The trailer for Life of Crime, based on the late Elmore Leonard’s novel The Switch, (HarperCollins/Morrow), starring Jennifer Aniston, was released last week. The movie, which also stars John Hawkes, Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), Isla Fisher and Tim Robbins, opens on August 29.

Director Daniel Schechter described his efforts to buy the rights to the novel in a story in The Rolling Stone last year, and expressed the hope that Leonard would have appreciated the outcome. With the exceptions of Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, and the FX series, Justified, Leonard wasn’t a fan of the majority of the many adaptations of his work.

The novel is one of a series of trade paperback rereleases of Leonard’s classic backlist published by HarperCollins/Morrow. It is also in the Library of America collection, Elmore Leonard: Four Novels of the 1970s, coming in September (Penguin/Library of America).

Trailer, below

Below, yet another attempt to try to make up for that creepy trailer we posted earlier, something to warm the heart and perhaps the stomach, the trailer for The Hundred-Foot Journey, based on Richard C. Morais’s novel about the rivalry between the owners of two restaurants that are just 100 feet away from each other in southern France. Helen Mirren appears to be at her haughty best (even with a rather uneven French accent), and director Lasse Hallström, (Chocolat), returns to the familiar ground of food and France.

The book is described on Oprah.com’s feature, “Books To Read Before The Summer Blockbuster Movies Come Out“:

In Richard C. Morais’ food-centric world, nights are as “black as a boudin noir”; the sun sets like “a mango sorbet dripping over the horizon.” If you love to eat—particularly French or Indian food—you’ll be right at home in that world, tagging along with Hassan Haji and his family, as they taste their way from India to England to rural France. There, they open Maison Mumbai and engage in a culinary culture war with a snooty French madame who runs the elegant, Michelin-starred restaurant across the street. The film version (produced by none other than Oprah, Steven Spielberg and Juliet Blake) delivers lush alpine landscapes and Helen Mirren as the prickly epicurean. But enjoying the fantastical nature of the dishes—for example, the roasted pigeon—takes a little imagination. Devour all 200-odd pages in one sitting.

Tie-in:

The Hundred-Foot Journey 
Richard C. Morais
S&S/Scribner
July 8, 2014
9781476765853, 1476765855
Paperback / softback
$15.00 US / $17.99 Can.

The leads have been cast for Kevin Powers’ 2012 National Book Award finalist, The Yellow Birds, (Hachette/Little, Brown; Thorndike Press; Hachette Audio). Benedict Cumberbatch will play army Sergeant Sterling, who leads a platoon in Iraq. Will Poulter and Tye Seridan will play two Privates he takes under his wing (Entertainment Weekly).

David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) is set to write and direct.

When the book, a debut, was published, it received a great deal of press attention, including cover stories in both Parade magazine and the New York Times Book Review.

Powers published a book of poetry last month, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, (Hachette/Little, Brown).

Media focus has been heavy on Glenn Greenwald’s No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State (Macmillan/Holt/Metropolitan Books; Macmillan Audio), propelling it up Amazon sales rankings (it’s currently at #14).

More attention may be coming, in the form of a movie. Sony has optioned rights. Many have noted the book reads like a spy novel. Appropriately, Sony is planning to produce the movie with the team behind the recent James Bond movies.

In addition to earlier appearances on the Today Show, The Colbert Report (where he said he is working on an even more explosive story on the NSA), and NPR’s Fresh Air, Greenwald appeared on Fox News today.

Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, Rosewater, has been acquired for release in the U.S. by Open Road Films.

The film is based on one of the many books Stewart has featured on the Daily Show, Maziar Bahari’s memoir, Then They Came for Me, (Random House, 2011), about the author’s imprisonment in Iran.

The title comes form the nickname of one of Bahari’s captors. It stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, whose previous credits include the role of Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries.

The release date has not yet been announced.

Below, Bahari appears on The Daily Show in 2009, after his release:

Wild, based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir (RH/Knopf; RH Audio; Thorndike; 2012), an Oprah 2.0 pick, about the author’s efforts to resolve some deep personal issues by hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, is now scheduled for release on Dec. 5. As the L.A. Times notes, that date puts it squarely in to awards season.

Director Jean-Marc Vallée’s last film Dallas Buyers Club received multiple Oscar nominations, including Best Picture (it won for Best Actor and Supporting Actor). Reese Witherspoon is both star and producer.

John Green is now officially famous, proclaims a Wall Street Journal profile.

Librarians already know Green pretty well, from his books, online videos, and appearances at library shows and that he once worked at Booklist.

Here’s a few bits we gleaned from the profile:

1) He needs grooming (he always looked fine to us, but the WSJ photo, NOT the one above, lists a credit for “Grooming by Nickee David”)

2) He’s a hypochondriac who avoids physical contact with strangers (from his ease at sold-out appearances, we assumed he loved strangers)

3) His seemingly down-home videos are created with five writers, editors, directors, and producers, and are shot on a set, using a SCRIPT

4) He has 25 employees in total

5) His merchandise company (T-shirts and fan art) grossed $2.3 million last year

In case we need to remind you, the movie of Green’s book, The Fault in Our Stars, debuts on June 6. According to the WSJ, Hollywood is convinced it will be a hit and already sees it “as a new model for low-risk, high-reward teen blockbusters.”

