Books, 4/17.

"How to Make a Jewish Movie reads like the work of an expert comedy writer," writes Lawrence Levi for Nextbook, noting, of course, that it was: Melville Shavelson, who chronicles the making of Cast a Giant Shadow in the book, would write for Bob Hope for 20 years. "Shavelson is talented enough to make the story of creating a flop irresistible, and humble enough to accept at least some of the blame." This is also "quite possibly the first book by a Hollywood director devoted entirely to the making of his own movie."

"Christopher Tolkien is now 81, the same age his father was when he died, and one supposes that The Children of Húrin is his last, best shot at telling one of Tolkien's great 'untold tales' in something close to a complete form," writes Andrew O'Hehir in Salon. "It emerges here for the first time as a full-fledged adventure yarn, complete with narrative urgency, fear of the unknown and recognizably human characters.... If Lord of the Rings is a story where good conquers evil, this one moves inexorably in the other direction." More from Time's Lev Grossman.

As you'll have heard, this year's Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday. The New York Times lists the winners and points to a few related resources. A few film bloggers are particularly glad to hear that Cormac McCarthy has won one for his novel, The Road. Jeffrey Overstreet, for example, and David Lowery, who notes that he's not surprised, but: "What is surprising, however is that the same novel is the latest selection for Oprah's book club and, even moreso, that McCarthy, who in his entire career has limited his press to a single print interview in the New York Times, will be appearing on the show at some point in the near future.... [T]hat this novel - which isn't McCarthy's most difficult, but is still far from what many would consider accessible - will be getting introduced to such a wider audience can only be a good thing." Meanwhile: "There's still no release date set for the Coens' adaptation of McCarthy's No Country For Old Men, but you can see exactly one shot of it in their promo for Apple's Final Cut Studio 2." More from Ed Champion.

Meanwhile, Fresh Air is rerunning its interview with Lawrence Wright, who won in the general-nonfiction category for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaida and the Road to 9/11.

Posted by dwhudson at April 17, 2007 2:30 PM