Weekend Update!

Welcome to Friday.  It's a big weekend, with The Hobbit opening in the United States to some serious acclaim and a lot of fan excitement.  Although I plan to see it, I won't wait in line at midnight Thursday (about the time this post publishes, in point of fact).  I waited in line for Fellowship, Two Towers and Return of the King.  I've done my fair share of stomping in the cold with people dressed up like Gandolf, Legolas, and Aragorn. 

While each of those experiences was fun, and I love the movies, I can't seem to find the energy to repeat it for The Hobbit.  I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that I haven't read the book.  A lot of people tell me The Hobbit is better story; stuff happens, and there's a dragon.  Yeah, but G.R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones was supposed to have dragons, too, and so far it's a whole heaping load of boring.  So dragons aren't big sellers for me.  I also suspect that the dragon won't make much of an appearance until the third film. 

Yeah, you read that right.  The Hobbit is being released as a trilogy, which means another nine-hour epic watching people walk from one end of the world to the other.  So while I might see this film this weekend, it'll be a matinee showing.

I am, however, more than a little excited for a couple of movies making an appearance in the next few weeks.  Jack Reacher stars Tom Cruise as some sort of hard-as-iron ex-military police officer hunting down bad guys in New York.  Not an altogether original concept, but the trailer makes it look good.  Also, Les Miserables is coming out Christmas Day, along with Django Unchained (the D is silent).   Les Mis is my favorite novel and I haven't seen the musical, but this looks good.  Also, Tarantino is a pretty big draw, so Django is a no-brainer.

Keep an eye out for Zero Dark Thirty, which is being released December 21st. 

In the world of books, despite declining numbers, sales bounced back in October, accounting for about ten percent of the 5% increase across all retail markets.  It was recently pointed out that fourteen of the fifty top-grossing films are part of book series (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Twilight and Hunger Games), generating hundreds of millions, to billions of dollars in U.S. box office revenue.  This seems obvious in retrospect, but each of these series generated much of their revenue in large part based on the pre-existing fanbase that the books had garnered.  Expect to see more page-to-screen hits in the future.

The New York Times is getting into the ebook business; DC has successfully rebooted its superhero universe; The Barnes &Noble boycott of physical DC books from its stores has ended; Publisher's Weekly released their top 10 books of 2012; and Tor recently released their Reviewers' Choice of 2012.

I recently heard about Naughty Dog's new release "The Last of Us."  I'm a big fan of their previous games, including the Uncharted series so I was really excited to hear about this.  It looks like a new post-apocalyptic zombie game, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I'm willing to give them a shot. 

I'll leave you then with a trailer for another movie in which Tom Cruise plays a character named Jack.