Stephen Frears is best known as the director of Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, Mary Reilly, High Fidelity, Dirty Pretty Things, and The Queen, and his latest is an adaptation of Posy Simmond’s British comic strip, Tamara Drewe.  It stars Gemma Arterton, who may or may not be cute enough to make up for her obnoxious over-enunciating.  I can’t decide.  Anyway, the plot seems to be that she gets a nose job and then bangs everyone.  Looks great.

Sony Pictures Classics has just spent in “the mid-seven figures” on Stephen Frears’ adaptation of the graphic novel Tamara Drewe.  WOOHOO!  Bring on the ninja vampires and octopus f’ck parties!  …right?

Up-and-coming Brit starlet Gemma Arterton will play Drewe [the extra 'E' is for 'English' -Ed.], a young newspaper columnist who returns to the country village of her youth and stirs up dark passions among the locals. Guardian cartoonist Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel, a collation of comicstrips published in U.K. newspaper the Guardian, is a modern reimagining of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel “Far From the Madding Crowd.”  [Variety]

So… by “dark passions” you mean, like, werewolves and lesbians and sh’t, right?

The art captures British frumpiness so well it’s scary; middle-age spread hulks through this book like sad weight, but it’s less skilled with beauty; Tamara’s looks don’t sway the reader the way they sway the characters in the book. But the view on how feminism has failed in moneyed Britain is priceless. [Amazon/Publisher'sWeekly]

See da main characta, Moira, she’s a shoe shoyne lass she is.  But den one day whoilst ‘avin a cup a tea, she ‘as an epiphany, she ‘as.  An’ she finks to ‘erself, “Oi, oy weren’ meant ta be da shoe shoyn lass!  Oy’s meant to be droivin’ a lorry!”  An’ da next fing you know, pow, as Bob’s your uncle, Moira’s become a lorry droiva.  So den da rest a da book’s mostly Moira droivin a propa lorry, which is well funny ‘cos she still looks loike a shoe shoyne lass she does.  Can you imagine dat?  A shoe shoyne lass droivin a propa lorry?  Oi, an’ oy reckon da movie’ll be well funny ‘cos we’w get Eddie Izzard ta play Moira we wew.   A bloke, dressed as a bird!  Can yous imagine dat?