This may be shunted to the Movies and TV forum, but since it's based on a leading YA novel of recent years, I'm posting it here.
Given how much Hollywood is grabbing just about every YA/MG fantasy franchise with both hands right now, it's nice to see a film of a contemporary/realist YA - albeit one with no possibility of a sequel! They obviously thought the title of Jenny Downham's novel wasn't commercial though, so the title of the film is not Before I Die but Now is Good. It's out in the UK on 25 May. It has a US PG-13 rating, so presumably will be seen in the USA at some point.
Dakota Fanning plays Tessa and Kaya Scodelario plays Zoey. Jeremy Irvine plays Adam. Judging by the trailer that's online - see the film's IMDB entry - Fanning's English accent is decent. The trailer does heavily emphasise the film as a love story between Tessa and Adam and doesn't mention the friendship between Tessa and Zoey which is just as important in the novel, if not more so. It remains to be seen if that's the case with the film. The writer/director Ol Parker has some track record as a writer but this is only his second film as director (after Imagine Me & You, from 2005, which I haven't seen).
I read the novel in a day and was in a fragile state for several days afterwards. I always thought this would make a good film, so let's hope they haven't screwed this up. (After all, there are precedents - Dying Young was a complete stinker from around the time when Julia Roberts was the biggest star around. Some people have mentioned My Life Without Me which has its admirers but which I thought was sentimental poo pretending to be edgy.)
So, fingers crossed!
Given how much Hollywood is grabbing just about every YA/MG fantasy franchise with both hands right now, it's nice to see a film of a contemporary/realist YA - albeit one with no possibility of a sequel! They obviously thought the title of Jenny Downham's novel wasn't commercial though, so the title of the film is not Before I Die but Now is Good. It's out in the UK on 25 May. It has a US PG-13 rating, so presumably will be seen in the USA at some point.
Dakota Fanning plays Tessa and Kaya Scodelario plays Zoey. Jeremy Irvine plays Adam. Judging by the trailer that's online - see the film's IMDB entry - Fanning's English accent is decent. The trailer does heavily emphasise the film as a love story between Tessa and Adam and doesn't mention the friendship between Tessa and Zoey which is just as important in the novel, if not more so. It remains to be seen if that's the case with the film. The writer/director Ol Parker has some track record as a writer but this is only his second film as director (after Imagine Me & You, from 2005, which I haven't seen).
I read the novel in a day and was in a fragile state for several days afterwards. I always thought this would make a good film, so let's hope they haven't screwed this up. (After all, there are precedents - Dying Young was a complete stinker from around the time when Julia Roberts was the biggest star around. Some people have mentioned My Life Without Me which has its admirers but which I thought was sentimental poo pretending to be edgy.)
So, fingers crossed!
