Book fans are notorious for not loving the movie adaptation of their beloved title. John Green is clearly a fan of The Book Thief, saying in his 2006 NYT review, it’s “the kind of book that can be life-changing, because without ever denying the essential amorality and randomness of the natural order, The Book Thief offers us a believable, hard-won hope.”

He saw the movie the this weekend and loves it, too, tweeting, “Just saw The Book Thief movie. Wow. So beautiful. It is a credit to Markus Zusak.”

And got the following response:

“Dear John, that means the world coming from you – someone who holds the secret word for life in all of us so well. Always, mz”

Good timing, since a new international trailer was just released (the Jan. date listed in the trailer is the international release date; it premieres here on  Nov 8).

Tie-in:

The Book Thief , Markus Zusak
Knopf Books for Young Readers
On Sale Date: October 22, 2013
9780385754729, 0385754728
Paperback, $12.99 US / $14.99 Can.

The final trailer for Hunger Games debuted last night during Game 4 of the World Series (see below).

It follows the teaser trailer  released in April, and the first trailer, which  debuted  at Comic-Con in July. We have trouble keeping them straight, but, thank heavens, Entertainment Weekly is here to guide us, saying it “teased more of the new treacherous arena of the all-star tribute games. Howler monkeys. Jabberjays. Jennifer Lawrence doing what she does best (when her face throbs with panic and she lets loose one of those raspy screams).”

The movie arrives Nov. 22

This makes us nostalgic for when Hunger Games, the book was first launched, with many librarians helping to get the buzz started (below is a quote that Scholastic featured at their 2008 BEA booth:

Tie-ins:

Catching Fire: Movie Tie-in Edition: The Second Book of The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic
On Sale Date: October 8, 2013
9780545603683, 0545603684
Paperback, $12.99
Catching Fire: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
Kate Egan
Scholastic
On Sale Date: November 22, 2013
9780545599337, 0545599334
Paperback, $18.99

Following weeks of daily media reports on who might be cast as the lead in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey after Charlie Hunnam dropped out, a new lead has been announced, Jamie Dorman.

Variety reports that the Irish actor and Calvin Klein model will co-star with Dakota Johnson (daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson).

This thing may actually happen.

Just as the tie-in is published to the big upcoming George Clooney movie,  The Monuments Men, it’s announced that the film release date has been pushed from Dec. 18 to an unspecified time in the first quarter of 2014.

The L.A. Times reports that director Clooney says he needs more time to get the special effects correct.

Will that hurt the sales of the tie-ins — The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, Robert M. Edsel, (Hachette/Back Bay trade pbk; Mass Mkt: Macmillan Audio)?

Unlikely; we’ve seen several tie-ins become hits even when the films were put off, the most notable being Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, which landed on best seller lists only to see the movie put off for months, finally releasing a year later.

It seems famous faces on covers are all consumers need. In this case, there are several; Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray and Jean Dujardin.

Official Web Site: MonumentsMen.com

Based on the first title in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels, the STARZ series began production in Scotland earlier this month, and now has an official web site, Starz.com/Originals/Outlander.

During last week’s Comic Con in NYC, Gabaldon and Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore held a special event for fans (summary here:  “Who’s Been Cast in Starz’s ‘Outlander‘? Plus 11 More Things We Know About the Upcoming Series“). Moore emphasized how faithful the adaptation will be to the book  (“I live with a fan, my wife, and it’s my job not to screw up her favorite book!”)

Below is the video, preceded by some scenes from the shoot. Concept art for the sets is shown beginning at time stamp 9:15:

The forthcoming 8th title in the series, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, (RH/Delacorte) has been moved from its original December publication date to March 25, 2014, when it will tie in to the publicity for the STARZ series.

It looks like Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street, will hit theaters in time for Oscar nominations. According the L.A. Times, it will be pared down from its 3-hour first cut in time to hit theaters on Christmas Day.

Based on the memoir by Wall Street trader Jordan Belfort, the Wall Street Journal calls it “the most audacious movie about Wall Street ever made.”  It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Jean Dujardin and the Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley.

Tie-ins, in trade paperback (RH/Bantam) and audio (RH Audio; read by Boardwalk Empire‘s Bobby Cannavale), are listed for release on  Dec 17.

