September 2, 2025 • 32 mins
It started with The Thursday Murder Club hitting Netflix last week and turned into a full-blown debate: what are the BEST book-to-screen adaptations of all time? So today we’re breaking down the movies and TV shows that actually did their source material justice.
Plus, we share the ones we’re desperate to see adapted next (Eleanor Oliphant, we’re looking at you)! It’s nostalgic, it’s passionate, and yes—we have some controversial opinions.
WHAT TO LISTEN TO NEXT
Listen to us deep dive into The Thursday Murder Club movie, in our new podcast Watch Party out now on Apple or Spotify.
Plus, check out these episodes of The Spill:
A Truly Unhinged Movie Chat With Laura And Em
The Most Scandalous Sibling Love Triangles In TV & Film
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
So much.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You're listening to Amma Mia podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Mamma mea acknowledges the traditional owners of land and borders
that this podcast is recorded on from Mamma Mia. Welcome
to the Spill, your daily pop culture fix. I am
hijacking the feed today. My name's Taylor Strato. I am
the host of Mamma MIA's the Quickie News podcast, and
(00:36):
I'm joined by the always incredible kissen youa lu Kich. Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hello, thanks for joining us on this spill today. What
a fun one today, What a fun one indeed.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
So the reason that I have busted my way in
again this week on the Spill is I am still
very much living in this post Watch Party world. Now, Kissena,
when I say watch Party, you know what that means.
I'm talking about the Spills brand new expansion podcast. I'm
sure you've already listened and you've rated five stars. I have.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I have already listened and already texted everyone being like.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
From the thought.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So it's definitely worth a listen if you haven't listened
to it yet.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Thank you, dous. Kissenya says, go and listen to Watch
Party after this. But what we did over there is
actually dive deep into a brand new film called The
Thursday Murder Club. The reason that I'm bringing that up
today on the Spill is because we are all about
book to film adaptations. It's something that I've been thinking
about NonStop since we filmed and recorded Watch Party and
put it out into the world. And Cassenya, I don't
(01:35):
know about you, but it turns out there are so
many of my favorite films and TV shows that actually
originally started as books.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I mean, it doesn't surprise me because that's you know,
the best writers, and that's where you get so much
great source material from. Now, we are going to have
a couple of guidelines.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Okay, I love a rule. I mean, I feel like
we're on Weekend Watch again. I'm prepared to not do
an Emily Vernon and break them all. So tell me
what are the rules? Okay?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So the rule is it has to be loved by
the fans.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So it's got to like really take the core of
the book and be true to it, even if there
are some changes.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It needs to be ador I'm.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Kind of thinking like Harry Potter does not do that
because there was just way too many plot changes and
that just really irritated me.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
So I think you're right, like the fandom for the
Harry Potter books is very different to the fandom for
the Harry Potter films.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Absolutely, So that's kind of my main one is I
just want it to be true to the book. So
these are books that we have both read or movies
that we've both seen, so we just.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Want it to be really true.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah. I think that's really good groundwork to lay down
for what we're about to get into on the spill.
And of course it wouldn't be fun if we weren't
doing a little bit of wish fulfillment as well. So
we'll have a few of our favorite books that we'd
like to see end up on the big screen. Two. So,
without further Adukeisanya, do you want to kick us off?
What is your first in this list of book to
screen adaptations?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Okay, so I'm going to start with a kind of
obvious one, but there's a very good reason for it,
and that is Big Little Lies.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Are you new to Monterey?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, we just booked to eleven and passion.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Is definitely not our problem.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Every time someone asks me about SIGs that I'm terrified
they're going to expose me.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
You don't want anyone getting pur of dewy bitch. Got
to have each other's backs, right, just got yours.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Big Little Lies was written by Australian Leanne Moriarty, who
is one of my all time favorite authors. I think
I've read her entire catalog. I absolutely adore her, and
you know, this book turned into a movie just worked
so fantastically in twenty fourteen is when she wrote the book.
So this is basically like the sixth book that she wrote.
(03:51):
And Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon got advanced copies of it.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Both of them absolutely loved.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It and were like, this is made to be a
limited series. But something you may not know is it's
kind of the show that kick started Hollywood's love of
the limited series again.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I think you're right. I've got some feelings about limited
series and we will get to those in a moment,
but you're right. I think this was one of those
like real TV cinema ish moments that came back around
in like twenty seventeen and really kick those off again.
Succession is another one that I think of in that
same category as well.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, and so if you haven't read the book, go
and read it. I would say the series is very,
very true to the book, because the biggest shift is
that Leanne actually set this book in the Northern Beaches,
which is actually.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Not far from where you are right now.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
My stomping ground. They moved it to the state. So
some people had an issue with the fact that they
moved it to Monterey in California, but I do think
it was a really smart move on their part, just
to increase the audience of the show.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, I completely agree with you. I think as well,
when we talk about adaptations, when we talk about television
and film in general, people really focus in on the
plot of a story, and like the plot is the
most integral thing, and I actually don't think that is
quite the case. This is like a perfect example of that.
This is just like a couple of women who happen
to be in the same place, their kids go to
(05:22):
the same school, They're all part of the same sort
of community group. That actually is kind of irrelevant. What's
important in this story in particular is how interesting and
complex each of these individual characters are. The casting for
Big Little Lies is what I think makes it so
spectacular of an adaptation. That's been pulled off really well.
Like you've got Nicole Kidman in there, like you said,
Reese Witherspooners in there, Alexander Scar's guard is in there.
(05:46):
You've got a little bit of everything from everyone, lots
of like little bits of star quality coming through. I
think Meryl Street pops up in the second season too,
and I think that is why this particular adaptation is
so successful.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
And one more thing about the setting is the reason
why she chose the beaches was because in sort of
the really fun all the Meaches, it's a real mix
of tax brackets, so you've got the ultra ultra wealthy
and then people who have kind of been there for
a long time. And Monterey kind of reflects that too.
(06:18):
And we see that with like Shallee Woodleigh's character Jane.
You know, she's kind of in a low attacks bracket,
but they're still all going to the same school, so
there's that class difference. So it didn't really matter that
it wasn't in Sydney. It still reflected that same thing.
I just was so obsessed with this series, like I
just feel like and the soundtrack, I would never ever
(06:41):
skip that opening sequence.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, fair now can I tell you my controversial take
on this television series. Sure, okay, there are two seasons.
There's a third one apparently coming somewhere in the future,
although it feels like it's been one hundred years between
drinks at this point. I am of the firm belief
and this is a heel that I will die on
most television shows, particularly of this limited series. Nature should
(07:05):
really only have one season, Big Little Lives. We could
have stopped after season one. Okay, good with Big Little Lies.
I definitely agree.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I enjoyed the second season, but I think in the
second season we kind of explore a little bit more
about Bonnie played by Zoe Kravitz. We explore a little
bit more about her sort of backstory, whereas in the
original book that is all sort of covered after the killing.
