Ewan McGregor recently wrapped filming for the pilot of The Corrections based on Jonathan Franzen’s 2001 novel for HBO. Directed by Noah Baumbach, it also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dianne Wiest, Chris Cooper and Rhys Ifans.  UPDATE: Project cancelled.

No news on when the pilot will air, but presumably it will be soon. If it is successful, the series will begin filming in New York in June. The plan is for an ambitious four seasons of ten episodes each.

MacGregor stars in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, based on the novel by Paul Torday, which opened in seven cities on Friday.

The press is speculating on whether the four-hour ABC mini-series Titanic (April 14 and 15) will live up to James Cameron’s hugely successful 1997 movie (which returns to the big screen in 3-D in April).

The real question may be whether it lives up to Downton Abbey; Julian Fellowes created both for the UK’s ITV (The Guardian refers to it as “Downton-on-Sea”).

A flood of Titanic-themed books is on its way (when James Cameron’s movie came out fifteen years ago, it was credited with selling thousands of books on the subject; the joke in publishing circles was that Titanic was the “tide that raised all boats”).

Cameron will lead a new two-hour special called Titanic: The Final Word With James Cameron on The National Geographic Channel on April 8th.

Dozens of suggestions have been offered for the poor bereft souls who are longing for more Downton Abbey (a third season has begun shooting. It is scheduled to air in the UK in Sept and the US in Jan). In an unusual dip into the past, this week’s People magazine recommends John Galworthy’s The Forsythe Saga (CORRECTION: in an earlier version of this story, we misidentified the recommendation as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon; People recommends that book for fans of The Artist).

Below are some of the other lists that have appeared (none of them include The Forsythe Saga):

“RA Crossroads: What To Watch (and Read) After Downton Abbey,” Neal Wyatt, Library Journal — focuses on DVD’s.

BiblioCommons, “Waiting for Downton Abbey,” by Anne Rouyer, Seward Park Library, NYPL — focuses on books.

Flavorwire.com, “Essential WWI Novels for ‘Downton Abbey’ Fans” — there are some extraordinary leaps on this list; will Downton fans really be interested in Johnny Got His Gun?

The Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver included some interesting choices in their Downton-themed promotion, including To Marry an English Lord, by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace (Workman, 1989; reissued in trade pbk in March). The show’s creator, Julian Fellowes, has said it was a major inspiration (full list is here; scroll down to the sixth story on the newsletter). Libraries that own it are showing holds on few copies.

Looking ahead, PBS Masterpiece returns to WWI, beginning April 22, with the BBC’s two-part Birdsong, based on the book by Sebastian Faulkes. The British tabloid, The Daily Star, referred to it as a “raunchy adaptation” and an “X-rated hit.” British critics applauded the first episode, but were divided over the second. The audiences, while strong, were not as large as those for Downton Abbey.

A tie-in edition is coming in April (check here for EarlyWord‘s full list of tie-ins to upcoming movies & tv series)

Birdsong (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage International) Sebastian Faulks Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 496 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2012-04-03) ISBN / EAN: 0345802896 / 9780345802897

If you haven’t already, you will soon begin seeing the ad on the left in magazines and on billboards.

What does GCB stand for? Originally, it was Good Christian Bitches, from the book this new tv series is based on. ABC got cold feet, however, and changed it to Good Christian Belles and, then, in a burst of creativity, reduced it to textese.

The network says the plot “Centers on Amanda Vaughn, a recently divorced mother of two who, to get a fresh start, moves back to the affluent Dallas neighborhood where she grew to find herself in the whirling midst of salacious gossip, Botox, and fraud.”

Starring Kristin Chenoweth and Annie Potts, it premieres Sun., March 4, 10 p.m. EST on ABC. It is the network’s attempt to replace the lucrative Desperate Housewives, which ends in May.

The book, originally published by Brown Books in Dallas, was reissued last month by Hyperion. Booklist, reviewed it, saying,  “Chick lit tackles the Christian Right, with amusingly predictable results in Gatlin’s solid freshman effort,” but LJ Express said, “The characters are obsessed with labels and bank balances, and the book is a tiresome exercise in unfettered consumption. Of possible interest to Texans who may enjoy identifying the thinly veiled Dallas environs. Other than that, there’s nothing to like here.”

Some libraries are showing holds on light ordering.

