materials on your e-reader for only $.99 for a limited time!  We just have to link to this hilarious trailer for Michael Scott's The Enchantress. With cheesy voiceovers, campy pose-striking and after-school-special line delivery, I am almost positive it's a parody. Even if it was brought to Michael Scott in earnest, that guy is the Loki of authors, always making mischief. He probably gave his publisher the thumbs up and giggled until he passed out afterward. Anyway, mission accomplished silly trailer people. I already wanted to read The Enchantress. Now it's definitely at the forefront of my mind. It's here! The Great Gatsby trailer is here! And it is as over-the-top and bombastic as you'd expect Gatsby via Baz Luhrmann to be.  With Jay Z, Kanye, and Jack White on the jams, colorful sets, spazzy dance numbers, a ginormous bottle of bubbly, to-die-for twenties fashion, and all the best Leo's present (angry Leo, smug Leo, soft huggy Leo), conditions are perfect for us to love this trailer. Let's hope this party buzz lasts until the movie.     Hailee Steinfeld is in talks to star in Fox's film adaptation of Why We Broke Up. She'll play Min Green, the creative and charming heroine who suffers acutely from the pains of first love. She writes the most epic and entertaining breakup letter imaginable to her ex Ed, complete with castoff relationship trinkets. Can Hailee do our adorably obsessive film wonkette justice? Pfft, without a doubt!  Click below to watch two new clips from On the Road, including the one pictured here, in which Kristen Stewart's character Marylou talks makin' babies and livin' the good life.

My what big red eyes you have Bella! In addition to this newborn Bella Breaking Dawn: Part 2 poster, two other character posters were released today. Check them out here.

May 21, 2012

A very happy book birthday to each of this week's new release lovelies! Head over here to see the full list for this week. When Kitty Tylney's best friend, Catherine Howard, worms her way into King Henry VIII's heart and brings Kitty to court, she's thrust into a world filled with fabulous gowns, sparkling jewels, and elegant parties. No longer stuck in Cat's shadow, Kitty's now caught between two men—the object of her affection and the object of her desire. But court is also full of secrets, lies, and sordid affairs, and as Kitty witnesses Cat's meteoric rise and fall as queen, she must figure out how to keep being a good friend when the price of telling the truth could literally be her head. Click here to read our review of Gilt by Katherine Longshore.   Get The Carrie Diaries on your e-reader before you catch the CW show this Fall! For a limited time it's only $2.99. Cat Patrick's tale of life after death, Revived, has a pulse stopping (and pulse re-starting) book trailer. Make sure to cast your vote for the Teen Choice Awards, where you can support your favorite films, TV shows, albums and (finally! thank you Jennifer Donnelly) books. Film/TV adaptations of The Hunger Games, Breaking Dawn, and The Vampire Diaries are (not surprisingly) up for some awards. The brand new book category pits the Divergent series, The Hunger Games books, and the Twilight series against Lois Lowry's The Giver and The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. Vote here! Speaking of Nicholas Sparks movies, another powerhouse tearjerker is rapidly taking shape. Safe Haven may have just scored a leading lady in Julianne Hough (Footloose). According to Variety, Hough is in talks to join the film as a woman "whose arrival in a small North Carolina town prompts its tight-knit community to question her mysterious past."  Shady traumatic past and nosy small towners? Sounds like she's going to need a muscular shoulder to cry on. Josh Duhamel has her covered. Have $1.2 million lying around? You could be the proud owner of Katniss Everdeen's District 12. Sure, it's got faulty electric fencing and a sort of impoverished gray look to it, but it's where the Girl on Fire came from! Just think of all the Mockingjay pins and Mellark loaves and Hanging Tree cds you could sell to tourists! Ka-ching.

Check out the new aerial footage of Hobbiton, the set of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. More pics can be found over here.

