In the right hands, they can be very entertaining, providing compelling back stories for characters we thought we knew well. It can be said that some of the more compelling aspects of the first Godfather film were those scenes with Robert DeNiro playing a younger Vito Corleone.

Casting and pre-production is finally underway for a “prequel” to  Tarantino gem, “Jackie Brown”. The movie will be “Switch”, the same name as the Elmore Leonard novel upon which it’s based.

John Hawkes and Mos Def will play Louis Gara and Ordell Robbie,  infamous criminal types made famous by De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson. “Switch” takes places 15 years before the Tarantino film (itself an adaptation of Leonard’s novel “Rum Punch”) and finds Louis and Ordell  kidnapping the wife of a slimey real estate broker.

We’ll likely meet the boys in prison where they first become buddies.  They plan their big score once they’re on the outside, snatching a wealthy Detroit developer’s wife for ransom. Much to their surprise, the husband isn’t all that upset nor does he want her back.   Plan B in Elmore Leonard novels tend to be outrageous and particularly violent.

The story sounds interesting, but also a bit familiar. There was a terrible comedy in the mid-80′s starring Danny DeVito and Bette Midler that had the same premise. “Ruthless People“.

De Niro and Jackson were fantastic together and compelling enough to warrant a prequel. Here’s hoping the new cast and script enhances their infamy.

Written by adult star Lorelei Lee and edgy author Stephen Elliot, (who also directs)”Cherry” is thick with gritty realism, insights and experiences of real people from within the adult industry.

What also makes this movie about porn worth a close look is that it has some genuine star power too. Heather Graham (“Boogie Nights”, “The Hangover”), James Franco (“Milk”, “127 Hours”), Lili Taylor (“Mystic Pizza“, “High Fidelity” and Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire“) all have credited, legitimate roles. This means that as the release date approaches, you’re going to hear a lot about “Cherry”.

The story isn’t the most original, but still interesting. Angelina, (played by Ashley Hinshaw), is an 18-year-old girl with a dysfunctional family looking for a way out. One morning her boyfriend (Jonny Weston) suggests she model nude for money. After a bit of coaxing she eventually does the photo shoot, using the money to run-off with her best friend (Dev Patel) to San Francisco.

In San Francisco, while a waitress in a strip club, Angelina meets Frances (James Franco), a charismatic lawyer-type who offers to introduce her to a few friends…open up a few doors. Despite the glitz, the debauchery isn’t as ideal as it seemed and Frances the Lawyer proves to be damaged as well.

Angelina, now known as “Cherry”, and delves deeper into the San Francisco porn industry under the wing of Margaret (Heather Graham) a former performer who is now on the other side of the camera. Hard to tell if this one is a cautionary tale. The trailer certainly looks promising.

*It’s interesting to note that this isn’t Franco’s only adult film foray. He’s currently filming, “Lovelace“, playing Hugh Hefner in the story of “Deep Throat”. He and Lorelei Lee are also students at NYU’s grad school.

Here’s a taste of Cherry…

Take one part Coen Bros’ re-boot of  “True Grit”,  add the eloquent vulgarity of   the prematurely departed, “Deadwood”, then a dash of backwoods alchemy and you have “The Sisters Brothers” by James DeWitt.

Eli and Charles Sisters are a notorious pair of sibling assassins making their way along the West Coast in 1851.  The Gold Rush is in full bloom, having turned “thousands of previously intelligent men and women to abandon their families and homes forever.” Eli and Charles are the muscle for ‘The Commodore’, an ornery megalomaniac ruling the territory from up in Oregon City.

At the beginning of the novel, ‘The Commodore’ assigns the boys some nasty business down in Sacramento. They’re to kill a gold prospector named Herman Kermit Warm.  The brothers have no idea why this man has earned the wrath of their employer, but it’s not really their business to worry about such things.

The novel is their vivid and remarkable, pistol-whipped journey.  They engage with the insane, wicked, ruthless and starving. From saloon to whorehouse, deep woods to the wicked streets of the Barbary Coast, the Sisters brothers proceed with deadly determination.

