"Words are life." It's not just a pithy piece of advice given to protagonist Liesel Meminger in the first trailer for "The Book Thief," but also epitomizes the entire premise of Australian author Markus Zusak's best-selling novel upon which the film is based.

With WWII Germany as its backdrop, "The Book Thief" tells the tale of young Liesel (Sophie Nélisse), who's taken in by foster parents Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson) following the death of her brother. Despite being unable to read, she finds solace in stealing books. When Hans discovers a purloined volume in her room, he begins teaching her to read and write. Liesel continues pilfering books, but shares them with neighbors, as well as the young Jewish man, Max, hiding in the family's basement. It's Max who offers those sage words to Liesel. "All those pages. They are for you to fill," he tells her.

Straddling the boundary between YA and adult literature, "The Book Thief" earned positive reviews when it debuted in 2006, and has spent more than 350 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.

" 'The Book Thief' will be appreciated for Mr. Zusak's audacity, also on display in his earlier 'I Am the Messenger,' " Janet Maslin wrote in her 2006 New York Times review. "It will be widely read and admired because it tells a story in which books become treasures. And because there's no arguing with a sentiment like that."

The big-screen adaptation, directed by Brian Percival from a script by Michael Petroni and featuring music by John Williams, opens ...

One Direction attended the premiere for their 3-D flick, Tuesday night in London. And even though Zayn Malik's engagement to Little Mix's Perrie Edwards caused lots of buzz at the fete, fans still want to know how all-access the August 30 flick really is.

"The toilet scenes were a little bit awkward, but apart from that it was good," Harry Styles dished to MTV U.K., with Malik adding, "I think the thing is when it's 3-D, it's like a massive camera. It's a bit different, but you just try and think of it as a normal camera and then whatever."

It's a big week for the fellas of 1D. After performing at the Staples Center and taking home three Moonmen at the 2012 VMAs, the guys are slated to make an appearance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards where they are up for Best Song of the Summer for their upbeat single, "Best Song Ever."

Until Sunday's VMAs, they will just be making the rounds spreading the word about their Morgan Spurlock-directed doc, out next week. And while the guys have never been shy about letting fans into their world, this movie takes it to the next level.

Liam Payne said, "That was one of the main things, really. The movie's kind of here to show a different side of us and a few things they might now know. It is a movie for you to know a bit more.

Louis Tomlinson added that filming was only annoying "sometimes in the morning... where sometimes you'd be a bit ...

Lady Gaga appears to have found a new cause. On Tuesday (August 21), the "Applause" singer took a moment out of her Video Music Awards prep to express her distress at Pfc. Bradley Manning's sentencing to 35 years in prison.

"The news of Bradley Manning's sentencing is devastating," Lady Gaga tweeted this afternoon about the U.S. soldier. "If our own can't speak up about injustice who will? How will we ever move forward?"

Manning, 25, was sentenced by a military judge today after sharing more than 700,000 government files to pro-transparency site WikiLeaks in 2010, leaking military and diplomatic information to the masses, the New York Times reports. This is the longest sentence ever given in such a case, but Manning will be eligible for parole after serving one third of his sentence.

Several celebrities — including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Russell Brand and Moby — have come out in support of Manning in the past under the auspices of a campaign called "I Am Bradley Manning."

At press time, Gaga's tweet about Manning had been retweeted more than 3,000 times.

In the past, Gaga has also spoken out against the Russian government, who recently passed a national law banning "homosexual propaganda" among minors — a law she would have broken previously by promoting gay rights onstage in that country.

After sharing her thoughts on the Manning sentencing, Gaga apparently took off for rehearsals for the 2013 Video Music Awards, where she will open the show on Sunday with the debut performance of her ARTPOP single "Applause."

"Off to ...

Earl Sweatshirt couldn't wait for his debut album, Doris, to hit stores on August 20, but he thought it was too bad that when the moment finally came, he was on tour opening up for Eminem.

Right... We were confused too.

The Odd Future gang, including Tyler, The Creator, is currently opening for Em in Europe, but Earl admits that he had other ideas about how he wanted to celebrate his big day.

"I met him at Coachella and part of me is excited just because it's Eminem, but I'm gonna be there when the album comes out, so I'm pretty bummed," he told MTV News ahead of the album's drop date. "I would so much rather be at home when the album comes out."

And what exactly would Earl prefer to be doing at home? "I would sit on my couch," he said matter-of-factly.

Don't get it twisted though, the 19-year-old rapper is definitely a Shady Stan, but he just wasn't anticipating this turn of events after waiting so long to release the album. "I'm a big-ass Eminem fan, it's just crazy that this is how this unfolded," he continued. "So I guess it's cool — I mean, I'm not now, but like probably at around 6 p.m. on that day I'll start getting really excited."

Earl Sweatshirt Hopes Doris Will Take The Focus Off His Private Life.

"If he says something about the album on that day then I'll be like aiiight fo' sho, but if it's just a show and we leave with f---ing pissy Tyler and go back to the ...

