I'm prepping you early for this one because it's important. The film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Stardust is now scheduled for release next summer. It was initially intended for an Easter release but on the strength of a rough cut the studio were confident enough to bump it up to the summer selection. This means considerably more marketing, but also stiffer competition. For a film no one's heard of, the names attached to the project are impressive: Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sienna Miller, Robert De Niro (and a small role for one of my favs, Rupert Everett), with the proceedings helmed by Layer Cake writer-director Michael Vaughan. Its budget is a respectable Hollywood size at around $79 million. The official movie site has just stirred into life, so expect content soon.

So what is it? Essentially Stardust is a fairy tale for grown ups about a boy who leaves home to search for a fallen star. Gaiman wrote it as a novel and it was then re-relased as a fantastic illustrated work with art by Charles Vess adorning every page ("prose with decorations" as he likes to call it). Vaughan stresses that in his screenplay he has tried to ground the proceedings in reality as far as possible, unlike Pan's Labyrinth, another mature fairy tale which fully embraces its fantasy side with out-of-this-world make-up and luscious gothic visuals. Pan's Labyrinth, directed by Mexican Guillermo del Toro (now famous for Hellboy), is due out in a few days.