Good Christian Bitches Kim Gatlin Retail Price: $14.99 Trade Pbk: 306 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2012-01-17) ISBN / EAN: 9781401310707/1401310702

The popular British WWI series, Downton Abbey concluded last night. The Hollywood Reporter estimates the show is “closer to a critical mass than anything that’s ever come out of PBS’ Masterpiece Classics franchise.” It also served to push three related books up Amazon’s sales rankings:

#15 (from #31) The World of Downton Abbey, by Jessica Fellowes, (Macmillan/ St. Martin’s)

#26 (from #81) Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey:The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle, by The Countess of Carnarvon (RH/Broadway Books)

#385 (from #562) Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired “Upstairs, Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey,”  by Margaret Powell, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s)

Work is underway on the third season. Prepare for sparks between Shirley MacLaine, who joins the cast as the mother of Elizabeth McGovern’s Lady Grantham, and Maggie Smith, who plays the prickly Dowager Countess (see some of her best moments to date in the video below, with appropriate background music).

Watch Downton Abbey: The Best Maggie Moments on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

While Americans were watching the end of this series, British audiences were watching the end of another period drama, Call The Midwife, set in the 1950’s. It’s been a surprise hit, topping the ratings of Downton Abbey and regarded as the BBC’s most successful series since 2001. It is adapted from the best selling memoirs by Jennifer Worth about her experiences as a midwife in the slums of East London in the 1950s.

The tie-in is at #1 on Amazon UK’s sales rankings, followed closely by the author’s three other titles. The first book in the series was published here in 2009; the others are not available in the US.

The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times Jennifer Worth Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2009-04-07) ISBN / EAN: 0143116231 / 9780143116233

A U.S. release date for the series has not been announced yet.

The next British imports to PBS  are based on two Charles Dickens’ titles. Great Expectations, with Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham, runnning April 1 and 8, followed by The Mystery of Edwin Drood, on April 15.

Masterpiece returns to WWI, beginning April 22, with the BBC’s two-part Birdsong, based on the book by Sebastian Faulkes. The British tabloid, The Daily Star, referred to it as a “raunchy adaptation” and an “X-rated hit.” Critics applauded the first episode, but were divided over the second. The audiences, while strong, was not a large as those for Downton Abbey.

A tie-in edition is coming in April (check here for EarlyWord‘s full list of tie-ins to upcoming movies & tv series)

Birdsong (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage International) Sebastian Faulks Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 496 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2012-04-03) ISBN / EAN: 0345802896 / 9780345802897

On the Colbert Report “TA-night”, the man who has made yoga controversial (and his book a best seller; it’s currently at #41 Amazon’s rankings and has heavy holds in libraries), William J. Broad.

The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards William J Broad Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2012-02-07) ISBN / EAN: 1451641427 / 9781451641424

Coming to the show on Thursday, the woman who brings introverts their due, Susan Cain. Her book, Quiet, debuted is #5 on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction best seller list after two weeks.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking Susan Cain Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 266 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-01-24) ISBN : 9780307352149

RH Audio; ebook and audio on OverDrive

On the weekend before the first day of filming the adaptation of her book The Host, Stephenie Meyer updates her “awesome” fans on her last year of movie making.

About the director of The Host, Andrew Niccol, she says,

It’s somewhat of a dream to have the creator and director of my favorite sci-fi film (Gattaca) helming this movie. I love the script he’s written, I love his beautiful vision, and I love working with him.

She is also producing an adaptation of Austenland, which wrapped this summer. It seems it was a totally enjoyable experience. She lived in the English countryside, worked with her “bestie” as well as many other “sweet and lovely” and “unbelievably funny” people who continually made laugh herself “into hysterics.”

The movie is now in post-production but no release date has been set. It is based on the Shannon Hale’s first book for adults, Austenland, (Bloomsbury USA, 2007) about a woman (played in the movie by Keri Russell) who tries to overcome her debilitating infatuation with Mr. Darcy (specifically, Colin Firth’s version in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) by going to an English resort that caters to the Austen-obsessed. Keri Russell stars, with JJ Field (as a Mr. Darcy stand-in), Jennifer Coolidge (as Miss Elizabeth Charming, another Austenland guest) and Jane Seymour (Austenland’s hostess).

A sequel, Midnight in Austenland (Bloomsbury USA), was released on Jan 31.

Meyer also writes about the 101 days she spent on the set of Breaking Dawn, Parts One and Two (or, “BD 1&2”), for which she also plays producer. It’s refreshing to hear that, while  most of the experience was “magic”  and “amazing,” there were a few rough patches.

The second trailer for HBO’s Game Change, based on the book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (Harper), has just been released, giving us a longer look at Julianne Moore’s portrayal of Sarah Palin. The movie debuts on cable March 10. It also stars Woody Harrelson as campaign strategist Steve Schmidt and Ed Harris as John McCain.

The book was a best seller in 2010; many libraries have copies on their shelves.
 

Stephen Colbert bravely sat down with Maurice Sendak, who repaid him by calling him a “man of little imagination” (and Newt Gingrich an “idiot”).