The clips and featurettes for How to Train Your Dragon 2 are arriving at fast pace. You can keep up with them on the Official Web site, HowToTrainYourDragon.com. The movie, which is based on the series by Cressida Crowell, opens June 13th.

Below, the featurette (or link here):

There will be a full complement of tie-ins, of course:

Toothless: A Dragon Hero’s Story, Erica David, Lane Garrison
Simon & Schuster, May 6, 2014
9781481419284, 1481419285
Hardback / Picture book
$16.99 USD / $19.99 CAD

Dragon Race!, Cordelia Evans
Simon & Schuster, May 6, 2014
Ages 3 to 7, Grades P to 2
9781481404747, 1481404741
Trade paperback (US) $6.99 USD / $7.99

A Tale of Dragons Natalie Shaw, Fabio Laguna, Katrina Mae Hao
Simon & Schuster, May 6, 2014
Ages 3 to 7, Grades P to 2
9781481404341, 1481404342
Trade paperback (US) $3.99 USD / $4.99

 
Dragon Mountain Adventure: Ready-to-Read, Level 2, Judy Katschke, Charles Grosvenor, Justin Gerard
Simon & Schuster, May 6, 2014
Ages 5 to 7, Grades K to 2
9781481404402, 1481404407,
Trade paperback (US) $3.99 USD / $4.99 CAD

All About the Dragons Judy Katschke
Simon & Schuster, May 6, 2014
Grades K to 2
9781481404853, 1481404857
Trade paperback (US) $3.99 USD / $4.99 CAD

How do you turn a 30-some-page picture book into a full-length movie? You add a lot, as the just-released trailer for Disney’s live-action movie based on Judith Viorst’s 1972 classic, Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Atheneum) indicates.

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), it stars Ed Oxenbould as Alexander, Steve Carrell as his father, Jennifer Garner, his mother. Dylan Minnette plays the older brother and Kerris Dorsey, his sister. The movie arrives in theaters on Oct. 10.

Tie-ins have not been announced.

On Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List” in the new issue, the movie Belle, opening in NY and LAs tomorrow, and expanding into more theaters through May and June, is described as, “More emotional and affecting than your typical costume drama, this story about the orphan child of an English aristocrat and a slave unfolds beautifully.” The review goes on to make some intriguing comparisons, “like a Jane Austen novel spiked with an extra shot of social conscience … like Downton Abbey but with corsets, culottes and tricorn hats, Belle subtly skewers the absurd rules and hypocrisies of class.” (official web site, with trailer, here).

Based on a true story, it is directed by black female British director Amma Asante, who, keenly aware of how difficult it is to break into the film business, has insisted on diversity both in front of and behind the camera.

The lead actress is widely regarded as on the verge of a major career, with Entertainment Tonight, declaring, “Soon Everyone Will Be Talking About Gugu Mbatha-Raw.”

The tie-in is a an original paperback:

Belle: The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice
Paula Byrne
Harper Perennial;  April 29, 2014
9780062310774, 0062310771
Paperback / softback
$14.99 USD / $18.50 CAD

The cover story for Friday’s issue of  Entertainment Weekly is “The Fault In Our Stars: How the Greatest Romance Story of This Decade Made It To The Screen,’ featuring the stars of the upcoming movie based on the John Green novel, Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort.

We probably don’t have to remind you that it debuts in theaters on June 6. We’ve been saying that for so long that it’s hard to believe that it’s now just over a month away.

Before he became a household name for the HBO series True Detective, director Cary Fukunaga directed the 2011 version of Jane Eyre.

His upcoming projects are also book adaptations. His next for Sony, reports Deadline, will be a feature film based on 2013 Biography Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count of Monte Cristo  by Tom Reiss (RH/Crown; 2012)

Next month, he begins shooting a film in Ghana based on Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala, (HarperCollins, 2005), with Idris Elba in the lead. A debut novel  about a child soldier in West Africa, it won several awards, including the 2006 New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award.

This leaves in question what is happening with the planned two-film version of Stephen King’s massive novel It for Warner Bros., which was announced over two years ago.

Just in case you’ve forgotten that the movie arrives in theaters on June 6, FOX has released a new extended trailer:

Steven Spielberg is set to direct a live-action movie based on Roald Dahl’s 1982 picture book, The BFG, (Macmillan/FSG YR), about a girl named Sophie who is captured by  a big friendly giant (presciently, Dahl came up with the shorthand title years before social media). Filming is expected to begin in early 2015, with release planned in 2016.

Meanwhile, BBC One is about to begin shooting  a TV movie adaptation of Dahl’s Esio Trot, starring Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman.

Many of Dahl’s books have been made into films (including The BFG, which was  made into a 1989 animated film). Dahl wrote several adaptations himself, including one for the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice.

The Infinite Sea, (Penguin; Penguin Audio) the second in Rick Yancey’s YA trilogy, which began with the best selling The 5th Wave arrives in September.

Meanwhile the film adaptation for the first book is gearing up. Chloe Grace Moretz has been announced to star as Cassie, a teenager trying to survive waves of alien invasions, with J Blakeson directing.