And I think the series could have done that a
(07:35):
little bit more effectively, and then we could have just stopped.
But you know what it's like when people are fans
of something, they just.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Want more and more and more.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, I understand that you don't want to bite the
hand that feeds you, but I still hold them this
one should have ended off the season one.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Again, if you haven't read Land's work. She's got a
number of other ones. Nine Perfect Strangers also turned into
a series, She's Got The Husband's Secret, which is one
of my favorites.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
What Alice Forgot?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Like?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The way she writes is just so built for screen,
and I think that's what makes this particular adaptation so successful. Okay,
so that was my first one, Taylor, Can you give
me the one on top of your list?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Okay, I submit to you what I like to call
the perfect play in film. It is twenty eighteen's crazy
rich Asians.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Right, We've been.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Dating for every year now, and I think it's about time.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
People met my beautiful girlfriend. What about us taking an
adventure like Queen's Singapore Colin's wedding. Don't you want to
be in my family?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I hardly know anything about them every time I bring
them up. Can you just the subject?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Maybe his parents are poor and he has to send
him money.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Take a bag and get your checked into perspect You.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Can't afford this.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So your family is rich, We're comfortable.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
That is exactly what a super rich person would say.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Plump.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
This is Rachel true. She just thinks you're some like
unrefined banana. No, those are your fingers, yell on the
outside or white on the inside.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I chose to.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Raise a family for me, it's a privilege for you.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
You may think it's old fashioned. If you want next
to be happy, I know you're not what Nick needed.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
She's like trying to play a game with the chicken
with me thinking I'm gonna soar like a chicken budget case.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Were you gonna roll up and be like Mark mack bitch?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Okay? Maybe like that is aggressive. I met a girl,
I fell in love and I want to marry her.
You're Nicholas Young.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
You're untouchable, but Rachel's not.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
If you prepped Rachel to face the wolves, you know,
I'm like, I never left.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I really Adny you.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It takes guts coming all the way over here fas
Nick's family.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And now the breath. I know this much. You will
never be in love.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Be Casenya. I'm assuming you've seen this film.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I have seen this film, but controversially have not read
the book.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Okay, allow me to explain. Crazy Rid Jasons is the
name of the film. It's also the name of the
first book in a trilogy from Kevin Kwan. He's a
Chinese American author and when you hear what the plot
or you know what the plot of the film or
the book is, it's kind of like, I wonder what
his background is to be able to write to this
very specific class of people so well. I've not yet
(10:15):
looked into it because lazy, but I assume he's got
some authority and he kind of seeps that into some
of the writing. So Crazy Rich Asians book one of three.
There are two others China, rich girlfriend and rich people Problems.
I would love to see those two adapted into film. Again.
Like I said, plot not always the most important thing,
although I think in this particular case, the story is
(10:36):
so good and told in a context that I've maybe
not really explored much before, like that Singapore upper echelon
really rich lifestyle of the rich and famous kind of
thing is not something that I've seen in that kind
of setting previously. I don't know about you or you
up to date with your Southeast Asian film watching. No.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I think the reason this film was so successful is
so often Hollywood people were like, oh, no, one's gonna
watch that because it's an all Asian cast, and it
was such a f you to Hollywood of let's make
a blockbus Star with people who other people can relate to, Like,
there was just such this thing of oh, no, one's
(11:14):
going to watch that, and with a primarily Asian cast,
and it absolutely blew people away rightly, So it's hilarious.
It's done so beautifully and just so many great moments throughout.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
You're right, I mean this was an all Asian American cast,
Like it was far beyond what anybody expected this little
film to do. People at Constance wo and Henry Golding
and then Michelle Yohe Aquafina as well, Like the cast
is stella. You cannot underestimate that for sure. Now, while
we don't yet know if a sequel to Crazy Rich
(11:50):
Asians is totally confirmed yet, what we do know is
there as a TV series in the work. Did you
know this?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I didn't know this.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
I saw that I was like confused, is it on
the first book as well?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah? So back in April this year there was confirmation
that a TV series is in development. I think the
beautiful thing about a book, right is that you get
all of this time in these chapters and pages to
let really delve into a story and painter world, and
that's sort of taken away when you make television TV, however,
you again have the luxury of, like, I don't know,
twelve twenty two episodes, as many as you want really,
(12:23):
So the fact that this is being potentially transplanted onto
television makes me really excited because that first book is great,
the film is great, but seeing it in a TV
model would also be very exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I love that you brought that up because I think
that a lot of the times when it doesn't work
and a book to movie adaptation is because you've only
got two hours to explore this immense amount of content,
and so many things have to.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Get dropped or misstore.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Little tiny character details that are so important have to
be let go from a story. But the beauty of
a series, and particularly a limited series, is that you
can have your ten hours to create almost a ten hour.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Film one hundred percent. I mean, for fans of the
Crazy Rich Asians book, you'll know that Kitty Pong is
really just a side character in Crazy Rich Asians the film,
But in book to China Rich Girlfriend, she has this
incredible story. In fact, it takes up like a large
majority of that book. I would love to see that
explored in TV series. So fingers Crossed Crazy Rich Asians
(13:30):
the TV series and also fingers Crossed for Crazy Rich
Asians to the film. We'll have to wait and see.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Okay, I'm going to read the book now.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I will lend you my copy. Make sure you read it.
Moving on, what is your next pick?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Okay, this book is so dear to me. I've read
it probably three or four times. It is beautifully written,
and it was just recently made into a movie. And
it is where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Have you read this book?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I feel like I'm gonna get canceled for saying this.
I have not read this book, but I feel like
your list is very brief with the spoon heavy today
and Darry says, all signs point towards good recommendations.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Okay, So this book was released in twenty eighteen basically
straight to the bestseller list. It is one of the
most beautifully written books I've ever read, and was really
lauded for its explanation of the Marshland. So, if you
don't know, basically, so this is set in the fictional
(14:33):
town of Barkley Cove in North Carolina, and it tells
the story of a young girl called kaya Clark, and
she's basically abandoned by her family when she's little and
lives in this marshland.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And it's set in kind of like.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
The sixties, fifties, sixties, so it's still underdeveloped, and it's
just the most beautiful writing. The whole book feels like
one big poem and the story of this little abandoned girl,
and you follow her from when she's a little girl
all the way up to when she's an adult and
(15:07):
she grows up really isolated. It's kind of got that
jungle book theme of like she's raised by the marsh,
the marshland.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Really is this character? Have you seen the movie.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Again, Cassenya. I don't want to get canceled, Okay, no,
but I have seen the trailer. I'm very across this.
When this came out, it was massive, Like I'm very
around the law of this book and this film. Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
So I don't want to spoil the ending for you,
even though I did spoil the ending for Big Little Lives.
But I feel like Big Little Lives has been around
long enough that it's okay.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
If you haven't seen that yet, come.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So this book and the movie, they're fairly true to
each other.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
There is a murder involved.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
There's a lot about like abandonment and you know, family
and isolation. And KaiA is just such a gorgeous, gorgeous
character in the book, sort of mostly from the first person.
