We’ve become so used to the goofy Steve Carrell, on full display in theaters now as the dad in Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, that it may be difficult to believe that same guy plays billionaire John du Pont in this trailer.

The movie, which opens on Nov. 14, is generating Oscar buzz, (read what the cast members, including Vanessa Redgrave, have to say about it here).

It is based on the forthcoming hardcover

Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother’s Murder, John du Pont’s Madness, and the Quest for Olympic Gold, by Mark Schultz, and David Thomas

(Penguin/Dutton, 11/18)

Originally scheduled for release on Christmas Day, the Weinstein Co.’s adaptation of Michael Bond’s Paddington Bear has been moved to a different holiday, the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Jan. 16.

Official Movie Site: Paddington.com (which includes a look at Paddington as envisioned by various illustrators)

For tie-ins, check our Edelweiss collection.

Before you roll your eyes and exclaim, “Not another person jumping on the Y.A. movie bandwagon,” consider the book that Lena Dunham wants to adapt. It’s not dystopian, or an angst-filled teen romance, but Karen Cushman’s Catherine, Called Birdy, (HMH/Clarion) the 1994 Newbery Honor book about a girl growing up in the 13th century.

Interviewed at the New Yorker Festival on Friday night, Dunham said, “I’m going to adapt it and hopefully direct it, I just need to find someone who wants to fund a PG-13 medieval movie.”

She also said she has been obsessed with the book since she was a kid. If her tattoos from children’s books didn’t already tip you off, she is a big reader. In a 2012 NYT Book Review interview, she mentioned dozens of books, and said Birdy one of the two best books she’s ever read about girls. The other one? Nabokov’s Lolita.

UPDATE:
EarlyWord Kids Correspondent Lisa Von Drasek is such a fan of this book that, when told her the news, she instantly recalled the opening lines, nearly verbatim (we know; checked the OverDrive Sample):

I am commanded to write an account of my days; I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say.

The 20th anniversary edition, published as part of a re-release of 4 of Cushman’s books in trade paperback, includes an intro by Linda Sue Park (also on the OverDrive Sample), who says, “Cushman shows us a very different image of medieval England from the one we are used to seeing. Dirtier and smellier, yes, but also fuller, richer and more complete.”

We have to wonder how Dunham, who says in her memoir, Not That Kind of Girl, that she was a germaphobe as a kid, was able to deal with those details.

Lionsgate has announced that John Krokidas (Kill Your Darlings, 2013) will direct the film adaptation of the word-of-mouth debut hit Wonder, R.J. Palacio, (RH/ Knopf Young Readers).

The book is still #1 on the NYT Middle Grade Best Sellers list after 96 weeks. Entertainment Weekly predicts the movie will also be successful, saying it’s “bound to be the latest in a string of enormously successful YA adaptations,” (presumably, referring to what Hollywood now calls “grounded” Y.A. adaptations, like The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay, rather than the dystopian hits).

The big question: how will the movie deal with the main character’s facial deformity?

The trailer for the book avoided the issue:

David Fincher’s film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’ Gone Girl was a hit at the box office, beating out, but just barely, the original horror flick, Annabelle, the sequel to The Conjuring.

Most critics have also been fans (a notable exception is Joan Smith in The Guardian, “Gone Girl’s recycling of rape myths is a disgusting distortion“). NPR’s David Edelstein went so far as to declare it “more fun than the book” on Fresh Air.

Not declaring either better, the Independent grabs attention with a headline asking the crucial question, “Gone Girl: How was the book’s ending different from the film?”

Their answer, however, is “not that much.”

The book-to-movie site, Word & Film does an an analysis of “Gone Girl’s 5 Big Book-to-Film Differences.” The site is owned by Random House, publisher of the book, so they should know.

The film adaptation of Still Alice by Lisa Genova (S&S/Gallery, 2009), starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart and Kate Bosworth, won raves and Oscar predictions when it premiered at  the Toronto International Film Festival.

Those predictions now have a shot at becoming true. The movie is set for an Oscar-qualifying, limited release (NY and LA only) in December, opening in more theaters on Jan. 15, 2015

A clip was released last month:

Tie-ins are timed for the limited release:

Still Alice
Lisa Genova
S&S.Gallery: December 16, 2014
Trade Paperback
$16.00 USD, $18.99 CAD

Mass Market
S&S/Pocket Books: December 16, 2014
$7.99 USD, $9.99 CAD

Audio CD
S&S Audio: December 16, 2014
$19.99 USD, $23.99 CAD

More adaptation news below (for our full listing of upcoming adaptations, see our listing of Books to Movies and TV:

American Sniper — based on American Sniper, Chris Kyle, (HarperCollins/Morrow, 2012)  — Directed by Clint Eastwood, it stars Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, scheduled for limited release on 12/25/14, opening wide on 1/16/15 — USA Today’s first look — tie-ins scheduled for 11/25/15; see our tie-ins listing.

