In the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, director David Fincher reveals that he has changed the ending of Gone Girl for his film adaptation, which releases on Oct. 3 (the cover shot, left, is not a still from the movie; Fincher himself took the eerie photo of stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in a variation of the famous Yoko Ono/John Lennon pose).

Smart move; this will add the intrigue for the legions of fans of the book. It may also benefit the book; those who see the movie first may be enticed to read the book to compare the endings.

Author Gillian Flynn embraced the complicated job of rewriting her book as the screenplay. She tells Entertainment Weekly, “There was something thrilling about taking this piece of work that I’d spent about two years painstakingly putting together with all its eight million LEGO pieces and take a hammer to it and bash it apart and reassemble it into a movie.”

Here’s a fun game to play with book clubs — “How would you change the ending?” (the web site Bookish offers five spoiler-filled ideas).

We hear that Buzzfeed‘s list of “16 Books To Read Before They Hit Theaters This Year” is having an effect on holds in libraries. Also see our list of upcoming books to movies, with tie-ins (Note: BuzzFeed includes A Long Way Down, Wild,  Serena, none of which have U.S.release dates yet, so we have them listed as In Production).

This big year for movie adaptations is ending appropriately, with several arriving over the next few days.

As USA Today notes, seven new films open on Christmas Day, plus another on Friday, taking advantage of the fact that, “Over the past decade, Christmas week has been the year’s highest-grossing stretch.”

The majority are adaptations (for trailers, see our links at the right, under “Movies & TV Based on Books — Trailers”).

Three are based on books (links are to the tie-ins):

The Wolf of Wall Street, (based memoir by Jordan Belfort; tie-ins, Random House) — The Daily Beast examines “The Real Wolf of Wall Street: Jordan Belfort’s Vulgar Memoirs,” while the NYT writes, “Investors’ Story Left Out of Wall St. ‘Wolf’ Movie. The abridged audio tie-in has a bit of Hollywood glitz; it is narrated by Bobby Cannavale.

The Invisible Woman,  (limited opening, to expand later; based on the bio of Charles Dickens’ mistress, Nelly Ternan, by Claire Tomalin ) — USA Today gives it 3.5 stars

Lone Survivor, (limited, to expand later; based on the best selling 2007 memoir by Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell; tie-ins from Hachette/Little, Brown ) — USA Today writes that the movie strives to stay true to the book.

Three are adaptations of other written material:

47 Ronin, (loosely based on Japanese folklore, the tie-in, published by Macmillan/Tor is a novelization of the movie).  — Forbes, among others, does not expect this mega budget film to make back the investment.

August: Osage County (Dec. 27 based on a the the 2007 play by Tracy Letts; tie-in, Perseus/Theatre Communications Group) — the New York Times notes that play adaptations can be risky, and even more so, a dark comedy opening during what Sarah Palin has called the “jolliest season of them all.”

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty — Many liberties are taken with James Thurber’s 1939 short story in this updated version, starring and directed by Ben Stiller. There are no tie-ins, but Audible.com offers a free interview and reading of the story by Stiller. USA Today calls the movie, “well-intentioned but insipid.“

Next year is shaping up to be another strong at the movies for books. Already scheduled are adaptations of Monuments Men, Winter’s Tale, Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Giver, This is Where I Leave You, The Maze Runner, Gone Girl and Unbroken  (see our listing, with tie-ins).

We kind of hate ourselves for falling for “first” hype around movies; the first teaser, the first full length trailer, and now the first clip. But, here we go…

The first clip from the film adaptation of the YA dystopian novel, Veronica Roth’s Divergent, debuted on Entertainment Tonight and on Yahoo Movies yesterday.

Tris and Four KISS…

Divergent arrives in theaters on March 21.

The studio is so confident they have a hit on their hands that they’ve already scheduled the other two movies in the trilogy; Insurgent for March 20, 2015 and Allegiant for March 18, 2016 (IndieWire), breaking the recent tradition of dividing the final book in a series into two movies.

The tie-in editions will be published in February:

Divergent Movie Tie-in Edition
Veronica Roth
HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books
On Sale Date: February 11, 2014
Hardcover: 9780062289841, 0062289845
$17.99 US / $21.00 Can.

Paperback: 9780062289858, 0062289853
$9.99 US / $11.99 Can

The first images have been released  for the adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s best selling Soviet era thriller,  Child 44, (Hachette/Grand Central). Starring Tom Hardy, as a demoted secret police agent battling both his superiors and his unhappy wife, played by Noomi Rapace, while trying to track down a serial killer who targets children, it costars Gary Oldman and Vincent Cassel, and is directed by Daniel Espinosa (Safe House).

Before the heavily promoted debut was published in 2008, Ridley Scott bought the film rights to this first book in a trilogy that continued with The Secret Speech (2009) and  Agent 6 (2012).

No release date has been announced, but the film is expected some time in 2014.

