Tag Archives: The Casual Vacancy

‘A Casual Vacancy’ to become TV series

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This is surprising, considering that press coverage put a negative spin on ideas of adapting the book.

The Harry Potter author will “collaborate closely” on the adaptation which is expected to air on BBC One in 2014.

Set in a small-town community in the West Country, it centres on the unexpected death of Barry Fairbrother, which shocks the local villagers.

Rowling said she was “thrilled” that the novel has been commissioned.

“I always felt that, if it were to be adapted, this novel was best suited to television and I think the BBC is the perfect home.”

BBC One controller Danny Cohen said he was excited to bring Rowling’s latest work to audiences.

“[Her] story-telling is of course peerless in its popularity, and I am looking forward to collaborating with her,” he said.

The series will be produced for BBC One by an independent production company with Rick Senat as executive producer.

The BBC said the number and length of episodes will be decided once the adaptation process has begun.

Described by publishers Little Brown and Co as “blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising”, there were mixed reviews for the novel when it was published in September, with Rowling variously described as “unadventurous”, “bleak” and “brilliant” by newspaper critics.

It sold 125,000 copies in its first week on the market, becoming the fastest-selling hardback in the UK for three years and the second biggest seller since records began in 1998.

What do you think? Is the book suitable for TV? Will you watch it?

casual vacancy

Source: BBC News

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J.K. Rowling gives enlightening interview with Charlie Rose

Posted by artysgirl on

Throughout her US promotion of The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling has given a lot of interviews. One of the compelling factors in this one is the light she sheds on the film productions of Harry Potter.

Charlie Rose: When you’re writing, do you see it like a movie? I assume, after Harry Potter, you saw the character as exactly the movie character for Harry Potter.
JK Rowling: Interestingly no, I didn’t – with one exception. This is what’s interesting to me. I never saw Dan or Rupert or Emma as … no. Because I’d lived with them so long, I saw my characters in my head. There was one exception. I’ve said this before. Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood, I saw her. I’m not saying the others weren’t perfect pieces of casting, because I adore those people, but she got in my head. I even heard her voice when I was writing Luna.

CR: How did Harry differ from the actor? How did the picture you had in your head differ from the picture we see on the screen?
JKR: Dan, Rupert and Emma – and they know, I’ve said this to them – they’re much better looking than the kids I saw in my head

CR: Really?
JKR: Yeah, definitely. Emma is beautiful, staggeringly beautiful. In the book, Hermione is a plain Jane, although she sorts herself out a little bit, and she gets a little more styled as she gets older. I am so glad they cast her as Hermione. Emma is a very intelligent girl, who played intelligent beautifully. Even though she’s stunningly beautiful – Emma is not at all about her looks. That’s who Emma is, and that shown through in her portrayal of Hermione. That’s why I was thrilled they cast her because she is such a smart, bright girl. I needed my Hermione to be that kind of person.

CR: Did the movies teach you anything about your characters? Did you see anything about your characters that might have added to their complexity? Because actors can take lines and their job is to to enhance them.
JKR: Yeah definitely, and make them their own. Gary Oldman was fantastic as Sirius. He was amazing. He gave Sirius something that was in my mind for Sirius, but on screen I really saw it – that slight edge of insanity, of being imbalanced, from someone that’d been locked up for a long time. He just played that.

CR: When you’re writing this with the multiple characters you have, is finding somebody that’s a bit crazed thrilling? Because you can do so many things with a bad person.
JKR: You’ve got to reign it in though. You’ve got to just pitch it right because otherwise it becomes like a cardboard and paste caricature. You’ve still got to find the center of the crazy person. Bellatrix, in the books, is probably the most out of control, insane person in the books. She’s vicious. Even more than Voldemort, who has a control about him. But that was how I saw her. There was a lack of boundaries.

The longer video also includes information from the author about The Casual Vacancy.

Source: Snitchseeker

Casual Vacancy is a ‘great novel’ says Time Entertainment

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Some early reviews are in on J.K. Rowling’s MUCH anticipated foray into the adult novel. Can she capture the same magic from the Harry Potter books and apply it to The Casual Vacancy?

Here’s what Lev Grossman of Time Entertainment had to say:

But after about ten pages of The Casual Vacancy I began to forget about all that stuff, and online rumors about how the book was amazing or awful or had lots of sex in it. I forgot about how I had three days to write a review of a 500-page book. I forgot about everything except the pages in front of me. Because I had come under the spell of a great novel.