UPDATE:
The U.K. trailer has been released:

The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses —  BBC TV Series based on Shakespeare’s history plays, Richard III and Henry VI, Parts One and Two, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, (Richard III), Judi Dench, (Cecily, Duchess of York)  — Principal photography has begun — following the earlier Hollow Crown series, it will also be broadcast on PBS here.

Astronaut Wives Club — ABC TV Mini Series — Based on The Astronaut Wives Club, Lily Koppel,(Hachette/Grand Central; 2013), currently filming — Yvonne Strahovski joins cast as Rene Carpenter

Dovekeepers, CBS TV Mini Series — Based on The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman,  (S&S/Scribner, 2011.), produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, starring Rachel Brosnahan, Cote de Pablo, Diego Boneta;  Production has begun in Malta — tie-ins scheduled for 3/17/15; see our tie-ins listing.

Just when you thought it was finally over, the Twilight series may be revived.

The New York Times reports that Lions Gate, the studio that bought the studio behind the films, and Stephenie Meyer, author of the books and producer on the final two feature-length Twilight movies, have announced plans for five short films based on the Twilight characters, to be shown exclusively on Facebook next year.

Partially funded by the organization Women in Film, the program, called The Storyteller: New Voices of the Twilight Saga, will invite women filmmakers to submit short films based on the Twilight characters. Five will be selected by a panel of women in the entertainment industry, including Meyer and Kristen Stewart, star of the feature films.

When the Twilight series was coming to a conclusion, there were rumors that Meyer was planning more books in the series. There’s been no news on that since.

Quvenzhané Wallis, who. at 9-years-old, was the youngest actor to be nominated for an Oscar for Beasts of the Southern Wild, (she was only 5 when she auditioned for the role. She is now 11), has been named as the lead for the film adaptation of Holly Goldberg Sloan’s  Counting by 7s (Penguin/Dial, 2013; Dreamscape audio)

Reviewed widely, the  book received 15 state awards. Released in 2013, it spent 5 weeks on the New York Times Children’s Middle Grade Best Sellers list. Recently released in paperback, it went back on the list at #6 this week.

Wallis has yet another starring role coming up, as Annie, based on the Broadway musical and on the cartoon series. That movie will be released Dec. 19.

One of the most eagerly-awaited trailers of 2014 has just arrived. It’s for Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of  Thomas Pynchon’s novel Inherent Vice (Penguin Press, 2009), which  premieres at the New York Film Festival this weekend. Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers asked in his fall film preview, “Is Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master) the best director of his generation?”  and answered,  “I think so. So when PTA takes on the impossible task of filming Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon’s impossible phantasmagoria of a novel, attention must be paid.”

The release of the trailer caused the book to rise on Amazon’s sales rankings (to 98, from 239).

Based on the trailer’s less than 3 minutes, New York magazine says, “This looks to be the loosest, funniest film Anderson has made in quite some time.” The Daily Beast characterizes it as “The Big Lebowski meets Chinatown,”

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, and Owen Wilson, the movie hits regular theaters on December 12th. Supposedly, the notoriously reclusive Pynchon will have a cameo role.

For more upcoming books to movies, check our database of adaptations in the works, Books to Movies and TV. For tie-ins, see our Edelweiss collection.

Inherent Vice: A Novel (Movie Tie-in)
Thomas Pynchon
Penguin Press: November 12, 2014,
9780143126850, 0143126857
Trade Paperback

Praising Laird Hunt’s Neverhome, (Hachette/ Little Brown; Blackstone Audio) for its historical accuracy, Ron Charles in the Washington Post says the author not only avoids anachronisms, but gives the reader a feel for the psyches of his Civil War characters.

Charles notes that an important factor is the voices, “historically distant, like a foreign cousin of our own era.” He warns, “I suspect Hollywood is already circling around this story, trying to figure out how [one of the characters], Constance can be stripped of her irreducible oddness and transformed into a Civil War Lara Croft. (Resist, Mr. Hunt, resist!)”

Too late. Hollywood has not only circled, but landed, with director Lenny Abrahamson on board. Fortunately, Abrahamson seems comfortable with oddness. In his latest movie, Frank, he directed Michael Fassbinder wearing an oversized papier-mâché head throughout the film.

Before turning his attention to Neverhome, Abrahamson needs to finish his adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s Room, (Hachette/Little, Brown, 2010), starring Brie Larson as Ma, which is about to begin filming in  Canada.

Below are updates on other recent significant movie adaptations (check our Books to Movies & TV spreadsheet for a complete listing):

The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion, (S&S, 2013) — In development.

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain, (HarperCollins/Ecco, 2012) — Ang Lee (Life of Pi) will direct 

The Bridge and A Time to Dance, Karen Kingsbury — Part of a deal with the Hallmark Channel  to adapt several of Kingsbury’s novels; the first two are planned for 2015.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs, (Quirk, 2013) — Asa Butterfield (Hugo; Ender’s Game) may star as Jacob Portman. Eva Green is set to play Miss Peregrine. Production to begin, Feb., 2015, with release scheduled for March 4, 2016.  Directed by Tim Burton It will be titled simply, Miss Peregrine’s Home.

