“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues…”

Long live The Lorax! Ten years after Theodor Geisel’s demise, the beloved picture book will be made into an animated movie, starring Danny DeVito as the Lorax and Ed Helms (The Office) as the Once-ler. Dr. Seuss’s widow, Audrey, is co-producing the film, and has said that the Once-ler will remain a mystery–the new movie will not attempt to draw the character beyond the familiar arms that show up in the book.

There are a couple of new characters in the movie, including a love interest (named Audrey, for Mrs. Geisel), and Rob Riggle (The Hangover) will play O’Hare, an industrialist type. Also, Zac Efron will voice the boy, now named Ted in an homage to the author. Betty White will play Ted’s grandmother. In addition to being much bigger than the 1972 animated television musical, the new film will be in 3-D. (This will insure that actual environmentalists will not be able to afford to see it.)

In a world where books, movies, television, and social media are increasingly intertwined, could Tyra Banks be the new Oprah? The ANTM host Twitted that the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire, is “Soooooo good!!!” Somehow, I don’t think Scholastic Press is going to issue an emergency reprint based on Ms. Banks’ recommendation, even had Oprah already quit.

Speaking of Scholastic, the publisher is celebrating its 90th anniversary by, among other things, launching a social networking site called Bookprints. Users build a profile around the five books that had the most impact on them; the site also allows users to view the favorite books of celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg, Scarlett Johansson, or former-President Bill Clinton. (I never thought I would ever have reason to mention those three people in the same sentence–I can now die happy.)

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Publishers should be turning their attention to Obama‘s book club: the President’s receipt of an advance copy of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom set off a small storm in the publishing industry, back in August, and the book has since sold briskly, despite Oprah rescinding her coveted Book Club invitation. In fact, every time Obama mentions what he is reading (or is pictured with a book) sales jump. That could be celebrity, or perhaps just the novelty of having a President who reads. When was the last time we had one of those?

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Speaking of Franzen and Obama, White House Correspondent Jake Tapper blogged about seeing the author leaving a meeting with that very head of state last Monday, October 24. The tête-à-tête was, according to Franzen, “delightful.” Indubitably.

Mashable reports that the eBook platform wars will continue indefinitely. Well, no, that’s not what the report says, but sales of eBooks have nearly tripled in the last 12 months, which ensures that B&N, Amazon, et al, will keep fighting over the biggest piece of the pie–$39 million in August 2010, or $263 million so far this year. Dead-tree book sales remain bleak across all categories–despite alarmist and misleading articles by the New York Times targeting picture books.

Fans of Nobel winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez can rest easy: the author has finished a new novel, En agosto nos vemos, or We’ll Meet in August, his first in six years. In the meantime, you can pick up Yo no vengo a decir un discurso (I Didn’t Come to Give a Speech), a collection of (Oh, the wit! The irony!) Garcia’s speeches. Hopefully, the 83-year-old cancer survivor will continue to beat the odds, and write for many more years.

Want to go viral? Researchers at the University of Washington have determined that all you need to be blog-famous is get mentioned by The Huffington Post or Daily Kos. According to the research, so-called “elite blogs” are the real media elite of the Digital Age and “are often the first to trigger distribution of particularly interesting videos.” Leave it to the UW to produce a research study that makes your average 13-year-old with DSL say, “D’oh!”

Today’s news of the marriage of traditional media (trad-med?) to digital wraps with the download that former The Daily Beast culture editor Rachel Syme has been picked up by NPR. Ms. Syme will be the new books editor. We wish her all the best in her new position.

As part of NPR’s new (and long overdue) project to improve their books coverage, they are also asking for feedback. It’s a survey! Who doesn’t love a survey?