NEW YORK (Reuters) – Clint Eastwood wrestles with mortality in his latest directorial effort, “Hereafter,” but the Hollywood legend is hardly sentimental about the possibility of an afterlife at the age of 80.

“Hereafter” stars Matt Damon and weaves in spectacular scenes of real life events, including the 2004 tsunami and the London 2005 bombings. The script by British writer Peter Morgan explores several characters who face questions of what is beyond life and death.

Eastwood talked to Reuters about whether he thinks more about death as he ages and if he believes in psychics.

Q: Why did Steven Spielberg recommend you to do this film?

A: “He always loved ‘Unforgiven.’”

Q: What about the film’s topic interested you enough to take it on?

A: “The whole thing of near death experiences has always been a curiosity. Because there have been so many people who have done that — who have died for a few minutes and then all of a sudden, resuscitated, or came back. They do report a similarity of things, whether it’s psychologically induced or pre-induced or whatever, I don’t know.

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Clint Eastwood wrestles with mortality in his latest directorial effort, “Hereafter,” but the Hollywood legend is hardly sentimental about the possibility of an afterlife at the age of 80.

“Hereafter” stars Matt Damon and weaves in spectacular scenes of real life events, including the 2004 tsunami and the London 2005 bombings. The script by British writer Peter Morgan explores several characters who face questions of what is beyond life and death.

Eastwood talked to Reuters about whether he thinks more about death as he ages and if he believes in psychics.

Q: Why did Steven Spielberg recommend you to do this film?

A: “He always loved ‘Unforgiven.’”

Q: What about the film’s topic interested you enough to take it on?

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York-based authors Nicole Krauss and Peter Carey were among the National Book Awards finalists announced on Wednesday, but celebrated author Jonathan Franzen was a surprising omission from the list.

Krauss was nominated for her third novel, “Great House,” about loss and longing, alongside Australian author Carey for his historical work “Parrot and Olivier in America” in the top category for fiction.

They were joined by Lionel Shriver for “So Much for That,” which examines America’s health care system, Jaimy Gordon for “Lord of Misrule,” and Japanese American writer Karen Tei Yamashita for her novel, “I Hotel.”

But Franzen, whose “Freedom” received lavish attention and high praise from critics as well as being Oprah Winfrey’s new pick for her influential book club, missed the cut. His 2001 novel, “The Corrections,” won the same prize.

The list for one of America’s top book honors included 13 women among the 20 finalists, which the National Book Foundation said was the largest number of women ever nominated.

Winners in categories for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature will be announced at ceremony held in New York on November 17. Eligibility required each book be published in the United States between December 1, 2009, and November 30, 2010, and written by a U.S. citizen.

In the nonfiction category, musician Patti Smith was nominated for her memoir “Just Kids” that captures her struggling youth and relationship with American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Condoleezza Rice admits the Bush administration made mistakes after the September 11 attacks but readers seeking her view on the decisions leading to the war in Iraq will find no such grist in her new memoir.

“We made our mistakes undoubtedly,” the former Secretary of State told Reuters in an interview to promote her memoir “Extraordinary, Ordinary People,” published on Tuesday in the United States.

But Rice remains proud of the achievements of the administration of President George W. Bush.

“For an administration, for which every day after September 11 was September 12, and every day you thought it was going to happen again. I am very grateful that we were able to do what we were able to do,” she said.

Unlike former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose recent memoir made headlines for his assertion that he does not regret joining the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Rice does not address her role in helping lead America to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in her memoir.

The memoir is the first of two planned volumes and reflects on her parents raising her as an only child in the race-fueled 1950s and 1960s American South. It also tells the story of how the education promoted by her parents — both teachers — led to her becoming the first black U.S. Secretary of State.

The book ends with her appointment as National Security Advisor nearly eight months before the 9/11 attacks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sometimes, a little peace goes a long way. Indians, led by Mohandas Gandhi, found out. African American followers of Martin Luther King, Jr. learned too.

So did a village of Palestinians and their Israeli counterparts from a reluctant hero, family man and his 15-year-old daughter. Their little-known story is documented in a new film “Budrus,” whose makers hope will spread a message that peace can bring change, even in a war-torn land.

As Palestinians and Israelis attempt to restart peace talks, “Budrus,” which opened in New York over the weekend and spreads around the United States in coming weeks, takes on greater meaning.

The documentary film shows the father and daughter duo leading a throng of Palestinian villagers, notably joined by some Israeli supporters, in a nonviolent crusade to protect their agricultural village, Budrus, from a barrier being built to separate the two ethnic groups inside the West Bank.

Budrus is 31-kilometers from Ramalla in the northern West Bank, and the film shows villagers peacefully protesting Israeli bulldozers even as the machines uproot olive trees — and their Palestinian culture — in 2003, when they campaigned for 10 straight months to reroute the barrier.

“It’s a small story, it’s a small village,” said director Julia Bacha. “But there are many lessons to be learned from what happened there and many of the things that they did in this community can be applied broadly.”

To retell the story in a compelling fashion, Bacha gathered footage taken by protesters and villagers after the events and coupled it with fresh interviews of major players from both the village and the Israeli army.

NEW YORK, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The audience for director David Fincher’s “The Social Network” is expected to grow in coming months, spurred by fan buzz and rave reviews after a $22.4 million opening weekend at U.S. and Canadian box offices.

As the movie world heads into awards season, Fincher returned from Sweden where he has been filming the Hollywood version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and talked to Reuters about how the film got made, what he thinks about Oscar buzz and how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is depicted.