As a result, says the L.A, Times, the movie based on Tom Clancy’s character, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, now also scheduled for Christmas Day, will likely be moved to late January, 2014.

Appearing in select theaters on Friday, 12 Years A Slave arrived with Oscar buzz. Now it looks like it will also be a box office hit. Opening in just 19 theaters, The Hollywood Reporter says it achieved “one of the top averages ever for a movie opening in that number of theaters.”

The word “harrowing” appears in nearly every review. As harrowing as the movie is, the Daily Beast notes that the memoir it is based on is “even more appalling.”

First published in 1853, it sold well for its time, but was eclipsed by a more famous work, the fictional Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Baton Rouge Advocate recently recounted the story of how Northup’s book was rediscovered. In the 1930’s a 12-year-old girl, Sue Eakin, came across a copy, fell in love with it, making it her life’s work to bring it back into print. Working with a New Orleans history professor, the two verified that the book is a firsthand account of slavery and got it republished in 1968 through LSU Press.

Assigned in college courses, it is now available in many editions, both print and audio. Click through for information on recent releases.

(more…)

Coming Valentine’s Day (of course), is the second adaptation of Scott Spencer’s Endless Love. The trailer debuted on MTV News earlier today.

Based on the 1979 best seller (HarperCollins), the 1981 film version was directed by Franco Zeffrelli, starred Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt and was considered a bit of a mess. Roger Ebert noted, “The novel Endless Love is about a teenage boy who remembers, with full ferocity and grief and yearning, the great love of his life, after it has been ended by fate and the adult world. The movie Endless Love is about a teenage boy and girl who are in love, until fate and adults end their relationship. There is all the difference in the world between these two story sequences, and although there are a great many things wrong with the movie, this blunder on the narrative level is the worst.”

From the trailer, it appears the new version may have the same issue (Hollywood.com accuses it of looking like a Nicholas Sparks movie).

The new version stars Alex Pettyfer, who has appeared in two movies based on teen novels, I Am Number Four and Beastly, and Gabriella Wilde who has a supporting role in Carrie, which opens this weekend.

Official Web Site: EndlessLoveMovie.com

Trailer below:

Tie-in:

Endless Love: A Novel
Scott Spencer
Paperback: 9780061926006, 0061926000

It is also available in e-book from Open Road Media, as is the rest of Spencer’s backlist, through library e-book vendors. Click here to see Open Road’s interview with Spencer, which is available for use on library web site.

Local press in Cape Anne, MA. reports that film crews are currently shooting the HBO miniseries based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in the form of linked short stories, Olive Kitteridge (Random House).

Why Massachusetts, rather than the author’s beloved Maine? It seems it’s become a popular choice for filmmakers because of favorable tax incentives.

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), the four-part series stars Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins.

McDormand, having fallen in love with the book before it won the Pulitzer, bought the rights and has been nursing the project along. She is co-producing it with Tom Hanks’ Playtone Partners.

The movie adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s mega-best seller, Gone Girl (RH/Crown, 2013) has just been announced for release on October 3rd next year. Directed by David Fincher, it stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. Filming is currently under way in  Missouri.

Several other domestic thrillers based on books are in the works. It was recently announced that Nicole Kidman has bought the rights to The Silent Wife, by A. S. A. Harrison (Penguin original trade pbk, 6/25/13), a book that has often been compared to Gone Girl. She has just completed filming Before I Go To Sleep, (Harper, 2011) a novel by S.J. Watson about a woman who wakes each morning with no memory and a husband she doesn’t quite trust.

In addition, CBS Films recently optioned the movie rights to The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty (Penguin/Putnam/Einhorn, 7/30/13), another novel about a husband who isn’t what he seems.

That was quick. Soon after speculation that Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street, would not be edited in time for release in 2013, Showbiz 411 now reports “Sources say that Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker are trying desperately to deliver a manageable length version of The Wolf of Wall Street; for Christmas Day release.”

A feature published just a few days ago in the Wall Street Journal calls  it “the most audacious movie about Wall Street ever made,” with the release date still listed as the original, Nov. 15.

The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Jean Dujardin and the Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley.

It is based on a book that the Wall Street Journal describes as “the real-life rogue trader Jordan Belfort’s memoir of his 1990s pump-and-dump flameout, during which he … inflicted over $200 million of losses on investors and sunk a 167-foot yacht—all on his way to a federal indictment for securities fraud and money laundering and 22 months in prison.”

