According to this little Variety snippet, DreamWorks Animation is producing an adaptation of A. Lee Martinez’s novel Gil’s All Fright Diner. If you haven’t heard of the book (I hadn’t, but then, there’s a lot I don’t hear about), here’s what you need to know:

Something Evil (that’s with a capital E) is stalking Gil’s All Night Diner in Martinez’s terrific debut, a comic horror-fantasy novel. Heading the delightfully eccentric cast are buddies Earl (aka the Earl of Vampires) and Duke (aka the Duke of Werewolves), who are looking for a place to eat as they drive through Rockwood, a small desert community besieged by cosmically weird stuff. Soon after stopping at Gil’s Diner, the pair help Loretta, the formidable owner-operator, fend off a zombie attack. Determined to do the right thing, the two supernatural misfits take on further challenges, such as trying to prevent Tammy (aka Mistress Lilith, Queen of the Night) and her loyal but dumb boyfriend, Chad, from ending the world.

The screenplay is being adapted by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris (who also wrote Kung Fu Panda for DreamWorks) and the film will be directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (it’s been 11 years– I think we can forgive him for Wild Wild West now). With the right character design and an adherence to what sounds like a dark Douglas Adams style of humour, this could be pretty good. Have any of you read the book? What’d you think?

Centipede Press, a publisher that specializes in “the finest in crime, horror, horror film studies, and science fiction”, has released a gorgeous edition of Guy Endore’s classic werewolf novel, “The Werewolf of Paris”.

Our edition, the only edition currently in print, features a new introduction by Thomas Tessier (author of The Nightwalker), the complete text of the novel, numerous wood engravings, and a color gallery of old hardcover and paperback covers as well as film adaptations. Cloth, $75

Centipede has been described as the “Rolls Royce of horror publishing“, and by all accounts, the editions they publish are second to none. If you’re a bibliophile with a penchant for classic horror, you might want to consider adding this to your shelf. For those with a bit more to spend and an appreciation for macabre art, Centipede also publishes Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King, an art book that includes Bernie Wrightson’s gorgeous illustrations for “Cycle of the Werewolf”.

Here’s an assortment of items that have hit my inbox over the course of October, but that I’ve been too busy or distracted to post.

• The Yorkshire Post has an interview with Jenny Agutter, who played nurse Alex Price in An American Werewolf in London. She discusses her role in AWIL and talks about how the audience reacted to the initial screening of the film.
• The Grosse Pointe Farms Department of Public Works in Michigan is home to a boulder that bears the footprint of Le Loup Garou, the werewolf of Grosse Pointe. Hooray for urban legends!
• Here’s a printable 3D werewolf paper craft, in case you’re locked in a room with a colour printer and 15 minutes to kill. I may have crafted one of these for my office desk.
• pjstar.com has an interview with Professor Leslie Sconduto, author of “Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study from Antiquity through the Renaissance”. Choice quote: “There’s a werewolf for everyone. Each to its own. One to suit each taste.”
• Champions Online is running a game event called “Blood Moon“, wherein the game’s world is overrun with werewolves, vampires and other monstrous creatures. Players can battle (and become) these monsters, and of course there’s a number of werewolf-related items to be had. There’s a free trial available for anyone who wants to try the game out, but it expires at 10 AM Pacific on November 2nd. That’s in, like, 10 hours. Hurry! HURRY!
• The BSC Beat has an interview with Mark Chadbourn, author of the recently-released Hellboy novel Hellboy: The Ice Wolves. You can read a preview of The Ice Wolves at the Dark Horse web site.
• Scribblenauts is an interesting game that’s just come out for the Nintendo DS. The idea is to solve puzzles by typing in the name of virtually any object you can think of that might help. That object then appears in the game and does its thing, whether it’s a ball, a chainsaw or a platypus. You can probably guess where I’m going with this… yes, you can summon werewolves. Here’s a Youtube video of two garlic and stake-infused werewolves scaring a vampire to death. I want this game just so I can do that, over and over.
• Cinematical explains why it’s worth it to replace your DVD copy of An American Werewolf in London with the recently released Full Moon Edition on Blu-ray. Apparently the new bonus content alone is worth the cost! I wish I had a Blu-ray player.
• I also wish I had an Xbox 360. The LIVE Marketplace has got werewolf costumes for your Xbox 360 Avatar.

Many thanks to people who submitted these items!