In the movie, she is played by Daisy Edgar Jones,
who just does the most magical representation of her. Now,
(16:08):
this was picked up by Reese withspoon again, Hallo Sunshine. Honestly,
I think the reason that my book to movie slash
TV shows adaptations is so recently with the Spoon heavy
is because I just think she knows what translates to screen,
and the way that the marshland is described in the
book just really lends itself to beautiful cinematography. And that
(16:32):
is probably the most wonderful part of the movie is
the cinematography. So I will shout out I don't normally
go this dep but I will shout out Polly Morgan
because she just did this incredible job of capturing kind
of something that you wouldn't think would be a romantic
or wonderful place, but a marsh landed in North Carolina
(16:53):
you kind of think about like our wetlands.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It can sometimes be a bit like.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Stinky and yucky and there's lots of bugs, but it
is written so beautifully that you don't feel any of that.
And we do get a little bit of a love triangle,
So if you like a love triangle, that's in there.
There's a bit of mystery involved.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
I don't want to like you're dancing around and I
can hear I. I really don't want to ruin it
for you because it's so worth the read, and definitely
read it before you watch it, because what I will
say about the movie is that it's.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
A companion piece to the Bookay, so unlike Big Little Eyes.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Which is super true to the source material where the
crowd ads seeing does skip over a couple of character
development bits and inside the mind of Kia. But if
you love the book as much as I do, it's
just this really nice way to again step back into
that world and enjoy it and see these characters come
(17:52):
to life.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I feel like you're really taken by this because you
went to the effort of looking up the cinematographer's name,
So I feel like if there was ever a tick
of approval from somebody or a recommendation Causenya, that's about
like as big as it gets for you. Hey, it
really is.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And like I cried in this book and I will.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I've picked it up multiple times and reread it, and
it only came out in twenty eighteen, Like, it's not
been that long and I've read it multiple times.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's just yeah, one of my all time favorite books. Okay,
so your turn out next one for you.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I feel like mine are all like, very much on
the opposite end of everything you've recommended today. Very serious,
very arty, very emotional. My second recommendation is something that
I like to refer to as the ultimate coming of
age story, at least for me. Every generation has a
coming of age story, and this one definitely hits home
(18:46):
if you turned thirty this year, like I did. I'm talking,
of course, about Angus songs and perfect snogging.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Today it's the first day of my life as the
new Journians.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
If you haven't.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Noticed, I'm a woman now, I wear a bra. I
will never get a boyfriend, bul job. I am very
ugly and need to go into an ugly head. What's
the first thing you noticed in a gapngus?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Now, as to what boys like keep away from my man,
I must be distant and alluring and play hard to get.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I've been offered a promotion of jobs in New Zealand.
What we really don't want to move out to New Zealand.
We just don't want us to be apart. Now it's
a new song I wrote. It's about Georgia. Did this
ring true for you when I say coming of age?
Because and or? Is this like around that wheelhouse for
you as well?
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I've never been like a coming of age book reader,
and I haven't read.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
This one, and I haven't seen the show. So here goes.
This is our chance to do a little bit of
a switch.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I love that great. You've given me some like heartbreaking
drama to watch. I'm going to give you fun little
UK fodder. So anger Son's Perfect Snogging. It is a
film based on the book by Louise Renninson, Confessions of
George and Nicholson. That's a mouthful. Georgia is the main character.
She's got her three best friends. They're in high school.
(20:07):
They're very much finding their way, trying to figure out
their ideaies, falling in love with boys, figuring out how
you're supposed to snog correctly, and also dealing with the
high school bullies. It is very typical par for the course.
This is what it is to be a girl in
high school. Life is so dramatic. My parents are probably
getting divorced. They're definitely not reading way too much into things,
(20:29):
wanting to grow up too quickly, and all done in
that real sort of twenty tens era that for me
cannot be more informative. I was thirteen years old when
this film came out. It hit me right in the
sweet spot, and I actually remember watching this movie with
my mom for the first time. We watched it at home.
It was like on DVD, we rented it from the
(20:50):
video shop. And the opening scenes, she's like running out
of a costume party, humiliated because everybody dressed up sexy.
She didn't get the memo she dressed up like a
giant olive. And then the argument that her and her
mum have when she gets home. I remember vividly my
mum and I shot eyes across the room at each
other and was like, holy shit, did we script this ourselves?
(21:10):
Because the argument that we had yesterday.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
I love taking me straight back to me and girls,
can I ask the snogging bit? Are they like practicing
on their arms? Are they practicing on like Hollywood posters,
are they putting lipstick on like their arm?
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Like that is kind of what rings true to me
at thirteen.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
It was like, no, no, it's very much that exactly
what you just did.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
No notes, we're going to cut that and that's going
to play everywhere. Now if you just macking on with
your hand, what are you doing? Was it your just pretend?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
It's just pretending.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Yeah, there's a scene of that, definitely. They go to
a kissing expert at one point, which is just like
the silliest thing ever. There's test to see if your
boobs are big enough. Like it is it's just pure
teenage girlhood fun. But it's also like this really lovely
moment of teaching you what friendship is at a young age.
I remember being in my early years of high school,
(22:05):
and up until that point, I don't think i'd never
actually given the concept of friendship that much thought. It
was just these are the people that are around me
by circumstance. They're my neighbors, they're the girls in my
netball team, like, of course we're friends. And it's only
as you get to high school and social dynamics start
to play out that you realize, oh, this is what
friendship is, and this is how you maintain a friendship,
and this is what's important in friendship, and this is
(22:27):
what would be something that would be considered crossing the lines,
like you know, going after the same boy that you like,
or ditching your girlfriends for a boy like that kind
of thing really plays out on screen here. It was
the first time that I'd really seen that and absorbed
it into my own world. I just love it so much.
Like if you haven't seen it, it's probably a bit
juvenile now if you're a grown woman, but I still
think it's worth a watch.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Did you read the book before you watched the movie?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
No, I read the book after. I didn't realize this
was based on a book, And I should say the
book is phenomenal. The film is also phenomenal. It's directed
by Grinda Chater And if you don't know that name,
that is the woman who gave a spend it like Beckham,
So she is very much in that wheelhouse.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I just rewatched that movie the other day. Yeah, I
love that movie.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
She followed it up with angus thongs and perfect snogging.
Cannot recommend more.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
You have converted me. I might have to go and
do that one.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Caseenya, there's one book on this list that you and
I have both jotted down, so I'm keen to hear
your thoughts. So talking about The Great Gatsby, specifically the
twenty thirteen version starring one Leonardo DiCaprio. Now tell me
what's your experience with this book and then with the film?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Okay, So the book is like many of us read
in high school. It is kind of you know, the
classic Scott Fitzgerald. You have to read this at English
in high school. So that was kind of my experience
with it. But when it got the Basleerman treatment, that's
when I loved it because I am a bas Lerman obsessive.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh no, this is where we are going to split pads.
