Hitting Screens, Week of March 7, 2016
Book adaptations did not fare well this week as reviews are mixed for Tina Fey’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (based on the memoir The Taliban Shuffle, Kim Barker, (PRH/Doubleday, 2011), tie-in: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (The Taliban Shuffle MTI): Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, (PRH/Anchor, 2/23/16).
Variety calls it “haphazard and often misguided” while Entertainment Weekly gives it a B-, starting the review with “;War zone rom-com’ is one of those movie concepts that, like ‘incest Western’ or ‘Holocaust farce,’ sounds like an idea maybe better left untapped.” Rolling Stone, however, praises Fey’s performance, as does Vanity Fair.
Audiences turned a cold shoulder to it. According to Entertainment Weekly, it performed “well under expectations of a double-digit opening”
Fulfilling and even exceeding expectations is the kids blockbuster Zootopia, now “the biggest Walt Disney Animation Studios opening of all time” surpassing even Frozen. It’s not based on a book, but there are tie-ins (see our listing).
Two adaptations hit screens small and large in the upcoming week; Season 2 of Amazon’s Bosch and The Young Messiah.
Bosch is one of Amazon Prime’s original series and is based on the detective novels by Michael Connelly. Titus Welliver stars as LA homicide detective Harry Bosch.
Season one was immediately successful with viewers (critics were warm) and became the only Amazon dramatic series renewed for a second season, according to the LA Times.
The first season drew from the novels City of Bones, Echo Park and The Concrete Blonde. The second season will rest on Trunk Music, The Last Coyote, and The Drop.
Timed for the run-up to Easter is the Biblical movie, The Young Messiah, starring Sean Bean, David Bradley, and Jonathan Bailey.
It is based on the Anne Rice novel originally published as Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (PRH, 2005). Rice’s second volume in the life of Christ came out in 2008, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana (PRH).
Tie-in editions of the first volume came out in late January and featured both the book and the movie title on the cover. The Young Messiah (Movie tie-in) (originally published as Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt), Anne Rice (PRH/Ballantine Books; OverDrive Sample – also in mass market).
Both adaptations hit screens on March 11.