E! Online is reporting that HBO’s super-popular supernatural drama True Blood will add an actual werewolf character – sorry, Sam –in season three: fan-favourite (fans of the books, anyway) Alcide Herveaux. This is another show I haven’t seen yet (I really need to figure out my roommate’s DVR) but judging from the enthusiasm of my prime-time TV-crazed co-workers, True Blood seems to be… pretty good. In any case, it’s bound to get better with the addition of a werewolf (doesn’t everything get better when you add a werewolf? Oh, wait. I guess not).

If you’re at all interested in books, you’ve probably heard of the recent classic literature / horror novel mashups Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. These silly (but generally well-received) conglomerations of classic prose and monsterific additions have been sufficiently popular that Del Ray’s doing it again, this time with werewolves. GalleyCat has announced that Little Women, the story of the March sisters, will be retold as “Little Women and Werewolves”. No word on a publication date yet, but here’s a description from the publisher to keep you interested:

In this retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s classic, the beloved little women must keep not just the wolf, but the werewolves, from the door…and the kindly old gentlemen next door and his grandson may have some secrets to hide–or share with the March girls.

I was trying to save my effusive praise until I’d actually read a copy, but I would be lying if I said the mere title of this book didn’t make me giddy. Written by Ritch Duncan and Bob Powers and lovingly illustrated by Emily Flake, The Werewolf’s Guide To Life looks like the lycanthropic response to the Zombie Survival Guide. It’s packed with sensible advice, survival tips and illustrations like the one below. It hits shelves on September 15, and you can pre-order it from a number of online retailers (including the ubiquitous Amazon). I’m trying to arrange an interview with the authors, so stay tuned!

It looks like artists like Dark Natasha, Goldenwolf, and Synnabar have joined forces to become a lycanthropic strikeforce of pure awesome… and create a werewolf-themed calendar for 2010. Check out their well-drawn and nuanced images at WerewolfCalendar.com.

There’s a new review up at Lycanthrope Library for Cherie Priest’s novel Dreadful Skin.

Here’s an excerpt:

Synopsis: A gun-toting, lycanthropic nun from Ireland is on the hunt for a murderous werewolf named Jack. She follows him across the American West where he eventually teams up with a traveling werewolf preacher looking to form a pack.

…Dreadful Skin is an interesting and bloody addition to the werewolf genre. There’s plenty of ethos and pathos to appeal to the reader, along with a good dose of violence and gore…

As always, I’m still looking for more reviews to be submitted, especially since my own seem to be on the short side.

SOScotland sent me a note on Twitter, kindly informing me that there are 12 short stories about werewolves available to read in their entirety (or listen to via podcast) on Jeffery Hite’s web site. Jeffery does a weekly thing where authors are invited to write between 100 and 3,000 words on a designated topic, and the topic this time around is “Silver bullets, the real reason that some cowboys carried them.”

The titles and authors are:

• Silver Bullets; the real reason that some cowboys carried them by Eric Moseman
• Skinwalker by Travis Nelson
• High Moon by Zach Ricks
• Waltzing with Werewolves by Mick Bordet
• Bad Medicine by Scott Roche
• Letters by Danny Machal
• Silver Solves The Dilemma by Mick Bordet
• Suspicions and Silver Bullets by Eldon KR
• Silver Bullets by Val Griswold-Ford
• Other kind of Vampire by Patrick and Jeff Hite
• Changing Times by Jeffrey Hite
• To be a man, part II by Norval Joe

There’s some great reading material there, and you can vote for your favourite, so go check them out!

Children’s author Jayne Lyons recently contacted me to tell me about her book, 100% Wolf.

Freddy Lupin is no ordinary boy. He is from a noble family of werewolves. But his first Transwolfation is a disaster when instead of turning into a noble and fearsome wolf, he turns into a totally tiny, utterly ridiculous and perfectly pathetic poodle. Terrifying Uncle Hotspur throws him out of the wolfpack in disgrace. At least he’s met Batty the mongrel, the most faithful friend a poodle could find. And he needs friends, as the evil wolf-hunter Dr. Foxwell Cripp has just shown up in town.

Can Freddy prove that though he’s a pink poodle, he’s still 100% wolf and save the werewolf pack from disaster?

Jayne has made the first chapter available for free as an MP3. I listened and enjoyed myself immensely, both as a fan of werewolves and children’s books (hey, they’re fun). Jayne has also gone to great lengths to provide kid-friendly werewolf information on her site, which is wonderful to see.

100% Wolf comes out in August, and is available for pre-order on Amazon. Thanks for sharing, Jayne!