One Direction has brought their world domination to the big screen in their new documentary/concert film "One Direction: This Is Us," directed by "Super Size Me" creator Morgan Spurlock. With yesterday's big premiere in London — just days before the group's planned appearance at Sunday's VMAs — a handful of overseas critics got an early look at "This Is Us" and share their thoughts. Check out a sampling of what they had to say about the movie in our early review round-up below.

The Story So Far
One Direction is, needless to say, an extraordinarily successful English/Irish quintet assembled from the outcasts of a 2010 "X Factor" audition. "X Factor" overlord Simon Cowell noticed the fivesome among the aspirants, and wondered if perhaps assembling an entire group of attractive teenage male singers might prove a winning business model. It was a gamble, to be sure, but once tethered together, One Direction ended up finishing in third place and immediately signed to Cowell's Syco Records label, where they quickly evolved into a worldwide sensation, becoming the first British act to top the U.S. album charts with a debut album. — Andrew Barker, Variety

Zayne gets engaged to Little Mix's Perrie Edwards - check out the ring!

No Inside Dirt?
What's the opposite of warts-n-all? 'No warts' doesn't even begin to describe Morgan Spurlock's fly-on-the-wall film about One Direction. No warts, no acne -- there's not even a pimple on the butt of this on-tour portrait of the reality-bred boy popsters. The director is Morgan Spurlock -- the man who took ...

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" may not start shooting until early 2014, but rumors are already circulating about who could play half of an exciting new duo in the upcoming Marvel Studios sequel. Bleeding Cool dropped a hint that Elizabeth Olsen may be director Joss Whedon's top pick to bring the Scarlet Witch to life. This comes after initial frontrunner Saoirse Ronan apparently passed on the role.

While the profile of Elizabeth Olsen isn't as high as that of her older sisters — Mary-Kate and Ashley — she's made a name for herself by taking on challenging leading roles in indie films like "Liberal Arts" and "Martha Marcy May Marlene." "Avengers: Age of Ultron" would catapult the 24-year-old actress into the spotlight in a big way, especially following her highly anticipated appearances in upcoming films: Spike Lee's "Oldboy" and 2014's reboot of "Godzilla."

To determine whether Olsen is a perfect fit for the crimson-clothed Wanda Maximoff, here are five important facts about the Scarlet Witch.

Second Lady of the Avengers
Wanda Maximoff first joined in 1965's "Avengers" #16 in a controversial issue that replaced heavy-hitting characters like Iron Man and Thor with reformed villains: the Scarlet Witch, her super speedster brother Quicksilver and the expert marksman Hawkeye. Fans threw a fit at the decision, but they should never have doubted Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's decision: Captain America's self-proclaimed kooky quartet went on to win over audiences, making the three new additions mainstays of the team for the next four decades. Scarlet Witch was the second woman to join the team ...

Although the meteoric rise of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis can, in many ways, be attributed to YouTube and the viral nature of their single and video "Thrift Shop," Macklemore admitted in a recent interview that he's happy that the Web didn't exist as it does now when he was coming up.

In the past, Macklemore has spoken in glowing terms about YouTube -- where "Thrift Shop" has been viewed hundreds of millions of times -- to MTV News: "YouTube has played this role in terms of the modern music video that you don't have to have the man behind you pushing the music and dumping a million dollars into a Hype Williams [directed] video in order to be successful," he said of the video, which was decidedly low-budget, yet still captured the attention of the public at large, as well as the Video Music Awards.

On a recent appearance on live interview show , however, the 6-time VMA nominee explained how when he first started rapping at age 14, YouTube could have destroyed his career.

"I didn't really know that my voice sounded like a chipmunk when I was 15 years old," the Seattle rapper said. "I thought I was dope. If YouTube had been around, I would have got shat on back then."

Not one to mimic the flow of others, it took Macklemore a while to find his sound -- one that would be worthy of Internet stardom -- a journey that was also hindered by his long struggle with drugs and alcohol. In the years that he ...

After the world was shaken by the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, a group of people took on the task of figuring out what happened that day in Dallas. That's the story being told for multiple points of view in "Zac Efron, Billy Bob Thorton, and Paul Giamatti.

In the first trailer, which just hit the web over at Yahoo! Movies, we see Efron as Jim Carrico, the first-year surgical resident who was the first doctor to attend to Kennedy upon his arrival to Parkland hospital on November 22, 1963.

Along with last year's "The Paperboy," this marks yet another more adult role for Efron as he attempts to transition into the next part of his movie career.

"Parkland" also focuses on the efforts of the Secret Service who are investigating Lee Harvey Oswalt and the infamous Zapruder film, the highest quality look at the shots that killed the president. Giamatti plays Abraham Zapruder, the man who made the home video recording. Thorton played Forrest Sorrels, a member of the Secret Service from the Dallas office that finds Zapruder and his film.

The trailer then shifts to the FBI agents in Dallas, one of whom is James Hosty, the man charged with investigating Lee Harvey Oswald, played here by Ron Livingston, before following Oswald's family, including his brother ("Iron Man 3's" James Badge Dale) and mother, played by Academy Award nominee for "Silving Linings Playbook" Jackie Weaver.

This all amounts to a large-scale ensemble picture that appropriately represents to confusing and complex nature of the events that day.

"Parkland" opens ...