Bow Chica Wow No: Universal sues over Fifty Shades porn

Apparently not all is right in Fiftyville, as Universal has their knickers in a twist over a porn version of Fifty Shades of Grey entitled Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX adaptation. I know, creative title, right? My first thought upon hearing this was that Universal needs to lighten up since a porn adaptation of the title is inevitable and from some angles, porn is pretty much the only way you can have a true adaptation of the books without the MPAA going insane.

It's fairly normal for the adult film industry to create versions of mainstream things, normally based off of TV shows and movies but occasionally dabbles in other popular things. They usually slap a "pardody" label on the title and insert a few lame jokes at the expense of the original idea, which allows them to skate by as a parody. It's something that isn't always liked, but is generally ignored and tolerated by the owners of the original product/idea.

The difference with this one? Evidently they decided against the parody angle and straight up adapted book one and parts of book two of the Fifty Shades trilogy. If this is the case then Universal does have the right to sue the company that made the film and keep it off of the shelves. Part of me still thinks it's silly since it won't harm the sales of the movie if it ever actually gets made (which I don't think it will), but another part of me knows that you can't really slide on stuff like this because in the end it's still a blatant copyright violation.

All I know is that the clicking you hear is probably the sound of a million keyboards looking around to see if there is a leaked copy of the movie on the internet. It looks like it was available for a brief period of time, but has been pulled off the market.

Further reading:
*'Fifty Shades of Grey' Porn Adaptation Sued by Universal

The Hunger Game's Prim rocks my socks!

I've never read the books in the Hunger Game trilogy, but they're definitely in my TBR pile. The upcoming release date has me literally salivating for this movie.

Why?

Because it's nice to see a movie where the heroine looks like she kicks some butt. Granted, I haven't read the books, but Prim seems to be a girl that's very much wanting to stand on her own two feet. This is pretty refreshing when you consider that female characters are usually love interests first and assuming they're allowed to be as such, take-charge females second. What's scary is how often the female lead is made into one of these characters regardless of what her original role was in the books.

Don't believe me? Look at adaptations of well known books. Compare the roles of the book and movie characters. In Jurassic Park the character of Ellie is made into a love interest for the male lead whereas in the book she was just one of Grant's coworkers. While this was done to give her more screen time, I couldn't help but get frustrated that Hollywood was only willing/able to give her screen time if she was hot for the bod of one of the main characters. Even in movies where the female leads are pretty tough, they're almost always played down in favor of the male characters. For example, Alexa Vega in Spy Kids was portrayed as a take charge character, but seemed to play second fiddle to Daryl Sabara's character in most of the movies. (She had a more dominant role in the first one, but Sabara seemed to be the main focus.)

Seriously Hollywood, what gives? Women watch movies. Women love buying products. We don't mind romances, but why is it that every female character in action/suspense/supernatural (any movie that isn't a comedy or drama) movies tend to be love interests or weaker secondary characters? Why can't we have a mainstream movie where the female characters are just as kick butt (if not more so) than the male leads? I'm not asking for you to have every movie to have female characters that are non-romantic interests and are Rambina incarnate, just to have movies where the female characters are tough, aren't played down in favor of male characters, and occasionally can play alongside the men without having to boink/smooch/lust after one of them in order to fit in with the group.

That's why I'm so glad to see this movie being made. I'm aware that Prim has a love interest in the movie and I want to stress that I'm not anti-romance in movies. I'm just glad that the movie seems to have a female character that appears to be the focus of attention and is just as tough as the guys are. It sets a valuable example for young women in general: that we can be just as good as guys are, if not better.

It's a good time for book adaptations!

Hi all!

I just wanted to gush about two upcoming adaptations that are highly anticipated. One is Game of Thrones, a historical high fantasy that's heavy on the plot as well as full of awesome.


It's full of just about everything- love, hate, revenge, power plays... it's even got dragons! (Well, not in the first season maybe, but soon in the series!) The only drawback is that the author hasn't finished the series, but hopefully the April release date for the HBO series will help speed him along!

The other one is a book that I've yet to read, Hunger Games. This movie adaptation pits teenagers against each other, something that those familiar with the Japanese book/movie/manga Battle Royale will be highly familiar with. It's an intriguing idea & I'm really looking forward to seeing it!