Item World: Martin Freeman for "Fargo"; Cities 97 Sampler double disc, Four Fists' debut, more

Thriller writer Chuck Logan of Stillwater is looking forward to walking his first red carpet when "Homefront," a Hollywood adaptation of his seventh novel, premieres in late November, during the all-important Thanksgiving weekend holiday movie slot. Starring Jason Statham, James Franco and Winona Ryder with a script by Sylvester Stallone, the film takes a couple of major detours from the book — it's set in Louisiana, not Minnesota, and the novel's main character, a female Army vet married to Statham's DEA agent, is already dead at the beginning. "You can't have a strong woman showing up your action hero," Logan told I.W. "But they're trying to make Statham more emotionally accessible. So there'll be some acting in the movie, in other words. " Logan, who has spoken by phone with Stallone about other potential scripts based on his work, has a pragmatic approach to relinquishing creative control along with screen rights. "It's like selling your car; it becomes their property," he said. "When your book turns into a movie, it goes on the 'Star Trek' transporter and gets beamed into a parallel universe where the dynamics are different."

kristin tillotson

At its brand new mega-store in downtown Minneapolis, Whole Foods Market took the "shop local" mantra well beyond the produce aisle. The store's sandwich stand named its specialties after song titles from Minnesota music stars. There's the Raspberry Beret (raspberry jam and turkey), the Favorite Thing (ham, bacon, onions), the Closing Time, the Mr. Tambourine Man and, of course, the Funkytown — taken from Prince, the Replacements, Semisonic, Bob Dylan and Lipps, Inc., respectively. The one that stumped us for a minute is the Brick Layer (roast beef), based on a relatively obscure song even by Hüsker Dü standards. But then, the Everything Falls Apart doesn't really make for an appetizing sandwich moniker.

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

Film buffs no doubt know where British writer Ian Fleming picked up the name James Bond for his urbane, shaken-not-stirred, hero. But I.W. was surprised to see a copy of James Bond's "Birds of the West Indies" in "Audubon and the Art of Birds," a luscious exhibit opening Saturday at the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum of Natural History. Turns out that Fleming, a keen birder who lived in Jamaica and owned a copy of Bond's book, lifted the name from the American-born, British-educated ornithologist. Fleming later said he was looking for a terse, masculine, "unromantic, Anglo-Saxon" name. Amused, the real Bond said he was "fine with it."

Mary Abbe

Another week, another Twin Cities singer shines on NBC's "The Voice." On Tuesday, it was Ashley DuBose, 23, a single mom raised in St. Paul who has sung backup with Caroline Smith and rapper Mike Dreams and recently promoted her own impressive neo-soul album. DuBose earned praise from all four "Voice" coaches with her version of Rihanna's "Diamonds." Her voice "cuts through like a laser through this entire place," Adam Levine said. "It overtook the room." DuBose chose Levine as her coach. Last week, Holly Henry, 19, of Minnetonka, landed on Blake Shelton's team.

A Brit known for his ability to play the straight-man foil to more colorful characters has been cast as the quintessential Scandi-American car salesman in "Fargo," the TV version. Martin Freeman, who plays Bilbo Baggins in the "Hobbit" film franchise and Dr. Watson to Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes in the BBC's modernized "Sherlock," will portray Lester Nygaard, loosely based on Jerry Lundegaard, whom William H. Macy immortalized in the Coen brothers' Oscar-winning, set-in-Minnesota movie. The 10-episode FX miniseries, set to begin production next month in Canada, also features Billy Bob Thornton. Though the series will have the same tone as the movie, it follows a new story line. Joel and Ethan Coen are executive producers on the project.

K.T.

The 25th edition of the Cities 97 charity sampler will be extra special — two CDs featuring 33 tracks, with 40,000 copies available Nov. 21 at Target stores for $32.97. (Previously, sales were capped at 35,000 because of royalty issues for artists and songwriters.) With "Cities Sampler Vol. 25," the radio station (97.1 FM) hopes to raise more than $1 million for Minnesota charities; previous samplers have generated more than $10 million. As the adult-rock radio station evolves into more of a Top 40 direction, Cities officials will likely stick with the predictable Matchbox 20 and Phillip Phillips types along with maybe some surprises. The artists' names will be revealed — a few at a time — on Cities 97's morning show with Brian Oake and Keri Noble, beginning Monday.

JON BREAM

Set to play their first headlining show together as Four Fists on Tuesday at the Triple Rock, Twin Cities indie-rap visionaries P.O.S. and Astronautalis will finally make good on a project they've been hyping for three years — and have been thinking about even longer. "We've seriously been trying to put an official group together since 2004," P.O.S. revealed to I.W., referring to the year he and Astro man first met on the Warped Tour. Their two punky tunes on a 7-inch single dropping Tuesday, "MMMMHMMMM" and "Please Go," date back to sessions in P.O.S.' attic during the brutal winter of 2011. "He was crashing on my couch at the time, so it was a perfect excuse for us to finally go for it," P.O.S. remembered. If that doesn't all sound Minnesotan enough, the lyrics are inspired by a book of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories he gave to Astro. One detail still unresolved, though, is when the rest of those 2011 tracks and more recent Four Fists recordings will surface. Said P.O.S.: "We'll see."