PREVIEW OF THE YEAR 4
BRAVE Pixar’s highland fling has a lot of heart
After dropping the ball with Cars 2 last summer – the only one of their 12 feature-length releases so far to have been deemed a bit lacklustre – the award- winning animation house will be looking to score big again with Brave. Set in the misty and mysterious Scottish Highlands, the film tells the story of Merida (Kelly Macdonald), a flame-haired princess who rebels against the staid traditions of her clan elders. As ever with Disney-backed releases, some seemingly insurmountable challenge presents itself (in this case a witch’s curse – very Macbeth), and Merida must rely on her strength of character to see her through. While the story may be as old as the hills, it does give Pixar another opportunity to render a landscape as beautiful and atmospheric as the Amazonian jungle in Up, or the deep blue vastness of Finding Nemo. The voice talent is top-notch too, with Macdonald joined by Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane, Emma Thompson, Kevin McKidd, Julie Walters and Craig Ferguson. (Niki Boyle) ■ General release from Fri 22 Jun.
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LIKE THIS? Justice The French electro duo rock the Academy, Glasgow, party live. O2
TRY: Sun 12 Feb.
MAJOR LAZER Tsunami of sound from musical alter-ego
Brace yourselves for some sub-heavy electro dancehall from Diplo and Switch as they unleash their collective alter ego Major Lazer: ‘A Jamaican commando who lost his arm in the secret Zombie War of 1984. The US military rescued him and repurposed experimental lazers as prosthetic limbs.’ After collaborating on MIA’s ‘Paper Planes’ and Santigold’s debut album Diplo and Switch rediscovered their love of the reggae soundsystem and mashed it together with their own dancefloor quaking electronica at the legendary Tuff Gong Studios in Jamaica. Working with a selection of respected dancehall vocalists (including Busy Signal, Ward 21 and Mr Vegas) they created a future-dub-funk hybrid on debut album Guns Don’t Kill People . . . Lazers Do. Now the Major is a veteran of rocking soundsystems around the world, so expect a tsunami of sound as they cram their full live show into the ABC. And get down early for top notch support from Toddla T and Unicorn Kid. (Henry Northmore) ■ O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sun 22 Apr.
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22 THE LIST 5 Jan–2 Feb 2012
MILLENNIUM TRILOGY COMICS Denise Mina adapts Stieg Larsson’s crime classics
There’s not a lot left to say about Stieg Larsson. The three homegrown film adaptations of the late Swedish author’s novels – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – along with David Fincher’s Hollywood remake of the first film, have made him the subject of intense scrutiny. They’ve also ensured his protagonist – tough, bisexual computer hacker Lisbeth Salander – a place in crime film and fiction’s hall of fame. Yet, after all the many words, now come the pictures. News has arrived that celebrated Glaswegian crime writer Denise Mina has been commissioned by American publishing giant DC Comics to adapt Larsson’s books into six graphic novels. Larsson’s estate has given Mina creative free-reign and the Scottish writer, who will be working with illustrator Leonardo Manco (with whom she previously collaborated on the Hellblazer horror comic series), has said she’s going to make Salander even spikier by focusing more on the effects of her background of sexual abuse and on her relationship with another woman.
Each book will be adapted into two graphic novels, with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo to be released this year and Fire and Hornet’s Nest to be published in 2013 and 2014. The Larsson legacy expands, then, and in a worthwhile and thrilling way. (Miles Fielder) ■ Look out for the first part of the trilogy in March.