The Humbling, Philip Roth, (HMH, 2009) — Starring Al Pacino and directed by Barry Levinson, expected for release by end of 2014, to qualify for the Oscars.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith, (Quirk Books, 2009) — New cast members have been added, so it looks like it is actually happening.

11/22/63, Stephen King, (S&S/Scribner, 2011) —  Hulu orders 9-hour series, with J.J. Abrams directing.

The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman, (S&S/Scribner, 2013) — Production has begun in Marlborough, NZ

Serena, Ron Rash (HarperCollins/Ecco) — release date finally announced. VOD, 2/26/15, followed by limited theatrical release, 3/27/15

Paper Towns, John Green, (Penguin/Dutton Juvenile, 2008) — to be filmed in North Carolina.

Dystopia is not over.

Even before  the film adaptation of James Dashner’s The Maze Runner  became #1 at the box office this weekend, Fox anointed it an official success by announcing that the sequel is in pre-production in New Mexico, with the director, Wes Ball returning, as well as the lead, Dylan O’Brien.

The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, also the title of the second book in the series (RH/Delaccorte). is scheduled to debut in theaters in one year, on Sept. 18, 2015.

No announcement has been made about whether the third title in the trilogy, The Death Cure, will also be adapted, but that seems highly likely.

After the box office disappointment of The Giver, with no sequel in sight. this may hearten those behind other potential series, like The Seventh Son, based on The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch, the first in a series by Joseph Delaney, scheduled for release on Feb. 6 next year and The 5th Wave, based on the first in a series by Rick Yancey, scheduled for release on Jan. 29, 2016.

Reviews of David Fincher’s film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl are arriving, in advance of its premiere on Friday at the New York Film Festival. Word is strong, with Rolling Stone calling it “shockingly good” and ” the date-night movie of the decade,” some seeing Oscars on the horizon. There are, of course, a naysayer or two (“bait too slick,” Village Voice).

One thing the reviews agree upon; the ending has not been changed. Still, New York magazine says there are reasons to read the book first.

The movie opens in theaters on Oct. 3.

Adam Driver appears in two movies adapted from books this weekend. Getting the most promotion is the one based on Jonathan Tropper’s comic family novel, This Is Where I Leave You, (Penguin/Dutton, 2009), also starring Tina Fey, Jason Bateman and Jane Fonda.

The other, Tracks, is based on the 1980 memoir by Australian Robyn Davidson of her solo trip through the outback. It may not be getting the same level of promotion, but it ranks at #4 in the week’s People Picks, while This Is Where I Leave You  is at #10.

In the film, Mia Wasikowska plays Robyn and Driver, the real-life National Geographic photographer Rick Smolan, who took stunning photos of the journey. Smolan talks about that project in the following interview.and how eerie it was to go on set with Robyn, who is still a friend, and watch the actors recreate their younger selves.

Those who remember the heady days of CD-Rom may also remember that Smolan’s 1992 book, From Alice to Ocean included the first CD-Rom for the general public. That book is about to be re-released, with updated technology. Readers can point their smart phones at the photos to see how each scene plays out in the movie.

Inside Tracks : Robyn Davidson’s Solo Journey Across the Outback
Rick Smolan
Against All Odds Productions (Sterling) October 21, 2014

Davidson’s book, which is still available in trade paperback, has also been released as a tie-in:

Tracks (Movie Tie-in Edition): A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback
Robyn Davidson
RH/Vintage: August 26, 2014

After several teasers, the first full trailer has arrived (Forbes analyzes Lionsgate’s spoiler-free advertising campaign). Released Monday, it’s already been viewed over 7 million times.

Entertainment Weekly analyzes what the 1:48 minutes reveal.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, releases on Nov. 21. Part 2 arrives a year later.

Tie-in (for other upcoming movie tie-ins, check our catalog on Edelweiss)

Mockingjay: Movie Tie-In Edition
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic: September 30, 2014
9780545796682, 0545796687
$12.99 USD

Model/actress Cara Delevingne is in talks to star as Margo, the mysterious girl next door, in the adaptation of  John Green’s novel Paper Towns, (Penguin/Dutton, 2008)

Nat Wolff, who played a supporting role in TFIOS, will star as Quentin “Q” Jacobsen, who has been in love with her from afar for years.

Green, who is an executive producer on the film, tweeted yesterday, “Cara Delevigne’s audition blew everyone away (including me!) and she understands Margo profoundly. I am so excited!”

The movie is scheduled for theatrical release on 7/31/15.

In other Y.A. adaptation news, a new version of Lois Duncan’s I Know What You Did Last Summer (1973) is in the works. The 1997 adaptation starred Jennifer Love Hewitt. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Anne Heche. No stars or director have been named for this version. Duncan’s Down a Dark Hall (1972) is also in the works and is being proceeded by Stephenie Meyer. Lionsgate recently acquired the rights.

We report on only the most significant adaptation stories here. Our database of adaptations in the works, Books to Movies and TV now includes information on over 300 titles, with more than 80 updated in the last month.