I maybe it is controversially cannot stand and I mean
cannot stand Basleerman films. This is the exception the Great Gatsby.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Oh my god, the Red Curtain trilogy. Well you didn't
like Molan Rouge.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Now I've got no time for it. Sorry, Australia, don't
want to sit through it.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I can'tot strictly what I can't like.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
His style of filmmaking is just so special now it's
over the top.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Oh, I love it. It's like theatrical it is. We
have very different tastes, Dailor, we have.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Very differ but I'm glad that we can agree on
The Great Gatsby. And this is why I think Basilan
was the right person to do this adaptation.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So, the Great Gatsby f Scott Fitzgerald. It's written in
nineteen twenty five. It's written in the peak of what
is the Great Depression. It is the most fu to
the lower class out there. It is showing the exuberance.
It's showing somebody like Nick Carraway played by Toby Maguire,
who's wonderful in this, trying to break his way and
(25:05):
edge his way into this upper echelon of society. And
there's always going to be something that keeps him back
at that peak moment when people were experiencing it, and
for it to be such an over the top affair,
Basleerman is clearly the only person who could have made
this happen. Yes, there are a couple of other remakes
of The Great Gatsby, but speaking specifically about this one,
(25:26):
of course, this man is going to make this film.
He's so Ott it was the perfect fit.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, And the way that they did all of the
you know, the driving from Long Island to New York,
the party scenes was just so classic bas Lerman. And
what we got from that movie was the very classic
meme of Leonardo DiCaprio winking with a glass.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Yeah, holding up his bottle. Yeah, I mean I'm holding
up my bottle. It's in a champagne coup. But anyway,
so you.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Know, we got that like extravagance of the nineteen twenties
and then intercut with kind of the more gritty side
of it as well.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Do you know It's so funny is when f Scott
Fitzgerald died in the nineteen forty I think he died
in nineteen forty. He died with this sense of like failure,
that his work never cut through, that he was just
this epic loser. And to think that eighty odd, ninety
odd years later this film came out is just such
(26:21):
a shame. Like it's such that classic thing of like
people do these incredible things and don't even necessarily realize
how much of an impact they've had. Like I said, like,
it's just really sad that if Scott Fitzgerald died thinking
like his work amounted to nothing, and it became this
big ott film that is so beloved. I mean, you
and I. It's the one thing we agree on about
Basloman apparently, which is great. But I would also recommend
(26:43):
seeing the other version of this, like the Robert Redford
Mia Farrow I think that came out in the forties.
That was a great rendition as well.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
It's interesting though. It's like, did you read it first
and then watch it? Or watch it and then read it.
It's a kind of a funny way to go into
the law of these characters.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
With crazy rich Asians. Did you read it first and
then watch it?
Speaker 3 (27:07):
No, I definitely watched it first. I didn't know this
was based on book series until a very long time
after the fact, and then once I had read the
first book, I was totally hooked. I read the entire
series in like the space of a month.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Okay, okay, because I did that with like Twilight, you know,
I watched the movies and then I read the books,
and like Hunger Games as well, like watch the movies
then read the books. But the other ones always have
been book first and then movies, slash TV series. Well, Taylor,
Now what we're going to do is go into some
(27:40):
of the books that we really want to see made
into movies or TV series. Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
That's a mouthful.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Have you read it? No again?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
One of my absolute favorite books written by Gail Honeyman.
It is so quirky, spoken from the perspective of Eleanor.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
She's a neurodiversion.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The way that Gail writes her perspective is so funny
and clever. So again, Hello Sunshine, have picked this up.
It's in pre production. It hasn't been.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Made yet, okay, but I am desperate.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
For it to go onto screen because I would love
to see it play out.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Because SNYA is there like a Reese Witherspoon sponsorship. You
need to declare today do what.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
I actually didn't realize how entwined they were until I
started writing my list. For some reason, maybe Reese and
I just have the same taste in books.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Maybe you do. Hey, one that is also in production,
And I don't want to linger on this for too
long because there is something else that I want to
get to. But I'm glad my mom died. Is Jeanette
mccurty's memoir. I can see you're jumping up and down.
You're excited about this too.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I'm literally fist pumping.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Yeah. I am usually exclusively a memoir lady. When I
read this memoir, I was completely obsessed. I think Janet
mccurty's life is equal parts fascinating and horrific. If you
don't know who she is, she was a child star
Nickelodeon IKLA. You can look it all up on the Internet,
and as the memoir suggests, she's glad her mom died.
She lived a pretty tumultuous life and relationship with her
(29:16):
mum as a child star growing up. It's in development
right now for Apple TV. Plus the show is inspired
by her memoir. She's going to serve as an executive
producer and a showrunner. Jennifer Aniston has been cast to
play the mother figure, so I cannot wait for that
to come out. I'm going to need to borrow someone's
Apple TV login to watch it. But you and I
both equally excited for this by the sound of it.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Very much.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
And if you don't really feel like reading, this is
a great one to do as an audiobook. Yes, because
Jeanett mccurty actually reads it, so it's even more personal.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
One hundred percent agree with that. The one that I
would desperately love to see on screen. You know how,
sometimes when you're reading a book and you can see
what that book is going to look like, you can
visualize how that would play out on TV or film.
This is one for me. It's called How to Solve
Your Own Murder. It's from Kristin Perrien and it is
book one in a series that she's been working on
(30:07):
called The Castle Noll Files. The reason as as soon
as I started reading this that I could immediately see
how it would play out on screen is the book
is written in two different time periods. So the protagonist,
Annie Adams is a young woman from London. She has
an estranged aunt, great Aunt Francis, and once Aunt Francis
dies in the first book, there's a massive fortune to
(30:29):
be had. Great Aunt Francis has no other kids, she's
got no other relatives. Everything stands to be inherited by
Annie if she can solve her murder. Great Aunt Francis
is murdered by the way. So basically this book cuts
between two time periods, the sixties when great Aunt Francis
gets her fortune told. Fortune tell her she's going to die,
She's going to be murdered, and she basically lives her life,
(30:51):
setting up what is to be like the longest ever
murder mystery case of all time. And then Annie blows in.
In modern day, she works through Aunt Francis's old files,
eventually figuring out who murdered her if she does. I
don't want to give it too much away, but there
are like four books in this series, so you can
probably figure it out from that. It cuts between these
(31:11):
two time periods. Like I said, it's set in this beautiful,
small country town in England. She lives in this big
manner at the top of a hill. The local townspeople
aren't necessarily sure of her. They kind of thought Great
Aunt Francis was a bit of a batty old lady,
and then Annie comes to town and everything changes.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Okay, so those are some of the ones that we
really want to see. If you guys have any others,
please send us a DM.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
We would love to know. And just a little caveat here.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
We didn't include the obvious ones like Lord of the
Rings or Gamers Drones on purpose. We wanted to do
someone's that were a little bit different apart.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
From Big Little Eyes of course.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Thank you so much for listening to the Spill today
and thank you Taylor for joining us. Don't forget to
follow this Spill on TikTok and Instagram. The Spill is
produced by Manisha Yaswarn with sound production by Scott Stronach.
And we will see you back here in your podcast
feed for all of us celeb headlines at eight am
tomorrow with Morning Tea and then back with another episode
of the Spill at three pm.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Bye Bye,
So much.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You're listening to Amma Mia podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Mamma mea acknowledges the traditional owners of land and borders
that this podcast is recorded on from Mamma Mia. Welcome
to the Spill, your daily pop culture fix. I am
hijacking the feed today. My name's Taylor Strato. I am
the host of Mamma MIA's the Quickie News podcast, and
(00:36):
I'm joined by the always incredible kissen youa lu Kich. Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Hello, thanks for joining us on this spill today. What
a fun one today, What a fun one indeed.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
So the reason that I have busted my way in
again this week on the Spill is I am still
very much living in this post Watch Party world. Now, Kissena,
when I say watch Party, you know what that means.
I'm talking about the Spills brand new expansion podcast. I'm
sure you've already listened and you've rated five stars. I have.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I have already listened and already texted everyone being like.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
From the thought.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
So it's definitely worth a listen if you haven't listened
to it yet.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Thank you, dous. Kissenya says, go and listen to Watch
Party after this. But what we did over there is
actually dive deep into a brand new film called The
Thursday Murder Club. The reason that I'm bringing that up
today on the Spill is because we are all about
book to film adaptations. It's something that I've been thinking
about NonStop since we filmed and recorded Watch Party and
put it out into the world. And Cassenya, I don't
(01:35):
know about you, but it turns out there are so
many of my favorite films and TV shows that actually
originally started as books.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I mean, it doesn't surprise me because that's you know,
the best writers, and that's where you get so much
great source material from. Now, we are going to have
a couple of guidelines.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Okay, I love a rule. I mean, I feel like
we're on Weekend Watch again. I'm prepared to not do
an Emily Vernon and break them all. So tell me
what are the rules? Okay?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So the rule is it has to be loved by
the fans.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So it's got to like really take the core of
the book and be true to it, even if there
are some changes.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It needs to be ador I'm.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Kind of thinking like Harry Potter does not do that
because there was just way too many plot changes and
that just really irritated me.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
So I think you're right, like the fandom for the
Harry Potter books is very different to the fandom for
the Harry Potter films.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Absolutely, So that's kind of my main one is I
just want it to be true to the book. So
these are books that we have both read or movies
that we've both seen, so we just.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Want it to be really true.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yeah. I think that's really good groundwork to lay down
for what we're about to get into on the spill.
And of course it wouldn't be fun if we weren't
doing a little bit of wish fulfillment as well. So
we'll have a few of our favorite books that we'd
like to see end up on the big screen. Two. So,
without further Adukeisanya, do you want to kick us off?
What is your first in this list of book to
screen adaptations?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Okay, so I'm going to start with a kind of
obvious one, but there's a very good reason for it,
and that is Big Little Lies.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Are you new to Monterey?
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, we just booked to eleven and passion.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Is definitely not our problem.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Every time someone asks me about SIGs that I'm terrified
they're going to expose me.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
You don't want anyone getting pur of dewy bitch. Got
to have each other's backs, right, just got yours.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Big Little Lies was written by Australian Leanne Moriarty, who
is one of my all time favorite authors. I think
I've read her entire catalog. I absolutely adore her, and
you know, this book turned into a movie just worked
so fantastically in twenty fourteen is when she wrote the book.
So this is basically like the sixth book that she wrote.
(03:51):
And Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon got advanced copies of it.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Both of them absolutely loved.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It and were like, this is made to be a
limited series. But something you may not know is it's
kind of the show that kick started Hollywood's love of
the limited series again.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I think you're right. I've got some feelings about limited
series and we will get to those in a moment,
but you're right. I think this was one of those
like real TV cinema ish moments that came back around
in like twenty seventeen and really kick those off again.
Succession is another one that I think of in that
same category as well.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, and so if you haven't read the book, go
and read it. I would say the series is very,
very true to the book, because the biggest shift is
that Leanne actually set this book in the Northern Beaches,
which is actually.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Not far from where you are right now.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
My stomping ground. They moved it to the state. So
some people had an issue with the fact that they
moved it to Monterey in California, but I do think
it was a really smart move on their part, just
to increase the audience of the show.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, I completely agree with you. I think as well,
when we talk about adaptations, when we talk about television
and film in general, people really focus in on the
plot of a story, and like the plot is the
most integral thing, and I actually don't think that is
quite the case. This is like a perfect example of that.
This is just like a couple of women who happen
to be in the same place, their kids go to
(05:22):
the same school, They're all part of the same sort
of community group. That actually is kind of irrelevant. What's
important in this story in particular is how interesting and
complex each of these individual characters are. The casting for
Big Little Lies is what I think makes it so
spectacular of an adaptation. That's been pulled off really well.
Like you've got Nicole Kidman in there, like you said,
Reese Witherspooners in there, Alexander Scar's guard is in there.
(05:46):
You've got a little bit of everything from everyone, lots
of like little bits of star quality coming through. I
think Meryl Street pops up in the second season too,
and I think that is why this particular adaptation is
so successful.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
And one more thing about the setting is the reason
why she chose the beaches was because in sort of
the really fun all the Meaches, it's a real mix
of tax brackets, so you've got the ultra ultra wealthy
and then people who have kind of been there for
a long time. And Monterey kind of reflects that too.
(06:18):
And we see that with like Shallee Woodleigh's character Jane.
You know, she's kind of in a low attacks bracket,
but they're still all going to the same school, so
there's that class difference. So it didn't really matter that
it wasn't in Sydney. It still reflected that same thing.
I just was so obsessed with this series, like I
just feel like and the soundtrack, I would never ever
(06:41):
skip that opening sequence.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah, fair now can I tell you my controversial take
on this television series. Sure, okay, there are two seasons.
There's a third one apparently coming somewhere in the future,
although it feels like it's been one hundred years between
drinks at this point. I am of the firm belief
and this is a heel that I will die on
most television shows, particularly of this limited series. Nature should
(07:05):
really only have one season, Big Little Lives. We could
have stopped after season one. Okay, good with Big Little Lies.
I definitely agree.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I enjoyed the second season, but I think in the
second season we kind of explore a little bit more
about Bonnie played by Zoe Kravitz. We explore a little
bit more about her sort of backstory, whereas in the
original book that is all sort of covered after the killing.
And I think the series could have done that a
(07:35):
little bit more effectively, and then we could have just stopped.
But you know what it's like when people are fans
of something, they just.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Want more and more and more.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, I understand that you don't want to bite the
hand that feeds you, but I still hold them this
one should have ended off the season one.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Again, if you haven't read Land's work. She's got a
number of other ones. Nine Perfect Strangers also turned into
a series, She's Got The Husband's Secret, which is one
of my favorites.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
What Alice Forgot?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Like?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The way she writes is just so built for screen,
and I think that's what makes this particular adaptation so successful. Okay,
so that was my first one, Taylor, Can you give
me the one on top of your list?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Okay, I submit to you what I like to call
the perfect play in film. It is twenty eighteen's crazy
rich Asians.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Right, We've been.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Dating for every year now, and I think it's about time.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
People met my beautiful girlfriend. What about us taking an
adventure like Queen's Singapore Colin's wedding. Don't you want to
be in my family?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I hardly know anything about them every time I bring
them up. Can you just the subject?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Maybe his parents are poor and he has to send
him money.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Take a bag and get your checked into perspect You.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Can't afford this.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So your family is rich, We're comfortable.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
That is exactly what a super rich person would say.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Plump.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
This is Rachel true. She just thinks you're some like
unrefined banana. No, those are your fingers, yell on the
outside or white on the inside.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I chose to.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Raise a family for me, it's a privilege for you.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
You may think it's old fashioned. If you want next
to be happy, I know you're not what Nick needed.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
She's like trying to play a game with the chicken
with me thinking I'm gonna soar like a chicken budget case.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Were you gonna roll up and be like Mark mack bitch?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Okay? Maybe like that is aggressive. I met a girl,
I fell in love and I want to marry her.
You're Nicholas Young.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
You're untouchable, but Rachel's not.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
If you prepped Rachel to face the wolves, you know,
I'm like, I never left.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I really Adny you.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
It takes guts coming all the way over here fas
Nick's family.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And now the breath. I know this much. You will
never be in love.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Be Casenya. I'm assuming you've seen this film.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I have seen this film, but controversially have not read
the book.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Okay, allow me to explain. Crazy Rid Jasons is the
name of the film. It's also the name of the
first book in a trilogy from Kevin Kwan. He's a
Chinese American author and when you hear what the plot
or you know what the plot of the film or
the book is, it's kind of like, I wonder what
his background is to be able to write to this
very specific class of people so well. I've not yet
(10:15):
looked into it because lazy, but I assume he's got
some authority and he kind of seeps that into some
of the writing. So Crazy Rich Asians book one of three.
There are two others China, rich girlfriend and rich people Problems.
I would love to see those two adapted into film. Again.
Like I said, plot not always the most important thing,
although I think in this particular case, the story is
(10:36):
so good and told in a context that I've maybe
not really explored much before, like that Singapore upper echelon
really rich lifestyle of the rich and famous kind of
thing is not something that I've seen in that kind
of setting previously. I don't know about you or you
up to date with your Southeast Asian film watching. No.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I think the reason this film was so successful is
so often Hollywood people were like, oh, no, one's gonna
watch that because it's an all Asian cast, and it
was such a f you to Hollywood of let's make
a blockbus Star with people who other people can relate to, Like,
there was just such this thing of oh, no, one's
(11:14):
going to watch that, and with a primarily Asian cast,
and it absolutely blew people away rightly, So it's hilarious.
It's done so beautifully and just so many great moments throughout.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
You're right, I mean this was an all Asian American cast,
Like it was far beyond what anybody expected this little
film to do. People at Constance wo and Henry Golding
and then Michelle Yohe Aquafina as well, Like the cast
is stella. You cannot underestimate that for sure. Now, while
we don't yet know if a sequel to Crazy Rich
(11:50):
Asians is totally confirmed yet, what we do know is
there as a TV series in the work. Did you
know this?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I didn't know this.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
I saw that I was like confused, is it on
the first book as well?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah? So back in April this year there was confirmation
that a TV series is in development. I think the
beautiful thing about a book, right is that you get
all of this time in these chapters and pages to
let really delve into a story and painter world, and
that's sort of taken away when you make television TV, however,
you again have the luxury of, like, I don't know,
twelve twenty two episodes, as many as you want really,
(12:23):
So the fact that this is being potentially transplanted onto
television makes me really excited because that first book is great,
the film is great, but seeing it in a TV
model would also be very exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I love that you brought that up because I think
that a lot of the times when it doesn't work
and a book to movie adaptation is because you've only
got two hours to explore this immense amount of content,
and so many things have to.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Get dropped or misstore.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Little tiny character details that are so important have to
be let go from a story. But the beauty of
a series, and particularly a limited series, is that you
can have your ten hours to create almost a ten hour.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Film one hundred percent. I mean, for fans of the
Crazy Rich Asians book, you'll know that Kitty Pong is
really just a side character in Crazy Rich Asians the film,
But in book to China Rich Girlfriend, she has this
incredible story. In fact, it takes up like a large
majority of that book. I would love to see that
explored in TV series. So fingers Crossed Crazy Rich Asians
(13:30):
the TV series and also fingers Crossed for Crazy Rich
Asians to the film. We'll have to wait and see.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Okay, I'm going to read the book now.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I will lend you my copy. Make sure you read it.
Moving on, what is your next pick?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Okay, this book is so dear to me. I've read
it probably three or four times. It is beautifully written,
and it was just recently made into a movie. And
it is where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Have you read this book?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I feel like I'm gonna get canceled for saying this.
I have not read this book, but I feel like
your list is very brief with the spoon heavy today
and Darry says, all signs point towards good recommendations.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Okay, So this book was released in twenty eighteen basically
straight to the bestseller list. It is one of the
most beautifully written books I've ever read, and was really
lauded for its explanation of the Marshland. So, if you
don't know, basically, so this is set in the fictional
(14:33):
town of Barkley Cove in North Carolina, and it tells
the story of a young girl called kaya Clark, and
she's basically abandoned by her family when she's little and
lives in this marshland.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And it's set in kind of like.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
The sixties, fifties, sixties, so it's still underdeveloped, and it's
just the most beautiful writing. The whole book feels like
one big poem and the story of this little abandoned girl,
and you follow her from when she's a little girl
all the way up to when she's an adult and
(15:07):
she grows up really isolated. It's kind of got that
jungle book theme of like she's raised by the marsh,
the marshland.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Really is this character? Have you seen the movie.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Again, Cassenya. I don't want to get canceled, Okay, no,
but I have seen the trailer. I'm very across this.
When this came out, it was massive, Like I'm very
around the law of this book and this film. Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
So I don't want to spoil the ending for you,
even though I did spoil the ending for Big Little Lives.
But I feel like Big Little Lives has been around
long enough that it's okay.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
If you haven't seen that yet, come.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So this book and the movie, they're fairly true to
each other.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
There is a murder involved.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
There's a lot about like abandonment and you know, family
and isolation. And KaiA is just such a gorgeous, gorgeous
character in the book, sort of mostly from the first person.
In the movie, she is played by Daisy Edgar Jones,
who just does the most magical representation of her. Now,
(16:08):
this was picked up by Reese withspoon again, Hallo Sunshine. Honestly,
I think the reason that my book to movie slash
TV shows adaptations is so recently with the Spoon heavy
is because I just think she knows what translates to screen,
and the way that the marshland is described in the
book just really lends itself to beautiful cinematography. And that
(16:32):
is probably the most wonderful part of the movie is
the cinematography. So I will shout out I don't normally
go this dep but I will shout out Polly Morgan
because she just did this incredible job of capturing kind
of something that you wouldn't think would be a romantic
or wonderful place, but a marsh landed in North Carolina
(16:53):
you kind of think about like our wetlands.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It can sometimes be a bit like.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Stinky and yucky and there's lots of bugs, but it
is written so beautifully that you don't feel any of that.
And we do get a little bit of a love triangle,
So if you like a love triangle, that's in there.
There's a bit of mystery involved.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
I don't want to like you're dancing around and I
can hear I. I really don't want to ruin it
for you because it's so worth the read, and definitely
read it before you watch it, because what I will
say about the movie is that it's.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
A companion piece to the Bookay, so unlike Big Little Eyes.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Which is super true to the source material where the
crowd ads seeing does skip over a couple of character
development bits and inside the mind of Kia. But if
you love the book as much as I do, it's
just this really nice way to again step back into
that world and enjoy it and see these characters come
(17:52):
to life.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I feel like you're really taken by this because you
went to the effort of looking up the cinematographer's name,
So I feel like if there was ever a tick
of approval from somebody or a recommendation Causenya, that's about
like as big as it gets for you. Hey, it
really is.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And like I cried in this book and I will.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I've picked it up multiple times and reread it, and
it only came out in twenty eighteen, Like, it's not
been that long and I've read it multiple times.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's just yeah, one of my all time favorite books. Okay,
so your turn out next one for you.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I feel like mine are all like, very much on
the opposite end of everything you've recommended today. Very serious,
very arty, very emotional. My second recommendation is something that
I like to refer to as the ultimate coming of
age story, at least for me. Every generation has a
coming of age story, and this one definitely hits home
(18:46):
if you turned thirty this year, like I did. I'm talking,
of course, about Angus songs and perfect snogging.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Today it's the first day of my life as the
new Journians.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
If you haven't.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Noticed, I'm a woman now, I wear a bra. I
will never get a boyfriend, bul job. I am very
ugly and need to go into an ugly head. What's
the first thing you noticed in a gapngus?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Now, as to what boys like keep away from my man,
I must be distant and alluring and play hard to get.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
I've been offered a promotion of jobs in New Zealand.
What we really don't want to move out to New Zealand.
We just don't want us to be apart. Now it's
a new song I wrote. It's about Georgia. Did this
ring true for you when I say coming of age?
Because and or? Is this like around that wheelhouse for
you as well?
Speaker 1 (19:37):
I've never been like a coming of age book reader,
and I haven't read.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
This one, and I haven't seen the show. So here goes.
This is our chance to do a little bit of
a switch.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I love that great. You've given me some like heartbreaking
drama to watch. I'm going to give you fun little
UK fodder. So anger Son's Perfect Snogging. It is a
film based on the book by Louise Renninson, Confessions of
George and Nicholson. That's a mouthful. Georgia is the main character.
She's got her three best friends. They're in high school.
(20:07):
They're very much finding their way, trying to figure out
their ideaies, falling in love with boys, figuring out how
you're supposed to snog correctly, and also dealing with the
high school bullies. It is very typical par for the course.
This is what it is to be a girl in
high school. Life is so dramatic. My parents are probably
getting divorced. They're definitely not reading way too much into things,
(20:29):
wanting to grow up too quickly, and all done in
that real sort of twenty tens era that for me
cannot be more informative. I was thirteen years old when
this film came out. It hit me right in the
sweet spot, and I actually remember watching this movie with
my mom for the first time. We watched it at home.
It was like on DVD, we rented it from the
(20:50):
video shop. And the opening scenes, she's like running out
of a costume party, humiliated because everybody dressed up sexy.
She didn't get the memo she dressed up like a
giant olive. And then the argument that her and her
mum have when she gets home. I remember vividly my
mum and I shot eyes across the room at each
other and was like, holy shit, did we script this ourselves?
(21:10):
Because the argument that we had yesterday.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
I love taking me straight back to me and girls,
can I ask the snogging bit? Are they like practicing
on their arms? Are they practicing on like Hollywood posters,
are they putting lipstick on like their arm?
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Like that is kind of what rings true to me
at thirteen.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
It was like, no, no, it's very much that exactly
what you just did.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
No notes, we're going to cut that and that's going
to play everywhere. Now if you just macking on with
your hand, what are you doing? Was it your just pretend?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
It's just pretending.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Yeah, there's a scene of that, definitely. They go to
a kissing expert at one point, which is just like
the silliest thing ever. There's test to see if your
boobs are big enough. Like it is it's just pure
teenage girlhood fun. But it's also like this really lovely
moment of teaching you what friendship is at a young age.
I remember being in my early years of high school,
(22:05):
and up until that point, I don't think i'd never
actually given the concept of friendship that much thought. It
was just these are the people that are around me
by circumstance. They're my neighbors, they're the girls in my
netball team, like, of course we're friends. And it's only
as you get to high school and social dynamics start
to play out that you realize, oh, this is what
friendship is, and this is how you maintain a friendship,
and this is what's important in friendship, and this is
(22:27):
what would be something that would be considered crossing the lines,
like you know, going after the same boy that you like,
or ditching your girlfriends for a boy like that kind
of thing really plays out on screen here. It was
the first time that I'd really seen that and absorbed
it into my own world. I just love it so much.
Like if you haven't seen it, it's probably a bit
juvenile now if you're a grown woman, but I still
think it's worth a watch.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Did you read the book before you watched the movie?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
No, I read the book after. I didn't realize this
was based on a book, And I should say the
book is phenomenal. The film is also phenomenal. It's directed
by Grinda Chater And if you don't know that name,
that is the woman who gave a spend it like Beckham,
So she is very much in that wheelhouse.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I just rewatched that movie the other day. Yeah, I
love that movie.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
She followed it up with angus thongs and perfect snogging.
Cannot recommend more.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
You have converted me. I might have to go and
do that one.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
Caseenya, there's one book on this list that you and
I have both jotted down, so I'm keen to hear
your thoughts. So talking about The Great Gatsby, specifically the
twenty thirteen version starring one Leonardo DiCaprio. Now tell me
what's your experience with this book and then with the film?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Okay, So the book is like many of us read
in high school. It is kind of you know, the
classic Scott Fitzgerald. You have to read this at English
in high school. So that was kind of my experience
with it. But when it got the Basleerman treatment, that's
when I loved it because I am a bas Lerman obsessive.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh no, this is where we are going to split pads.
I maybe it is controversially cannot stand and I mean
cannot stand Basleerman films. This is the exception the Great Gatsby.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Oh my god, the Red Curtain trilogy. Well you didn't
like Molan Rouge.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Now I've got no time for it. Sorry, Australia, don't
want to sit through it.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I can'tot strictly what I can't like.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
His style of filmmaking is just so special now it's
over the top.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Oh, I love it. It's like theatrical it is. We
have very different tastes, Dailor, we have.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Very differ but I'm glad that we can agree on
The Great Gatsby. And this is why I think Basilan
was the right person to do this adaptation.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So, the Great Gatsby f Scott Fitzgerald. It's written in
nineteen twenty five. It's written in the peak of what
is the Great Depression. It is the most fu to
the lower class out there. It is showing the exuberance.
It's showing somebody like Nick Carraway played by Toby Maguire,
who's wonderful in this, trying to break his way and
(25:05):
edge his way into this upper echelon of society. And
there's always going to be something that keeps him back
at that peak moment when people were experiencing it, and
for it to be such an over the top affair,
Basleerman is clearly the only person who could have made
this happen. Yes, there are a couple of other remakes
of The Great Gatsby, but speaking specifically about this one,
(25:26):
of course, this man is going to make this film.
He's so Ott it was the perfect fit.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, And the way that they did all of the
you know, the driving from Long Island to New York,
the party scenes was just so classic bas Lerman. And
what we got from that movie was the very classic
meme of Leonardo DiCaprio winking with a glass.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Yeah, holding up his bottle. Yeah, I mean I'm holding
up my bottle. It's in a champagne coup. But anyway,
so you.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Know, we got that like extravagance of the nineteen twenties
and then intercut with kind of the more gritty side
of it as well.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Do you know It's so funny is when f Scott
Fitzgerald died in the nineteen forty I think he died
in nineteen forty. He died with this sense of like failure,
that his work never cut through, that he was just
this epic loser. And to think that eighty odd, ninety
odd years later this film came out is just such
(26:21):
a shame. Like it's such that classic thing of like
people do these incredible things and don't even necessarily realize
how much of an impact they've had. Like I said, like,
it's just really sad that if Scott Fitzgerald died thinking
like his work amounted to nothing, and it became this
big ott film that is so beloved. I mean, you
and I. It's the one thing we agree on about
Basloman apparently, which is great. But I would also recommend
(26:43):
seeing the other version of this, like the Robert Redford
Mia Farrow I think that came out in the forties.
That was a great rendition as well.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
It's interesting though. It's like, did you read it first
and then watch it? Or watch it and then read it.
It's a kind of a funny way to go into
the law of these characters.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
With crazy rich Asians. Did you read it first and
then watch it?
Speaker 3 (27:07):
No, I definitely watched it first. I didn't know this
was based on book series until a very long time
after the fact, and then once I had read the
first book, I was totally hooked. I read the entire
series in like the space of a month.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Okay, okay, because I did that with like Twilight, you know,
I watched the movies and then I read the books,
and like Hunger Games as well, like watch the movies
then read the books. But the other ones always have
been book first and then movies, slash TV series. Well, Taylor,
Now what we're going to do is go into some
(27:40):
of the books that we really want to see made
into movies or TV series. Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
That's a mouthful.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Have you read it? No again?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
One of my absolute favorite books written by Gail Honeyman.
It is so quirky, spoken from the perspective of Eleanor.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
She's a neurodiversion.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
The way that Gail writes her perspective is so funny
and clever. So again, Hello Sunshine, have picked this up.
It's in pre production. It hasn't been.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Made yet, okay, but I am desperate.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
For it to go onto screen because I would love
to see it play out.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Because SNYA is there like a Reese Witherspoon sponsorship. You
need to declare today do what.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
I actually didn't realize how entwined they were until I
started writing my list. For some reason, maybe Reese and
I just have the same taste in books.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Maybe you do. Hey, one that is also in production,
And I don't want to linger on this for too
long because there is something else that I want to
get to. But I'm glad my mom died. Is Jeanette
mccurty's memoir. I can see you're jumping up and down.
You're excited about this too.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I'm literally fist pumping.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Yeah. I am usually exclusively a memoir lady. When I
read this memoir, I was completely obsessed. I think Janet
mccurty's life is equal parts fascinating and horrific. If you
don't know who she is, she was a child star
Nickelodeon IKLA. You can look it all up on the Internet,
and as the memoir suggests, she's glad her mom died.
She lived a pretty tumultuous life and relationship with her
(29:16):
mum as a child star growing up. It's in development
right now for Apple TV. Plus the show is inspired
by her memoir. She's going to serve as an executive
producer and a showrunner. Jennifer Aniston has been cast to
play the mother figure, so I cannot wait for that
to come out. I'm going to need to borrow someone's
Apple TV login to watch it. But you and I
both equally excited for this by the sound of it.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Very much.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
And if you don't really feel like reading, this is
a great one to do as an audiobook. Yes, because
Jeanett mccurty actually reads it, so it's even more personal.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
One hundred percent agree with that. The one that I
would desperately love to see on screen. You know how,
sometimes when you're reading a book and you can see
what that book is going to look like, you can
visualize how that would play out on TV or film.
This is one for me. It's called How to Solve
Your Own Murder. It's from Kristin Perrien and it is
book one in a series that she's been working on
(30:07):
called The Castle Noll Files. The reason as as soon
as I started reading this that I could immediately see
how it would play out on screen is the book
is written in two different time periods. So the protagonist,
Annie Adams is a young woman from London. She has
an estranged aunt, great Aunt Francis, and once Aunt Francis
dies in the first book, there's a massive fortune to
(30:29):
be had. Great Aunt Francis has no other kids, she's
got no other relatives. Everything stands to be inherited by
Annie if she can solve her murder. Great Aunt Francis
is murdered by the way. So basically this book cuts
between two time periods, the sixties when great Aunt Francis
gets her fortune told. Fortune tell her she's going to die,
She's going to be murdered, and she basically lives her life,
(30:51):
setting up what is to be like the longest ever
murder mystery case of all time. And then Annie blows in.
In modern day, she works through Aunt Francis's old files,
eventually figuring out who murdered her if she does. I
don't want to give it too much away, but there
are like four books in this series, so you can
probably figure it out from that. It cuts between these
(31:11):
two time periods. Like I said, it's set in this beautiful,
small country town in England. She lives in this big
manner at the top of a hill. The local townspeople
aren't necessarily sure of her. They kind of thought Great
Aunt Francis was a bit of a batty old lady,
and then Annie comes to town and everything changes.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Okay, so those are some of the ones that we
really want to see. If you guys have any others,
please send us a DM.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
We would love to know. And just a little caveat here.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
We didn't include the obvious ones like Lord of the
Rings or Gamers Drones on purpose. We wanted to do
someone's that were a little bit different apart.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
From Big Little Eyes of course.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Thank you so much for listening to the Spill today
and thank you Taylor for joining us. Don't forget to
follow this Spill on TikTok and Instagram. The Spill is
produced by Manisha Yaswarn with sound production by Scott Stronach.
And we will see you back here in your podcast
feed for all of us celeb headlines at eight am
tomorrow with Morning Tea and then back with another episode
of the Spill at three pm.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Bye Bye,
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