Smith is publishing a new book in June, The Farm, a contemporary psychological thriller.

With the tag line “One Sick Love Story,” the first poster for the adaptation of John Green’s YA novel The Fault in Our Stars (Penguin/Dutton YR), has just been released, featuring Shailene Woodley as Hazel, wearing an oxygen tube (click on the image to see more details), and Ansel Elgort as Gus. The movie opens June 6, 2014.

UPDATE: John Green responds to some negative comments on the poster’s tag line on his Tumblr site, saying that, although the tagline is not his decision, ” I like the tag line. I found it dark and angry in the same way that Hazel is (at least at times) dark and angry in her humor. I mostly wanted something that said, ‘This is hopefully not going to be a gauzy, sentimental love story that romanticizes illness and further spreads the lie that the only reason sick people exist is so that healthy people can learn lessons.’ But that’s not a very good tag line. I like the tag line because it says, literally, the sick can also have love stories. Love and joy and romance are not just things reserved for the well.”

The poster is currently being offered as a perk to those who donate to the Indiegogo campaign for awesomeness.

Before the release of TFIOS, Woodley and Elgort will be seen playing brother and sister in the adaptation of another YA novel, Veronica Roth’s Divergent, (HarperCollins/Tegen), scheduled for release on March 21. Ads for it are set to debut on Facebook tomorrow (trailers were released earlier) in a test of the site’s new auto-play ad feature.

Q: What’s the link between Fifty Shades of Grey and the life of P. L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins?

A: Both have been adapted as movies (the latter titled Saving Mr. Banks), with scripts by Kelly Marcel.

Marcel, who was handpicked by E.L. James to adapt Fifty Shades of Grey, speaks to Vanity Fair about her process for each movie. One involved reading a bio of her subject, Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers by Valerie Lawson (S&S). The other, watching “lots of porn.”

Saving Mr. Banks opened in a limited run last week and will expand to more theater this Friday. Fifty Shades of Grey, currently filming in Vancouver, is scheduled for release on Feb. 13, 2015.

Vancouver, Canada is standing in for Seattle, as Fifty Shades of Grey began filming last week.  A photo of the first, rather chaste, kiss between costars Dakota Johnson (Anastasia Steele) and Jamie Dornan (Christian Grey) flashed around the world today.

Several new cast members have signed on, including Marcia Gay Harden as Christian Grey’s mother and British singer-songwriter Rita Ora as his adopted sister, Mia.

One of the producers, Dan Brunetti, in an interview for the movie site Collider.com, said he thought it “would be cool” if they released more explicit, NC-17 version a few weeks after the R-rated version arrives in theaters on Feb. 13, 2015. He notes, “What we’re kind of hearing from the fans is they want it dirty, they want it as close as possible [to the book]. We want to keep it elevated but also give the fans what they want.”

Two versions might solve that problem, with the side benefit of getting fans to pay twice.

The  Coen brother’s latest movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, “marks the best limited start ever for Joel and Ethan Coen,” according to The Hollywood Reporter (translated, it opened in just 4 theaters, but pulled in more than $100,00 in each). It expands into more theaters on Dec. 20 and nationwide in January

Inspired by real-life musician Dave Van Ronk’s memoir, The Mayor of MacDougal Street, (Perseus/Da Capo Press; trade pbk tie-in; cover above, left), it stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman and Garrett Hedlund.

In the NYT, book critic Janet Maslin predicts that the film is “poised to generate a tidal wave of nostalgia — and stir interest among moviegoers who were unfamiliar with this milieu” and suggests fhe documentary (Greenwich Village: Music that Defined a Generation, now on DVD, Kino Lorber, $29.95), the movie soundtrack and a book as ways to learn more about “the folkie world that the Coens recreate so wittily and well.” The book is, of course, Van Ronk’s “sharp, cantankerous memoir.”

Trailer for Greenwich Village: Music that Defined a Generation.

Last night’s Royal performance in London of the film adaptation of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, (Hachette/Little, Brown; 1994), starring Idris Elba, was overshadowed by the news that Mandela had died. Moments before receiving the dreaded phone call, Mandela’s daughter Zindzi, interviewed on the red carpet, said that her father, although frail, was doing well. She and her sister Zenani asked that the showing continue.

The movie debuted in limited release in the U.S. on Nov. 29.

Tie ins:

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela
Hachette/Back Bay
9780316323543, 0316323543
Trade Paperback; $18.00 US / $20.00 Can.
Hachette Audio$30.00 US / $33.00 Can.

Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom: The Book of the Film

Nelson Mandela, Keith Bernstein
Chronicle Books
9781452128412, 1452128413
Hardback; $35.00 US

Ron Howard’s upcoming movie In the Heart of the Sea, based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s book, made news this week when the crew, in the midst of filming in the Canary Islands, was evacuated as flash floods hit the area, causing mudslides and killing five people. Production is currently on hold.