Seen through the eyes of Eli Sisters, who narrates with a mixture of melancholy and laconic repose. He’s a reluctant murderer — preferring to be a shopkeeper — rather than a killer, but it’s the only work he knows and it keeps him close to his brother, which he enjoys. Eli describes their ride toward Sacramento with a deadpan accounting that is at times both humorous and horrifying.

For those who like their fiction soaked in whiskey and blood , this is something you should start reading tonight.  Check out this “book trailer” put out by Harper Collins.

Previous incarnations of Catwoman always emphasized a sultry, feline-like femme fatale played by stunning women. Women who seemed to provide a dangerous bit of sexual chemistry with Batman. On television in the 60′s, it was the vivacious Eartha Kitt and then the elegant, Julie Newmar.  On the big screen it was Michelle Pfeiffer poured into a skin-tight suit that taunted the Penguin and tried to get Michael Keaton’s utility belt off in Tim Burton’s moody, “Batman Returns”(1992).  Halle Barrey would probably prefer everyone forget her turn as Catwoman in the movie by the same name. It was a try at making her a hero and turned out to be one of the worst movies of that particular decade. The outfit was nice though.

This is the third in the re-booted series directed by the supremely talented Christopher Nolan. ” The Dark Knight Rises” will star the usual roster of regulars like Michael Cain, Morgan Freeman and the caped crusader himself, Christian Bale.  Fans of the franchise began to speculate on what the next villain would be following the second blockbuster in the series, “The Dark Knight”.

Also announced is a secondary villain called Bane, to be played by  Tom Hardy (Inception)

The character was created in the early ’90s for the comic books referred to as  ‘Knightfall’.  Bane made a name for himself as the adversary who was able to break Batman’s back.  He looks like a Mexican wrestler with the crazy mask and absurd muscles (a luchador), but is apparently highly intelligent and a master of many disciplines. He’s also not as crazy as many of Batman’s villains, and has several times switched sides to work with Batman.

The show is based on the great Elmore Leonard (“Get Shorty”),  novels Pronto and Riding the Rap and a short story called  “Fire in the Hole, which coincidentally is the title of the pilot episode.  Based in Kentucky and it’s hill country, the new US Deputy Marshall, Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant, of  Deadwood fame), engages in a unique brand of justice where the bad guys can sometimes be much smarter than they look and the good guys can get pretty damn nasty. It’s a darkly humorous show as one would come to expect from Elmore Leonard’s imagination. The show is rich in compelling characters and whip smart scripts.

Go get the 1st season DVD’s and see if you agree with the DailyHelping, that “Justified” is one of last year’s five best television dramas.  You have until February 9th before the new 13 episode season begins.

This is one of those novels that can capture your attention on a variety of levels. Lethem’s prose is superior to most you will likely to read this year. His characters are uniquely crafted walking the thin line between satire and sublimely believable. Scenarios play out rich in humor or tragedy, all eventually entwined in “downtown noir”.

His hero here is Chase Insteadman, a popular fixture on Manhattan’s social scene, because of his past life as a popular child star on a classic sitcom.  His  current appeal to the  social elite of the City is  an ongoing space drama played out in the tabloids.  His fiancée, Janice, is trapped by orbiting Chinese mines while up in he International Space Station. Her notes to Chase, forwarded by NASA and re-printed in the newspaper, are riveting all by themselves.

Chase’s meets Perkus Tooth, a wild-eyed social critic whose soaring conspiratorial rants are the center pieces of long nights with some amazing pot, giant cheeseburgers, and endless pop culture references, some real, some not. It’s heady stuff and Lathem isn’t writing to entertain the lowest denominator here. It’s best not share anymore.  This is a wonderful reading experience that can at times be heartbreaking and hysterical at the very same time.  There’s love, there’s E-Bay, there’s a fog that smells like chocolate.

Reviews of the book haven’t been totally positive. No less than the New York Times wrote: that the book was “tedious and overstuffed.”  DailyHelping couldn’t disagree more.  It was a book that seemed to end too soon and it’s the flurry of detail and digressions that make the reading experience so special.  Check it out.
Jonathan Lethem’s, “Chronic City” is a gem and perfect to read while off on the holiday.