What surprised me about The Casual Vacancy was not just how good it was, but the way in which it was good. I suppose I’d expected a kind of aged-up, magicked-down Harry Potter, something that showcased the same strengths the Potter books do: Rowling’s meticulous plotting, her inventiveness, her love of mischief, her likeable characters, her knack for visual spectacle. I also expected it to showcase her weaknesses, because all writers have them. Yes, I’m a fanboy, but I still think the Potter books have too many adverbs in them, and not enough sex.

But The Casual Vacancy is a different beast entirely. It was not what I was expecting. It’s a big, ambitious, brilliant, profane, funny, deeply upsetting and magnificently eloquent novel of contemporary England, rich with literary intelligence…(keep reading)

This is so encouraging to hear! Who plans on reading The Casual Vacancy with as much excitement as Deathly Hallows??

Casual Vacancy spoilers

Posted by artysgirl on

It seems like every time J.K. Rowling is set to release a new book, the web is loaded with so-called internet “spoilers.” These spoilers from Galleycat, which reveal plot details from The Casual Vacancy, appear to be legimate.

1. The book will include some mature material, perhaps surprising some younger readers: “public response to The Casual Vacancy will doubtless include scandalized objections to the idea of young Harry Potter readers being drawn into such material. ”

2. At the same time, teenagers play a large role in the book–prompting some comparisons to her work with the Harry Potter series: “Several of the key characters in The Casual Vacancy are in their mid-teens, and the novel seems most comfortable when it’s with them.”

3. The profile also revealed a bit about the cast of characters at the center of the book: “Its attention rotates among several Pagford households, in the Southwest of England: a gourmet-grocery owner and his wife; two doctors; a nurse married to a printer; a social worker. Most of the families include troubled teens.”

4. The profile hinted at a gloomier twist at the book’s conclusion, comparing the ending to the work of a great Victorian realist: “as the novel turns darker, toward a kind of Thomas Hardy finale, it hurtles along impressively.”

5. The plot of the novel hinges on the potential closure of a drug treatment facility on the edge of a more prosperous town, setting up some striking contrasts: “This is a story of class warfare set amid semi-rural poverty, heroin addiction, and teen-age perplexity and sexuality.”

We’ll have to wait and see when the book comes out!

J.K. Rowling opens up about life during and after Potter

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It’s common knowledge that J.K. Rowling wasn’t always successful. But one thing people don’t realize is how difficult it was for her to rise to such popularity so quickly. This article from The Telegraph reveals all.

The Harry Potter phenomenon transformed her from an impoverished single mother into one of the world’s richest authors, and now Rowling has admitted to struggling with her success, turning to therapy throughout her career to help cope with the pressures of fame and fortune.

On the eve of the publication of The Casual Vacancy, which is set to become the literary sensation of the year with pre-orders running into the millions, Rowling said that she had found her sudden success “incredibly disorienting”.

The author, who has sold more than 450 million books since publishing her first Harry Potter book 15 years ago, said that she had turned to therapy while feeling at “rock bottom” when writing her first book in Edinburgh, where she was living in a bedsit with her young daughter and surviving on benefits.

“And I had to do it again when my life was changing so suddenly – and it really helped,” she said. “I’m a big fan of it, it helped me a lot.

“For a few years I did feel I was on a psychic treadmill, trying to keep up with where I was. Everything changed so rapidly, so strangely. I knew no one who’d ever been in the public eye. I didn’t know anyone – anyone – to whom I could turn and say, “what do you do?”, so it was incredibly disorienting.”

The author, who married her second husband, Neil Murray, a doctor, in 2001, said that she had resorted to wearing a disguise while shopping for a wedding dress to escape the attentions of by fans.

Rowling, whose fortune is estimated at £560 million and who has given away more than £100 million to charity, said that she had also struggled with the huge number of demands to help others financially.

“You don’t expect the pressure of it, in the sense of being bombarded by requests,” she said. “I felt I had to solve everyone’s problems. I was hit by this tsunami of demands. I felt overwhelmed.”

The Casual Vacancy is set to become an instant bestseller when it is published on Thursday.

Online pre-orders of the book have already exceeded one million and Waterstones, the high-street bookstore chain, said that the book had prompted the largest number of pre-order sales for any title this year.

…

In an interview, she also admitted that she had considered publishing her debut novel for adults under a pseudonym.

She said: “But in some ways I think it’s braver to do it like this. The worst that can happen is that everyone says, “Well, that was dreadful, she should have stuck to writing for kids” and I can take that.

“If everyone says, “Well, that’s shockingly bad – back to wizards with you,” then obviously I won’t be throwing a party. But I will live.”

 

Rowling set to appear on ABC

Posted by artysgirl on

To promote her upcoming book, The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling will be interviewed on ABC News, the day before the book comes out. Book Buzz has the news.

