Roald Dahl, Spy...Fantastic Mr. Fox, Movie

As someone who used to be hooked on espionage novels (Helen MacInnes, I'm waving at you), I'm looking forward to getting my hands on The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, a book of nonfiction by Jennet Conant. Roald Dahl a spy? I hadn't known this about the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Danny the Champion of the World, and so on.

In his review at the Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley wrote, "... if the part of the story Conant tells is comparatively minor, it is interesting all the same -- especially for its high Washington gossip quotient -- and Conant tells it well."

Speaking of Fantastic Mr. Fox, I read on IMDB (Internet Movie Database) that director Wes Anderson is making an animated movie of the same, due out a year from now. George Clooney provides the voice of Mr. Fox, and Cate Blanchett is Mrs. Fox. Other big names like Bill Murray and Anjelica Huston are on the cast list, too.

Roald Dahl died in 1990, but he's got one of the liveliest web sites going. (How'd he do that?) You can read the lists there for the UK's 2008 Roald Dahl Funny Prizes for children's books. (Winners to be announced on November 13th.)

Comments

[adrienne]

Film adaptations of books I really love almost always disappoint, but boy do I ever love Wes Anderson's work. I might be brave and go see that one in the theater when it comes out.

[Jules]

Now, that's interesting news about Fantastic Mr. Fox. I JUST read that with my girls, and I wondered if a movie adaptation had ever been done.