Hey! Where's the Ending???

Don't you hate it when you're reading a book, and it just suddenly stops? Does it make you want to throw the book against the wall?

No, I'm not talking about a badly written book with an ending that makes no sense.

I'm talking about a book where the ending is totally removed.

"Never happen!" you say?

Think again.

Catherine Hardwicke, of the Twilight movie franchise fame (at least the first one), has a new movie coming out. Called Red Riding Hood, it brings back the "latent sexuality" of the original fairy tale, a supernatural story (hopefully there will be no vampire fangs and much more skin pigment in this one) that re-tells the classic tale for a modern audience.

But according to Macleans magazine (this is the general "Newsmakers" page, with this particular story being headlined "No Fairy-Tale Ending Here"), the controversy is regarding the novelization of the movie, by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright.

You see, the book has no ending. At least not until the movie comes out.

In an effort to keep the ending of the movie secret, the book instead has an URL in the back of the book that will take you to a web site where you can find the ending.

Once the movie comes out.

Is this what the media world has come to, the conglomeration of various different types of media into one huge ball, dependent on each other?

Some authors have been very innovative with this type of thing. Jasper Fforde has a lot of web content that heightens the experience of his books, and his site is very much worth looking at.

News programs have interviews on the show, with the "complete" interview being hosted on the show's web site. You no longer get the full interview by watching the show. On the other hand, this gives them a chance to do a more in-depth interview. You can broadcast the best part on the show itself and then, if somebody wants to hear more, they can go to the web site.

But to have a book depend on a web site seems to be taking things a bit too far. You shouldn't have to go to a different form of media in order to follow a story.

This is ridiculous.

Besides, does the movie change the story that much? Do Hood and the wolf go on the road for an orgy of violence, like Mickey & Mallory?

Or something equally as stupid?

What do you think? Should media be mixed to this extent? Should a different form of media be required for the recipe to be successful?

Or should the combination of media just add a little spice to an already delicious concoction?

And does anybody really care about this movie anyway?