This is Not the Little Red Riding Hood I Remember

Warner Bros. Pictures.

This is not the Little Red Riding Hood I remember. With a super-steamy trailer and up-and-comer Amanda Seyfried playing the red-caped heroine, this one's getting filed under guilty-pleasure. I'm actually starting to like watching Amanda Seyfried on-screen, she's grown on me through her time on the addictive HBO series Big Love. But I think I can safely say she'll never be as hilarious as she was in Mean Girls! ("I think I have ESPN." 'Nuff said.)

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, (let's hope this is a little more Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, and a little less Twilight), you can see the obvious parallels between this and Twilight - the werewolves, the temptation of other-worldly passion. It also looks very teenage-melodrama and angst-y, which seems to be Hardwicke's specialty. But I don't know if I'd complain in Amanda's position, since it looks like whoever the wolf ends up being, casting pretty much guarantees he's swoon-worthy. Vulture's Willa Paskin explains it perfectly, that Hardwicke's "using a fairy tale as an allegory of sexual maturity, and a creature of legend to explore the age-old question, what do you do when your boyfriend's a monster and you're super-hot for him anyway?" I do love modern interpretations of fairy tales and stories, though, getting to see a different side to a story you already know by heart, plus the casting looks absolutely scrumptious. Either way, this takes fairy tales to a whole other level. Definitely leave the kids at home though.