Robert DeNiro and Bradley Cooper look like they just learned their movie's new name.

Over a year ago, in January of last year, DailyHelping suggested a handful of tasty novels that were quite good and worth a look. They’re all hard to put down.  Among those books was “Dark Fields”, by Alan Glynn. It was a soft-science fiction thriller dealing with smart drugs, Russian thugs and high finance.

Then in February of this year, DailyHelping informed it’s readers of a coming film adaptation starring no less than Bradley Cooper (The Hangover), thankfully replacing Shia LeBouf (Transformers, Eagle Eye) as the hero.  chance to see a film based on this incredible book was pretty great news.

The directer, Neil Burger(The Illusionist) and Robert DeNiro (Casino, Goodfellas), Abbie Cornish and Anna Friel(Land of the Lost) signed on.

DailyHelping wants it’s readers to find this film when it does finally get released in mid March. The title has been changed to “Limitless”, which feels …bleah.  Even less exciting is the screenwriter attached to the picture who has “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Freaky Friday” and “Look Whose Talking Now” to her credit. Oy.

Let’s hope that the underlying story can flourish under the weight of an uninspired title and a screenwriter who brought us talking babies.

The folks at BloodyDisgusting.com have actually posted a filmed journal of the making of this movie.  Click here to take a look.

Paolo Bacigalupi has expanded upon his earlier short fiction work, “The Calorie Man” ( Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and “Yellow Card Man” (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) to create a darkly complex and mesmerizing post-petroleum future.  It’s not so much a cautionary tale as it is an urban nightmare filled with decay, poverty and genetic terrorism. Set in a very crowded and apparently, sinking Thailand, the novel moves about with varied, compelling perspectives.

At the risk of sharing too much about the book, the overall premise is this…

Environmental destruction has exceeded Al Gore’s worst nightmare.  Ecological mainstays have collapsed and the world’s food supplies are in grave danger (the source of actual calories becomes  a monetary staple making world economies dependent on basic sustenance).  In a vicious cycle, Calorie conglomerates offer sterile seeds at high prices while bio-engineered “accidents” unleash horrific diseases and insects obliterating competing foods and driving up the costs of seeds, let alone food.  The world’s calorie markets become a dangerous, high stakes business.

The novel has ghosts, plague, bio-engineered sex dolls, Gestapo-like military police, roving chameleon-like tigers, political intrigue and all under a suffocating jungle heat.

Go out and get “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi, and treat yourself to a mesmerizing reading experience.

In what sounds like a pitch conjured on the playground, a group of Apache Indians and Western settlers stop fighting each other and form an uneasy alliance when a spaceship crash-lands and aliens stake their claim in their territory.

The producers on this project,  Ron Howard,  Brian Grazer, and Steven Spielberg (Shindler’s List, Jaws) are no slouches and obviously see a blockbuster with this Sci-Fi western.

Daily Helping had previously recommended the book back in January of ’09.

It’s a brilliant novel by Alan Glynn (which up until recently, was his only published novel). A down-and-out writer (Cooper) procures a top-secret pharmaceutical drug from his old dealer who claims to have gone straight. The pill makes you smarter.  Really smart. Smart like you can learn Portuguese in the time it takes to read a phrase book, which in this case is about thirty-minutes.  He uses his new-found ability to obtain obscene financial and social success but eventually discovers that the drug has lethal and lasting side effects.  Then there are those who want the drug for themselves…

A year ago, news of the film adaptation started and then stopped with news that Shia Labeouf was lined up to play Cooper’s part.  The casting choice was nothing short of sabotage not to mention a shift in the lead character’s age by about twenty years.  Labeouf was filming “Transformers” at the time and found himself in a car accident which caused some fairly serious damage to his hand.  Shia was out of Dark Fields and a collective sigh of relief could be heard by the book’s devoted fans.

The Dark Fields is one of those novels that you can’t put down, once you give it a look. It’s also a novel that you envision as a film, while you’re reading it.

The Daily Helping says you need to find the book at your local bookstore or online vendor. It’s a fantastic reading experience and best read before the movie trailer dilutes your pleasure.

UPDATE: Robert DeNiro is scheduled to join the filming of Dark Fields in May.