TOP 100 BOOK SITES
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| Interview: Dave Eggers Dave Eggers insists that there's still hope for print journalismWould you pay $16 for a newspaper? Well, the San Francisco Panorama, out next month, is no ordinary paper. The broadsheet forms this quarter's issue of McSweeney's, a tastemaking literary journal founded in 1998 by Dave Eggers. Unfailingly hip and prodigious (his latest book is The Wild Things, an adaptation of the Maurice Sendak story, and he co-wrote the forthcoming Where the Wild Things Are film), Eggers is now on a crusade for print journalism…Why a newspaper? "I love papers. There's a downbeat atmosphere about the future of the form so we thought we could demonstrate some things newspapers do uniquely well: the main way they can continue to exist is to differentiate themselves as much as possible from the internet."You've promised to cheer people up if they're despairing about the printed word: where does your optimism come from? "Paper is a uniquely beautiful format, more so than the web, I think: you need to invest in the aesthetics. We're resurrecting practices from 100 years ago – like printing full-page comics. We want to give young people ways to engage with it, feel ownership of it."McSweeney's isn't synonymous with hard news. Has it been a steep learning curve? "I come from a news background, but yes, the editorial process has been very different and we've tapped friends from the newspaper world for guidance." Why such emphasis on local news? "The local angle is crucial because that's why newspapers should exist. I thought we should investigate the Bay Bridge, this enormous project that's taking far longer than expected and is costing billions. So we unleashed Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Bob Porterfield on it. While he was investigating, part of the bridge fell and it had to be closed. A couple of days ago a truck flew off and landed 200 feet below, killing the driver. Now everyone's interested in how the bridge was designed, how these flaws have come about, and where all the money's going."Can newspaper editors take heart from this? "We're inviting them to borrow any ideas they want, to steal anything they can. Anything that helps any paper stay afloat."NewspapersNewspapers & magazinesHermione Hobyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Paranormal Activity proves lo-fi thrills pay off | Charles Gant at the UK box office The Twilight franchise may still be packing them in, but Oren Peli's low-budget shocker shows that big (and scary) things come in small packages, tooThe winner #1It's rare for a film to drop 63% from the previous weekend and it still be considered a good result. But you can certainly make that case with The Twilight Saga: New Moon. In other words, forget about the percentages, just focus on the cascade of cash. By any yardstick, more than £20m in 10 days is a big number. After just two weekends on release, New Moon is already the ninth-biggest hit of 2009, and will very soon overtake the likes of Monsters vs Aliens, Star Trek and The Hangover to land sixth place for the year. The original Twilight movie took less than £5m in its first 10 days, so the sequel is so far running at quadruple the pace of its predecessor. The only film this year to reach the £20m benchmark quicker is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The winner #2As recently as a few months ago, the suggestion that a film called Paranormal Activity would soon open with £3.59m would have had us scrambling to IMDb the names Oren Peli, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. But the previously unknown director and actors have done just that with their micro-budget lo-fi horror, grabbing the No 2 spot. Preview takings account for over £1m of the haul, but the opening still earns its place alongside the debuts of District 9 (£2.29m) and Cloverfield (£3.49m) – to name a couple of recent innovative genre pictures. The result is a timely boost for local distributor Icon, which saw disappointing results for recent titles Creation and Pandorum, and is gearing up to launch its awards-bait quadruple threat Nowhere Boy, The Road, A Single Man and Precious. The critical underdogsWith a 25% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, Law Abiding Citizen was hardly a critics' favourite, but the grisly vigilante flick shrugged off the one- and two-star attacks to post a respectable opening of £1.49m. It's a big advance on Gerard Butler's previous actioner, Gamer, which opened