WINTER’S TALE To Open Valentine’s Day
Winter’s Tale, based on Mark Helprin’s 1983 novel has been set for release on Valentine’s Day next year. It stars Colin Farrell, William Hurt, Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Jennifer Connelly and Eva Marie Saint. The trailer hasn’t been released yet, but a series of stills from the set are available here.
The film’s director, Akiva Goldsman. worked for years to get financing for the movie. Shooting finally started last year, only to be delayed by Hurricane Sandy.
The novel is complicated, with elements of magical realism, time travel and science fiction. The NYT book reviewer, ater several paragraphs trying to describe the book, finally despaired, saying, “We’re now scarcely more than a tenth of our way through Winter’s Tale, and my plot summary is a tissue of (to me) painful omissions.” He also despaired of doing the writing justice, saying he found himself, “nervous, to a degree I don’t recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance . . . Not for some time have I read a work as funny, thoughtful, passionate or large-souled. Rightly used, it could inspire as well as comfort us. Winter’s Tale is a great gift at an hour of great need.”
Warner Bros. describes it simply as “a story of miracles, crossed destinies, and the age-old battle between good and evil.”
Three other movies based on books will open on that day, Endless Love, based on the 1979 novel by Scott Spencer, The Maze Runner, based on the YA novel by James Dashner and Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters based on the first in a series of six YA novels by Richelle Mead.