Philbrick won the National Book Award in Nonfiction in 2000 for In the Heart of the Sea, about the Essex, a Nantucket ship hunting whale in the South Pacific in 1819, was stalked and eventually sunk by a sperm whale setting the crew adrift for 90 days.

The movie, starring  Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy and Ben Whishaw, is set to release on March 13, 2015.

Called one of the best war movies ever by two people you wouldn’t expect to see eye-to-eye, Tina Brown and Glenn Beck, Lone Survivor is based on the long-running 2007 bestseller by Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell (Hachette/Little, Brown). The promo for the movie is bringing new attention to the book, sending it back on to the 12/8/13 NYT Paperback Nonfiction list at #5.

Mark Wahlberg, who plays Luttrell, along with costars Emile Hirsch and Taylor Kitsch, appeared on the Today Show this morning. Directed by Peter Berg (Battleship and Friday Night Lights), the movie opens on Christmas Day in NY and LA only, followed by a nationwide release on Jan. 10.

Official Movie Siie: LoneSurvivorFilm.com

Tie-ins were released on November 19:

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson

(Hachette/Back Bay; Trade pbk.; Mass Mkt.; Audio).

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The film adaptation of This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper, (Penguin/Dutton, 2009) is now set for release on Sept. 12 of next year (via Deadline)

The movie stars Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Jane Fonda, Rose Byrne and Kathryn Hahn and is directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum; Date Night). Tropper is the screenwriter.

The novel, Tropper’s fifth, topped many 2009 best books lists and was a NYT best seller. About a family coming together reluctantly to sit shiva for their father, Carolyn See praised it in the Washington Post, “This is a beautiful novel about men — their lust and rage and sweetness. Read it — or take it as a gift — when you next go on a dreaded family holiday.”

Tropper’s most recent novel, One Last Thing Before I Go, (Penguin/Dutton, 2012), was acquired by Paramount, to be produced by J. J. Abrams. In April, Mike Nichols was reportedly in talks to direct it (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Below is the first full-length trailer for the adaptation of Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters, the first in the series by Richelle Mead (Penguin/Razorbill). It comes with a terrific tagline, “They Suck at School.”

Given the tone, it’s no surprise that it’s directed by Mark Waters, who also directed Mean Girls. Adding to the darkly comic sensibility, the screenplay is by Daniel Waters, who also wrote Heathers).

Vampire Academy arrives in theaters on Valentine’s Day, 2014.

The tie-in (Penguin/Razorbill) arrives Dec. 31.

Entertainment Weekly‘s “Inside Movies” blog offers an enticing headline today, “Ben Affleck on what to expect from David Fincher’s Gone Girl — EXCLUSIVE.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Affleck, who stars in the movie, is not particularly forthcoming, saying he doesn’t want to give away too much, “But I will say that Gillian [Flynn] adapted it and I think it’s very, very faithful to her book. If you read the book and liked it, you will definitely like the movie.”

The article adds that filming, which is currently under way, will wrap in February (the movie is scheduled for release on Oct. 3 next year).

A film based on an earlier title by Flynn, Dark Places, starring Charlize Theron, wrapped earlier this month and may make it into theaters first. IMDB lists its release date as Sept. 1 next year.

Two heavily heralded movie adaptations open this Friday. Getting the most press, of course, is the second Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire. People magazine not only calls it “richer and deeper than last year’s The Hunger Games,” but also has the effrontery to claim it’s better than the book, “adding heft to a story that felt on the page like it was biding its time before the finale.”

Opening in a limited, Oscar-qualifying run (to expand in January) is Philomena, based on The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, by U.K. journalist Martin Sixsmith which recounts the author’s efforts to help the title character, played by Judi Dench, find the son she had been forced to give up fifty years earlier. The book was published here for the first time as a tie-in. Reviews have been stellar (a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), with Dench considered an Oscar nomination shoe-in.

Two  tie-ins arrive next week.

It was touch and go as to whether Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street could be pared down from its 3-hour first cut in time to hit theaters on Christmas Day, but it looks like the editing process is now complete. Based on the memoir by Wall Street trader Jordan Belfort,  and called “the most audacious movie about Wall Street ever made” by the Wall Street Journal, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Jean Dujardin and the Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley.

The trade paperback tie-in (RH/Bantam) arrives next week; an audio read by Boardwalk Empire‘s Bobby Cannavale, (RH Audio) is listed for release on  Dec 17.

Homefront Movie Tie-in Edition, Chuck Logan, (Harper Paperbacks; trade pbk and mass market editions)

Easily confused with the  TV show Homeland, the movie Homefront is based on the novel by Chuck Logan, adapted by Sylvester Stallone, starring Jason Statham, and releases Nov. 27. The Hollywood Reporter calls the script “ham-fisted” but says the movie is “sufficiently silly and low-down to be entertaining on a certain marginal level.”  Hogan’s earlier movel, Prince of Thieves was adapted as The Town by Ben Affleck.