adaptation mania

There are a number of book-to-film adaptations about to be released that are of interest:

• Hollywood producers think they can remain faithful to an adaptation of Milton's 12,000 line blank verse poem, Paradise Lost. In the words of the production company, ""Paradise Lost represents the epitome of mythology in that it is the oldest myth with a capital M." I am overwhelmed by faith in this project.

• Responding to last week's Tristram Shandy post, A Fool in the Forest tells us that it will also soon be hitting the big screen in all its cock & bull glory.

• Moving into the modern age, Richard Linklater has begun shooting an adaptation of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: "In September, The Austin American-Statesman reported that the drama, written by Linklater and Schlosser and starring Catalina Sandino Moreno ('Maria Full of Grace'), is hiding under the sheep's clothing of a pseudonym. The false name - 'Coyote' - was chosen, the newspaper said, to help the production gain access to franchise restaurants and other industry locations that might be off-limits if the movie's true source material were known."

• A few years back, I read Myla Goldberg's Bee Season, loved it, and foisted it on everyone I knew. Now it too will be coming to a theater near you, starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche.