Marie O’Regan

Paul and I were delighted when an invitation to a private screening of Neil Gaiman’s new film, Stardust, arrived a couple of weeks ago, especially when the timing coincided with a weekend we were in London for the BFS Open Night on 1st June.

So off we trotted last Sunday to Paramount Pictures in London, looking forward to what we hoped was a good film (I read the novel ages ago, and was a bit muzzy on some details, plus I wanted to see how it had turned out). A very nervous Neil introduced it briefly; as an almost complete version of the film. Some of the music wasn’t finished yet, but there was place holder music on the soundtrack (recognisable bits from Dracula, Edward Scissorhands, and the end tune was the entirely appropriate Starman by David Bowie, which I love anyway), and what we were to see wasn’t too far off the final cut.
It’s an excellent film. The lead characters, Tristan and Yvaine (played by Charlie Cox and Claire Danes) were touching, and funny, and….honest. That’s the best way I can think to describe them, they were totally believable and utterly likeable. And the rest of the cast were just as good. Robert De Niro was very funny as Captain Shakespeare, as was his crew, headed by Dexter Fletcher; Ricky Gervais had a brief but very funny spot as Ferdy the Fence, and Michelle Pfeiffer made a great evil witch. Top notch. It opens over here in October, and we’ll definitely be taking my daughter, Jen, she’ll love it.

If you go and see one fantasy film this year, make it Stardust. You won’t regret it.

I really do have to be more organised about posting here, the days just seem to rush by lately.

Things seem to have got even more hectic since I last posted - Paul and I got married at the end of March, it seemed like we’d been planning it for ages but would never get there. Okay, so it was a bit nippy seeing as it was only March, but the rain held off and 60 of our family and closest friends came to help us celebrate. It was a perfect day (even if my sons do think I turned into the antichrist briefly before leaving home for the hotel), and it was lovely to see everyone. You can see pictures from the wedding and the World Horror Convention 2007, which was held in Toronto, over on Paul’s site, should you so wish. Well, where else would two horror authors go on honeymoon?

WHC was a blast, brilliantly organised by Amanda Foubister, Stephen Jones and Mandy Slater. By the end of it they were exhausted and poor Steve had lost his voice. I was glad that Paul and I flew out early, the day after the wedding, as it gave us a few days to ourselves to do the touristy thing first, shopping, sight-seeing…we even had a day at Niagara Falls, where it was a beautiful sunny day - once the Con started there was too much to see and do to venture out much.

We got to meet Pete Atkins and his lovely wife Dana, which made Paul’s week as he’s a complete Hellraiser nut (which everyone must know by now, surely) and had been in touch with Pete about his Hellraiser book previously. We also got to meet Nancy Kilpatrick and her partner, Hugues LeBlanc, both lovely people who will hopefully be at FantasyCon this September, and a lot of friends from the UK: Chris Teague, Stuart Young, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Pinborough, Mark Morris, Steve and Mandy, Mike Marshall Smith with his wife Paula and son Nate, Pete and Nicky Crowther, Ramsey and Jenny Campbell…it was like FantasyCon all over again

And then it was back to the UK and work, and normal life resumes. Good to be home, though At the moment we’re both trying to finish fiction pieces we’re working on in between other things. There are some articles coming up in various places (Hub, Writing Magazine), I’ve been lucky enough to interview Betsy Palmer and Mike Carey, both really lovely people and with a lot of interesting things to say (details of where and when soon), plus reviews and the tutoring work. And…oh yes, life. That was it Somewhere in that lot I try and find time to spend with the kids and sorting out the house and the inevitable mess that teenagers bring.

We were delighted to get an invitation to a private screening of Stardust last Sunday, but that was so good it deserves its own post…