a couple of months ago with £642,000 including £194,000 in previews. It's also highly comparable with RocknRolla's debut in September 2008 (£1.57m) – a Butler film that benefited from additional marketable elements in its director (Guy Ritchie) and ensemble cast. Law Abiding Citizen co-stars Jamie Foxx. Debbie Isitt's festive comedy Nativity! also attracted its share of critical flak (London's Time Out was particularly vicious), although a 48% Fresh rating reflects support from mainstream titles such as the News of the World, the Mirror, the Mail and Heat magazine. Family films tend to require child pester-power to propel bums on to seats, and it was not guaranteed that kids would want to see a film about a school nativity play. But, evidently, they do, and Nativity! posted a decent £794,000 opening – a step up from the £635,000 debut from 300 screens for Isitt's previous improvised comedy, Confetti, in May 2006. As long as Nativity! can hang on to its screens through December into the school holiday period, decent returns should accrue. The arthouse bundleThe Coen brothers' A Serious Man continues to be the premier draw for upscale audiences but there are plenty of other titles fighting for air at the arthouses. At the more mainstream end, The Men Who Stare At Goats has quietly notched up a healthy £4m, while An Education now stands at a creditable £1.77m. For the first time since its release, Jane Campion's Bright Star has taken more money on a weekend than An Education (£47,000 v £46,000), although the Keats romance is no danger of closing the gap in total box-office: with £852,000 grossed so far, it's over £900,000 behind its rival. The White Ribbon is a couple of places below An Education in the weekend chart, followed immediately by new entrants The Bunny and the Bull and Séraphine (see Other Openers, below). Meanwhile, Glorious 39, expanding at the weekend from one screen to 37 cinemas, picked up a not-so-shameful £73,000. All of these films might have done better had they not been competing with each other, but conventional industry wisdom does not favour mid-to-late December for engaging busy older audiences, making November a busy period for arthouse releases. And the market gets even more competitive with the arrival of the big awards contenders in January and February.  The futureWith five movies grossing £1m-plus at the weekend, the market overall was a very healthy 121% up on the equivalent frame from 2008, when Four Christmases topped the chart. It's hard to imagine the picture will be quite so rosy this coming weekend, although animation Planet 51 has already posted some decent preview takings and The Descent: Part 2 might serve a horror audience eager for entertainment significantly more grisly than the spooky goings-on in Paranormal Activity. The Box, from Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly, is an unknown quantity; evidence from the US suggests it is far from a crowdpleaser. As for Zac Efron vehicle Me and Orson Welles, the young actor proved highly commercially potent in 17 Again earlier this year; whether this Richard Linklater period romance will appeal to Zac fans is a question that will be answered very soon.  UK top 101. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, £4,303,257 from 504 sites. Total: £20,320,6862. Paranormal Activity, £3,593,762 from 394 sites (New)3. A Christmas Carol, £1,935,283 from 455 sites. Total: £11,333,9784. 2012, £1,834,817 from 465 sites. Total: £16,217,3795. Law Abiding Citizen, £1,488,143 from 353 sites (New)6. Nativity!, £794,314 from 346 sites (New)7. Harry Brown, £333,459 from 319 sites. Total: £3,519,2758. Up, £327,174 from 390 sites. Total: £33,963,5869. De Dana Dhan, £308,029 from 48 sites (New)10. A Serious Man, £243,964 from 51 sites. Total: £744,239 How the other openers didBunny and the Bull, 27 screens, £27,480Séraphine, 14 screens, £20,331Naan Avanillai 2, 3 screens, £4,942Mr Right, 1 screen, £540Stephenie MeyerCoen brothersJane CampionCharles Gantguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
The Smart One: John Lennon A haunting, mammoth, terrific biography of John Lennon. feeds.nytimes.com |
Mika Brzezinski: Her Way The MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski’s memoir explains her unusual childhood and her struggle to build a TV career while raising a family. feeds.nytimes.com |
The Book Club With Just One Member For all the social reading forums today, a certain kind of fiction lover will share what’s on the printed page only with a flashlight. feeds.nytimes.com |