Tie-ins, in trade paperback (RH/Bantam) and audio (RH Audio; read by Boardwalk Empire‘s Bobby Cannavale), are listed for release on  Dec 17.

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet, called a “high-profile” 3-D adaptation by The Hollywood Reporter, of a 2009 novel, will be released on Dec. 19. UPDATE: The U.S. release date is no longer firm and is now listed for some time in 2014

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larson (Penguin Press) was a high-profile debut when it was published, reportedly acquired for a $900,000 advance, excerpted in Vanity Fair, and reviewed widely.

Told from the point of view of T.S. Spivet, a 12-year-old rancher’s son, who travels to Washington D.C. on his own to receive an award for the maps he obsessively draws, it features hand-drawn marginalia that spill over the pages of Larsen’s book. Reviewing it, Ron Charles in the Washington Post noted T.S.’s “… guileless asides and antique-looking drawings fill the margins … mixing the graphic intensity of Nick Bantock’s Griffin & Sabine with the ironic footnotes of Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace” and predicted that anyone who paged through the book would take it home. Like other reviewers, however, he felt it did not live up to its promising beginning.

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie), the movie stars newcomer  Kyle Catlett as T.S. and Helena Bonham Carter as his mother.

Reviewing the movie when it premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter predicted, “Despite its flaws, international arthouse success seems assured for this amusing, poignant and visually stunning take on a child prodigy’s attempts to understand his weird family and the even weirder wider world.” Variety notes a promotional challenge, “As with Hugo, however, guessing the target audience will be tricky.”

A trade pbk. movie tie-in is currently listed for publication in May, but now that the release date, of Dec. 19 has been announced, we can expect to see it earlier.

As the trailer indicates, below, the movie T.S. is younger than the book’s character and has been changed from a cartographer to an inventor.

The film version of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, (Penguin/Dutton), is now set for release on 6/6/14.

When the names of the stars were revealed earlier this summer, Shailene Woodley as Hazel and Ansel Elgort as Gus, the two teenagers who fall in love after meeting in a cancer support group, Green launched a spirited defense of the choices on his Tumblr page.

Green pointed out, “There seems to be some concern that Ansel and Shailene are playing siblings in a different movie [the upcoming Divergent, based on the book by Veronica Roth]. I guess I can understand that, but they’re actors … I mean, no one watched Silver Linings Playbook and thought, ‘When did Katniss move to the suburbs of Philadelphia?’”

In a new interview in The Pittsburgh Gazette, where filming is currently in progress, he notes that the screenplay is remarkably true to his novel, “almost every line of dialogue in the movie is from the book.”

Green has been updating fans from the movie set via Twitter and his Vlogbrothers videos on YouTube. The most recent video from the set is below:

A movie that has already been called 2013 Oscar bait, may need to look to next year’s nominations. Scheduled to release on Nov. 15. Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street, based on the true story of high jinks in the financial district by Jordan Belfort, is rumored to have been sent back to editing to cut down the nearly three-hour version. The studio has not confirmed the widely reported rumor, but some sites are showing that the release date has been moved to 2014.

The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Jean Dujardin and the Absolutely Fabulous Joanna Lumley.

Perhaps an indicator that the rumors are true is the change in publication date of the  tie-ins, trade paperback (RH/Bantam) and audio (RH Audio; read by Boardwalk Empire‘s Bobby Cannavale),  from Oct. to Dec.

The release of the trailer over the summer  put the the 2008 trade paperback edition on best seller lists during the summer.

It also brought renewed attention to Belfort’s  followup, Catching the Wolf of Wall Street: More Incredible True Stories of Fortunes, Schemes, Parties, and Prison, which is still available in trade paperback (RH/Bantam).

One day after Tom Clancy died, the trailer for the latest movie based on his character, Jack Ryan, was released.

The title has been changed, from Jack Ryan: Shadow One to Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also plays a Russian villain, it stars Chris Pine as the young CIA analyst Ryan, Keira Knightley as his wife and Kevin Costner as Ryan’s CIA handler. Unlike previous Jack Ryan movies, (The Hunt for Red October, The Sum of All Fears, Clear and Present Danger, and Patriot Games), this is an original story, not based on a specific Clancy novel.