May 18, 2012

Jean Craighead George, the Newbery Award-winning author of Julie of the Wolves, My Side of the Mountain, and over 100 other novels, passed away on May 15th at 92 years old. Jean shared her infectious love of nature and animals with her readers, and her books will continue to be regarded as classics. She told School Library Journal in a 2009 interview, "Remember me as somebody who talked about nature, who awakened readers to a new world, and helped them restore it." If you aren't watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, I can only assume it's because 1) you haven't yet heard of this fantabulous contemporary take on Pride & Prejudice, or 2) you HAVE heard of the videos, but you've been physically detained from watching them by an overbearing mother who wants you to stay off YouTube and focus on getting yourself in to the 2.5 WPF Club. Get caught up on Lizzie and her sisters' adventures by clicking below. Andrew Fukuda's The Hunt and Julie Kagawa's The Immortal Rules are both set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun with vampires. These vamps don't sneak through human society, falling in love with teenage girls, or live openly in accord with humans, drinking blood out of cans bought at 7 Eleven—no, they have utterly crushed human society. The vampocalypse is here, and it's a bad time to be a human.   Click here to read our joint review of these thrilling vampocalypse novels.   See what all the fuss is about with the e-reader omnibus of the first five Wool books by self-pub phenom Hugh Howey, on sale for only $5.99. Download soon, this is going to be a hot series! In addition to garnering critical praise, the Wool novels have found a home at Random House, and are headed for the big screen.  Meet Celaena, an assassin who has to fight her way to freedom in this exciting trailer for Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass.    The Peter and the Starcatchers adaptation success continues! In addition to the wildly popular Broadway adaptation, which just received an impressive nine Tony nominations, the film version is chugging along nicely with the addition of screenwriter Jesse Wigutow. Check out this fabulous eighties-flavored trailer for the CW's The Carrie Diaries.   If you were dismayed by the CW's Fall season cancellation news from last week, take heart, it might not be the end of the line for The Secret Circle, and it is most definitely not over yet for The Selection. Fans of The Secret Circle have banded together to get the show picked up by another network, setting their sights on MTV, ABC Family, and SyFy. If you're not yet ready to say goodbye to Cassie Blake and the circle, head over here to find out how to get involved and Save The Circle. According to Deadline, CW President Mark Pedowitz had this to say to attendees of the network's upfront presentation: “I truly believe that there is a series in The Selection.” The network plans to rework the show, veering further from Kiera Cass's source material, with possible recasts. Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights) will stay on as main character America. If all goes well, the show will likely get a mid-season premiere.

This pic from the set of the Beautiful Creatures movie could be a preview of your immediate future. You could win a set visit and the opportunity to interview authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl! Head over here for deets on entering soon—the contest ends May 21st.

May 15, 2012

A very happy book birthday to each of this week's new release lovelies! Head over here to see the full list for this week. Some beautiful covers hit the web over the past few weeks! Click below to see our favorites.   I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.   That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine—and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.   He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France—an Allied Invasion of Two.   We are a sensational team. Click here to read our full review of Code Name Verity.   Worldwide death and destruction, a monarchy overthrown, and a surviving royal child are on dramatic display in this book trailer for The Last Princess. If you like what you see in the video, make sure to enter Alloy Entertainment/Little Brown's amazing sweepstakes here. One grand prize winner gets a copy of The Last Princess signed by Galaxy Craze, a copy of Stefan’s Diaries, Vol. 5: The Asylum signed by actress Nina Dobrev, and a copy of The Hunger Games signed by actress Willow Shields! If you're in the mood for a quick romantic read, make sure to snag Kiss Crush Collide for your e-reader—it's only $2.99 for a limited time.   Of course we're all going to watch Catching Fire when it comes out, but how would you like to act in the film as well? Whether you're aiming as high as Johanna Mason/Finnick Odair or as low as random Capitolite partier/woebegone District 12er, you have a shot! Click here to get the deets. The 39 Clues movie adaptation is one step closer to the big screen! Shawn Levy is in talks to direct the film, which will be produced by Steven Spielberg and Scholastic’s Deborah Forte for Dreamworks. The best-selling series follows two kids, Dan and Amy, on a worldwide treasure hunt as they follow the 39 clues to find the source of their family's power. Florence and the Machine's official music video for their Snow White and the Huntsman song "Breath of Life" has been released, and it has a few new scenes from the movie. Check out the operatic video below.

Chris Hemsworth is flanked by his two darkly-dressed costars, Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron, as they pose for pics at the premiere of Snow White and the Huntsman Monday night in London. I'm kind of digging the doom-and-gloom couture. It'd be a bit weird to see them showing up in sunny yellow frills for that grim, nightmarish movie. To see more premiere pics, head over here.