Part One:

Part Two (in which Sendak calls Colbert an “idiot” — watch to the end to find out what he thinks of eBooks):

We’ve missed Jon Stewart’s attention to books while his show has been on hiatus. But he came back last night, interviewing Elizabeth Dowling Taylor about her book, A Slave in the White House, (Macmillan/Palgrave). As a result, the book rose on Amazon sales rankings, to #220 (from #29,478).

Tonight, Stewart features Craig Shirley, author of the forthcoming authorized bio of Newt Gingrich. UPDATE: the book that Stewart and Shirley discussed was the  author’s earlier title, December, 1941. The following title appears to have been delayed.

Citizen Newt: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Speaker Gingrich Craig Shirley Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Thomas Nelson – (2012-01-31) ISBN / EAN: 9781595554482/1595554483

Season two of the BBC series, Downton Abbey, debuts on PBS this Sunday. In addition to the companion book, The World of Downton Abbey, by Jessica Fellowes, (Macmillan/ St. Martin’s,12/06; more on it here), fans can read about Highclere Castle, the setting for the series in Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey (more about it in the Daily Beast).

Take a tour of the castle, below (if this whets your appetite, more videos are available on YouTube).

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle The Countess of Carnarvon Retail Price: $15.99 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Broadway – (2011-12-27) ISBN / EAN: 0770435629 / 9780770435622

For a look at how the other half lived, there’s a reissue of Below Stairs by Margaret Powell. James Fellows, the creator of Downton Abbey blurbs the new edition, saying,

Margaret Powell was the first person outside my family to introduce me to that world, so near and yet seemingly so far away, where servants and their employers would live their vividly different lives under one roof.  Her memories, funny and poignant, angry and charming, haunted me until, many years later, I made my own attempts to capture those people for the camera.  I certainly owe her a great debt.

Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired “Upstairs, Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey” Margaret Powell Retail Price: $22.99 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Macmillan/St. Martin’s – (2012-01) ISBN / EAN: 1250005442 / 9781250005441

Next year brings not only dueling adaptations of Snow White, but of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, in the form of a BBC TV miniseries and a movie.

The miniseries stars Gillian Anderson (she’s had experience with Dickens, having starred in the BBC’s Bleak House in 2005) as Miss Havisham and Ray Winstone as Magwitch. The movie, currently being filmed, stars Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham and Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch.

Both the movie and the miniseries dare to depart from Dickens and give the story a new ending (but then, Dickens himself provided two), which has caused a bit of controversy in Great Britain (the American press has so far been silent on that issue).

The two-part miniseries was broadcast in Great Britain over Christmas and will appear on PBS Masterpiece beginning April 1.

At 43, Gillian Anderson is the youngest ever to play Miss Havisham. The Telegraph quotes a Dickens expert who calls her “a cougar rather than a crone.”

But then, the movie Miss Havisham, Helena Bonham Carter is just two years older (Anderson in the role on the left, below; Bonham Carter on the right).

The actor who plays Pip in the movie, Jeremy Irvine, is currently receiving attention for his starring role in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.

Expect to hear much more about Dickens next year, the 200th anniversary of his birth, including a BBC production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which premieres on PBS on April 15.

Season two of the BBC series, Downton Abbey, debuts on PBS on January 8. The return is heralded on NPR’s All Things Considered.

NPR talks to Jessica Fellows, the author of a companion book, The World of Downton Abbey. She describes the extraordinary changes that occurred during the period of the show, just before and during WW I. She says part of the fascination of  this era is the remarkable changes it brought for women, “So many men got called up to war, far more than ever before…girls [like those in the series] had had a very mapped out future — they’d be at home, have the coming-out season, then they would be debutantes, then they would find the right man and go off  to run a country house somewhere. Suddenly, that all changed.”

The World of Downton Abbey Jessica Fellowes Retail Price: $29.99 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Macmillan/ St. Martin’s – (2011-12-06) ISBN / EAN: 1250006341 / 9781250006349

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Watch Downton Abbey I Wonder Preview on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

It’s tough enough to portray a well-known person on the screen. Julianne Moore, who plays Sarah Palin in the HBO movie Game Change, faces the additional burden of competing with Tina Fey’s well-known impersonation of the vice presidential candidate.

Below is a glimpse of how she does.

Ed Harris plays John McCain and Woody Harrelson is the campaign strategist Steven Schmidt. The movie, based on the best selling book by Time magazine’s Mark Halperin and New York magazine’s John Heilemann, airs on HBO in March.

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime John Heilemann, Mark Halperin Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 0061733636 / 9780061733635

The two-hour series premiere of The Firm arrives on NBC on January 8th. Below, it’s introduced by author John Grisham, the producer and members of the cast.

The series begins ten years after the book. The original book is being released as a tie-in. It was made into a movie in 1993, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Sydney Pollack.

The Firm (Movie Tie-in Edition) John Grisham Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 432 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2012-01-03) ISBN / EAN: 0345534964 / 9780345534965