As a kind of update to the bad casting thread below, a reminder that V For Vendetta is being filmed, starring James Purefoy and Natalie Portman and the film’s official website has now been launched. (thanks to Alister for the link)

Not much on the website but the initial press conference so far, but that’s already got me quite hopeful that this is a film that will not require CRACCA intervention. First, the V logo is now the same one as the book - early posters had it as just a V within a circle, but now it’s back with the resemblance to the anarchistic ‘A’ symbol. Also, James Purefoy remarks that he will not be seen without the mask at all in the film, so they’ve avoided the Judge Dredd effect and he and Portman both seem willing to get into the characters as they appear in the original.

One rumour doing the rounds is that the backstory has been changed, to place it in an alternate history where the Nazis won WW2, but there’s no mention of that and both Natalie Portman and James McTeigue, the director, refer to it as being set in the near future, so it’s fingers crossed time while they build up expectations for the inevitable disappointment.

The faith-based approach:

Christian sect which considers mobile telephones and computers to be the work of the devil has been praised by the Office for Standards in Education for providing good teaching.

The Exclusive Brethren has created an evangelical education empire of 43 private schools to teach children “away from damaging influences” in the state
sector.

Schools run by the secretive sect, which models itself on strict Biblical teachings, are spread across the UK but are mainly in the south of England. Pupils are banned from using modern technology.

More about the Exclusive Brethren here and as they’re banned from using the internet, say whatever you like about them in the comments. (Thanks to Rob for the link)

Borrowing from Harry’s Dress Down Friday, let’s have a bit of audience participation, and keeping with the CRACCA theme and to mark the release of Constantine today, the subject is:

Hollywood is adapting a book or graphic novel you love into a movie. What’s the worst possible casting choices they can make?

Followingon from a comment over here, I’m going for Watchmen starring Keanu Reeves as Dr Manhattan (’I’m just a puppet who can see the strings. Woah.‘) and Ben Affleck as Nite Owl. Your suggestions?

The prize is being able to say ‘I truly am in hell’ when, inevitably, at least one suggestion becomes true in the future.

All you need to know about Constantine, by my fellow CRACCA, Chicken Yoghurt:

In the comic, John Constantine is a blond cockney, modelled on, of all people, Sting. In the movie, he’s a dark-haired American modelled on, of all things, a shop dummy. In the comic, he uses his wit, charm and sometimes sheer dumb luck to escape his predicaments. In the movie he has a crucifix that fires magic bullets.

So, the latest Birtian Blairite wheeze gets leaked:

Tony Blair is considering plans to clip the wings of the Treasury and the senior civil service in an attempt to drive through radical reforms in a third Labour term.

The prime minister has asked his adviser, the former BBC director general Lord Birt, to consider plans for the abolition of the Cabinet Office, the traditional power base of the civil service. The office, which is run by the head of the civil service, the cabinet secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull, could become part of a revamped Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Lord Birt is also looking at the idea of removing key responsibilities from the Treasury as part of a renewed effort to break the political and administrative resistance to the kind of radical reforms Mr Blair feels have been diluted or delayed in his first two terms.

So, a Labour Government, convinced that the structure and inherent nature of the Civil Service prevents it’s reforming ideals from coming to fruit plans to reform the structure, including reducing the power of the Treasury, and it all connects to the ambitions of a Mr Brown, always disappointed that he never got to be party leader. Yes, it’s 1964 all over again.

A few days later Brown did decide to become Wilson’s deputy and work with him. When Labour won the 1964 election a year later, Wilson gave Brown the new post of Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. This was at the head of a new department, the Department of Economic Affairs or DEA, which was to promote economic growth through a national plan. The DEA was created deliberately as a counterweight to the Treasury, which Labour distrusted.

Yet again, John Birt proves incapable of having an original idea.