Rowling on TV: J.K. Rowling’s first televised interview in the USA will be with ABC News on Sept. 26, the day before her novel, The Casual Vacancy, is released.

Who reads YA: 55% of people who buy young adult books are older than the genre’s 12-17 age demographic, a new study reports. With crossover successes like The Hunger Games, Twilight and Harry Potter, are you surprised at the high number of adults reading YA?

Who’s planning to tune in?

J.K. Rowling tickets oversold due to website malfunction

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J.K. Rowling’s tour promoting her new book, The Casual Vacancy, has only one stop in the United States. The publishing company arranged for 1,000 seats at one venue. Unfortunately, the tickets went on sale too early due to a “security breach,” and now there are too many ticket-holders with far too many seats. Credit goes to The Mary Sue for the information.

Little, Brown and Company, the publisher putting out the new book, arranged for the event to take place in the Jazz at Lincoln Center theater on October 16th. Rowling is set to be interviewed on stage by author Ann Patchett, answer a few audience questions, and sign copies of The Casual Vacancy for everyone with a ticket.

And therein lies the problem.

Tickets for the event were publicized as going on sale 10 a.m. on September 10th but went on sale 12 hours early, at 10 p.m., on Lincoln Center’s website only. They quickly sold out but the message didn’t get to the box office. Sales took place in person the following morning before the glitch was realized. Hypable reports some fans were also able to purchase tickets online again that afternoon.

According to Hypable, the Jazz at Lincoln Center website previously posted this message:

Due to technical difficulties on the ticketing website, tickets for the J. K. Rowling event on 10/16/12 were made available prematurely at 10 pm on September 9th. Tickets then went on sale at the previously announced time of 10 am on September 10th. Jazz at Lincoln Center is in the process of investigating how this occurred and what arrangements may be made to honor each ticket purchased, and will provide an update as quickly as possible. Neither JK Rowling nor Little Brown and Company are responsible for this situation. Jazz at Lincoln Center apologizes for any inconvenience.

But as of 11 a.m. Tuesday morning it reads:

Due to a security breach, tickets for the J. K. Rowling event on 10/16/12 were made available prematurely at 10 pm on September 9th. Tickets then went on sale at the previously announced time of 10 am on September 10th. Jazz at Lincoln Center is in the process of investigating how this occurred and what arrangements may be made to honor each ticket purchased, and will provide an update as quickly as possible. Neither JK Rowling nor Little Brown and Company are responsible for this situation. Jazz at Lincoln Center apologizes for any inconvenience.

Yikes. I don’t even want to imagine that this actually happened but could a Rowling fan have made the early sale happen to insure they got a ticket? A “security breach” could mean many things of course, it could be completely unrelated to the Rowling event, but it’s a bad thing for fans either way.

A master hacker Potterhead sounds a little far-fetched to me, but anything is possible! What are your theories?

Major J. K. Rowling interview scheduled

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J. K. Rowling is soon to release her new book, The Casual Vacancy. So of course, tons of important shows have been setting up interviews with her. This particular interview, brought to you by Australian ABC, will be premiering the day the book comes out! Brought to you by Snitch Seeker.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s sole Australian interview to discuss her life after the completion of the series and the upcoming release of her first book for adults, The Casual Vacancy, will be with reporter Jennifer Byrne for their ABC network. The special, called “JK Rowling: Life After Potter,” will air on ABC1, at 8pm Australian local time on September 27, 2012 – the day of the book’s release. We will have the interview here as soon as it is online.

…Rowling is already scheduled for a handful of interviews, broadcast and print, in the United States, including ABC’s Nightline, World News and Good Morning America, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. No word yet on who will be interviewing the author in her home nation of the UK.

Who’s going to watch it? I know I am.

J.K. Rowling reveals “The Casual Vacancy” cover!

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Yeah, you heard right.

According to Entertainment Online, Rowling premiered the cover this morning (yesterday, who live in the UK).

“Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems,” the synopsis reads. “And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?”

And, the cover.
(That little blurb of Rowling in not part of the cover. FYI.)
What do you guys think? Are you excited for Rowling’s new “adult” novel?
Read the full article here!

The Casual Vacancy – Rowling’s new adult novel

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Exciting stuff happening! Our beloved queen, J.K. Rowling is back in the business of writing, and her new (and first) adult novel! Here’s some information about it!

Little Brown Book Group:

Little, Brown Book Group announces that the new novel for adults by J.K. Rowling is entitled The Casual Vacancy.  The book will be published worldwide in the English language in hardback, ebook, unabridged audio download and on CD on Thursday 27th September 2012.

The Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

Blackly comic, thought-provoking and constantly surprising, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

And you know what’s even more exciting about this news? The book is coming out soon! September 27, 2012! Woo!