Q: Why not have early test screenings of “Social Network”? That must have made Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal nervous.

A: “When we finished it and we showed it to her, I said ‘If you throw it out to a bunch of mall rats and bring ‘em in to watch this movie to tell you if it is working or not, this movie is going to be dissected on Facebook before you have a chance to generate your notes about what it is.’

“So I said ‘I urge you not to preview screen this movie’ … and let’s put it out without ever having shown it to anyone’ and Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal said, ‘OK’.”

Q: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has not cooperated with the film. How does the movie portray him?

A: “I hope he seems human. I hope he seems like a real person with insecurities and aspirations and he is fiercely protective of his creation as he should be, as I think that it ultimately gives his stay on this planet a reason.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – American novelist Philip Roth dislikes e-books and the distracting influences of modern technology, which he feels diminishes the ability to appreciate the beauty and aesthetic experience of reading books on paper.

The author, celebrated for such novels as “The Human Stain,” believes there is nothing anyone can do about it. Yet, even as he shares his belief about new technology, it is hard not to consider that by writing shorter books — something he has done regularly since his 1959 debut “Goodbye, Columbus” — Roth has long been ahead of his time.

“It is a shame. It is also what is happening, and there is nothing at all to do about it,” the 77-year-old Roth told Reuters, discussing the changing publishing landscape in the digital age during an interview for his new book, “Nemesis,” which is released in the United States and Britain on Tuesday.

“The concentration, the focus, the solitude, the silence, all the things that are required for serious reading are not within people’s reach anymore,” he said.

Beginning with film in the 20th Century, then television, then computers, and more recently social media networks such as Facebook, the reader is now utterly distracted, he said.

“Now it is the multiple screens and there is no competing against it,” Roth said.

Roth does not plan to buy any kind of e-reading device such as Amazon’s Kindle. “I don’t see what the point is for me,” he said. “I like to read in bed at night and I like to read with a book. I can’t stand change anyway.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Just after turning 50, Kristin Scott Thomas sometimes feels ignored, even though on screen she has managed to avoid the pitfalls of an aging actress unable to nab complex roles.

The British actress largely credits French cinema and society as embracing women as they age, as seen in her new French film, “Leaving,” which opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, in which she portrays a repressed married woman who embarks on an all-consuming affair.

It’s the kind of role that embraces the idea that as women age they are complicated yet sensuous and desirable, the Paris-based actress said in a recent interview in New York.

“I have become an invisible 50-year-old,” the Paris-based actress said glancing around a hotel in a recent interview in New York. “But I don’t think that French cinema has got a problem with age at all … they like seeing and telling and watching stories about women my age.”

In “Leaving,” Scott Thomas said she had forgotten that numerous sex scenes were required, but was persuaded into doing them by director Catherine Corsini. Now she is relieved to be promoting a character neither bland nor forgotten.

“I am really pleased to be talking about women of my age who, yes, they have desire. They have life inside of them. They are not just regretfully looking at their children and thinking ‘Ah yes, I was beautiful too once,’” she said.

“Leaving” also touches on other issues, including abusive relationships — “domestic violence in middle class, ‘nice’ families is something I have always been horrified by.”

NEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) – They say Hollywood never lets the truth get in the way of a good story and while a new movie about Facebook has left some critics wondering if its story is fact or fiction, audiences are unlikely to care.

“The Social Network,” which hits U.S. cinemas on Friday, has been scoring early critical raves and even Oscar buzz, yet its claim on depicting the true story of the birth of the hugely popular social networking website is drawn from a book that was slammed for its reporting methods.

Just like Oliver Stone’s “JFK” was criticized as taking liberties with historical facts in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, “Social Network” by director David Fincher follows a long line of Hollywood films that have caused controversy for their creative depictions of real-life characters and for scenes of events that never happened.

But in an age where viewers demand reality TV, knowing it is often missing elements of the truth, audiences may care less about authenticity than ever before, film experts said.

“We blur the line between reality and fiction so much recently on television and in movies that screenwriters and authors taking liberties to dream up something dramatic and interesting is okay,” said Deadline Hollywood columnist and film critic Pete Hammond.

“The Social Network” tells how Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was transformed from a socially awkward, arrogant student at Harvard University with girl troubles to largely creating the social networking website that currently has more than 500 million members and is worth tens of billions.

Besides questions about the book on which it is based – Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal” – stirring the debate is that Zuckerberg did not cooperate with the film.

NEW YORK, Sept 28 (Reuters) – It’s the most anticipated new production at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in years, but this time the eyes are on the high-tech scenery rather than the world-class singers.

The $15 million production of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold, that will span out into a full cycle of Wagner’s “Ring” operas over several years, was met with cheers and standing applause coupled with a few scattered boos at a gala opening on Monday.

Seen as part of the Met’s bid to attract a broader and younger audience, the opera’s technical centerpiece is a rack of 24 joined tall fiberglass planks which can twist and spin over 360 degrees, and rise and fall as the story beckons.

The production began with three Rhine maidens hoisted high into the air by suspension cables off the planks, which were constantly bathed in changing, intricately-designed projections and lighting.

Top Canadian theater director Robert Lepage, who has worked on such mass appeal productions as Cirque du Soleil, told Reuters that Rheingold’s special effects were delicately balanced so as to not take away from the singing.

“People will recognize an aesthetic that is very close to the early productions of Wagner, and at the same time ground-breaking technology and ahead of the curve avant-garde vocabularies,” he said.

The much-hyped technical wizardry also includes video images of pebbles that interacted with the singers on stage, moving when they moved.