The Name of the Rose
PARIS — Hollywood stars Rupert Everett and John Turturro are to star in the first television adaptation of its producers said Wednesday. The big- budget eight- part series drawn from Umberto Eco’s classic murder mystery set in the Middle Ages, will be screened next year, said Orange Content, the production end of the French telecommunication giant. American Turturro — best known for
— will play the Franciscan monk William of Baskerville who witnesses a series of macabre murders at a remote monastery in the Italian Alps. Britishborn Everett, of
fame, will play his old enemy, an inquisitor sent from Rome to track the Pope’s critics, who has Baskerville in his sights. The € 26- million ($ 32- million) coproduction is being shot by the Italian team behind the series. French director Jean-Jacques Annaud made a film version of the book starring Christian Slater and Sean Connery in 1986. —
Mercurial post-punk voice of The Fall, 60
NEW YORK — Mark E. Smith, the curmudgeonly frontman of The Fall whose ranting vocal style was the post-punk band’s most constant element over four decades, died Wednesday, his manager said. He was 60. The Manchester native last year canceled a seven-date stretch of concerts in New York, with his manager citing “a mix of bizarre and rare” medical issues “connected to his throat, mouth/ dental and respiratory system.” The manager, Pam Vander, did not reveal further details as she announced his death on Twitter but said a full statement would come later. The famously temperamental singer was the only consistent member of The Fall but even with revolving lineups the band proved highly prolific, releasing its 32nd studio album last year. While never finding — or really seeking — mainstream success, Smith’s brashness and embrace of other art forms influenced a younger generation of indie bands such as Sonic Youth and Pavement. Born to a working- class family, Smith’s vocals often resembled the shouting of a pub patron but his lyricism was complex and abstract, delighting his loyal fan base which tried to decipher his words. Memorable albums included
an exploration set to a ballet of Dutch king William of Orange’s ascension to the English throne in 1689. 1985’s which brought together both the dark flashes of punk and electronic elements, was often considered to be The Fall’s greatest album. The Fall — named for Albert Camus’s novel — was once seen as a rival to Joy Division as the leading post-punk band in Manchester in the late 1970s. The Fall’s sound shifted as members fled. Even his wife, the Greek DJ Elena Poulou, left as the keyboard player before the last album. A decade earlier, the couple created an album entirely with session musicians in Los Angeles after the rest of the band ditched them on a US tour. Smith also earned a reputation for pithy quotes in his interviews. Among them, “I used to be a psychic, but I drank my way out of it.” —