Both Beautiful Creatures and The Host were declared DOA in theaters, so Hollywood is looking to the summer movies for a YA blockbuster to rival Hunger Games. The release this week of the second trailer, below, for Mortal Instruments: City of Bones gives little hope to one observer.

Arriving in theaters on August 23, it is based on the first in a six-book series by Cassandra Clare.

Star Lily Collins assures fans in Entertainment Weekly that she cares as much about the books as they do. Simon and Schuster is releasing tie-ins in hardcover, trade paperback and audio on July 9.

Meanwhile, another YA dystopian novel, Divergent, based on the critical hit and best seller by Veronica Roth, is scheduled to begin production in Chicago this week, with a planned released date of March next year.

E! Online, presents a “Meet the Cast” slideshow, with breathless commentary; it seems they consider everyone a perfect fit.

The first trailer for Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, based on the book by Rick Riordan was released earlier this week.

Some Hollywood watchers are surprised that there is a sequel, since the first was not judged a financial success in theaters. This time around, director Thor Freudenthal (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) replaces Chris Columbus (the first two Harry Potter movies). The movie opens on August 7.

Official Web Site: PercyJacksonTheMovie.com

The tie-in edition arrives in July:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Two The Sea of Monsters (Movie Tie-In Edition). Rick Riordan
Disney/Hyperion, 9781423160076, 142316007X $7.99 US / $8.99 Can

Signaling hopes for Oscar nominations, Fox Searchlight has set a Dec. 27 limited release for director Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave, based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir of the same title. The book recounts Northrup’s struggles to return to his family and his life as a free black man in upstate New York  after being kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South.

The first poster for the forthcoming movie of Orson Scott Card’s SF novel, Ender’s Game (Macmillan/Tor, first pubbed, 1985), debuted online late yesterday and already fans are piling on to identify differences from the book. The appearance also caused the book to rise on Amazon’s sales rankings

The movie, directed by Gavin Hood and starring Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, and Viola Davis, arrives in theaters on Nov. 11.

A new trailer for the film adaptation of Max Brook’s zombie apocalypse novel, World War Z (RH/Crown, 2006), was released today. The movie was originally scheduled to arrive in theaters last December, but was pulled to re-shoot some scenes and is now scheduled for June 21.

The movie tie-ins include an entirely new audio with an enormous cast, featuring Martin Scorsese (yes, the director), Alfred Molina (Spiderman), Frank Darabont (creator of The Walking Dead), the author’s father, Mel Brooks, David Ogden Stiers, and John Turturro. Max Brooks returns as The Interviewer.

The novel is written in the form of first-person stories about the Zombie War. Unlike the movie, which is entirely from the point of view of Brad Pitt’s character, the audio stays true to the original. Many fans, who are already raising concerns about changes from the book, may find this a preferable take.

World War Z: The Complete Edition (Movie Tie-In Edition): An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks, RH Audio/BOT, 9780449806951, 0449806952

World War Z (Mass Market Movie Tie-In Edition) : An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks, RH/Broadway, May 21, 2013, Mass market paperback

The producers of the film adaptation of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (Penguin/Dutton; Brilliance Audio; Thorndike Large Print), have found their Hazel; Shailene Woodley has been offered the role.

If negotiations work out, this will be her fourth film based on a book. She played George Clooney’s daughter in The Descendants (based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings), is the lead in The Spectacular Now (based on the YA book, a National Book Award finalist by Tim Tharpe, opening in a limited theatrical run on Aug. 2) and  is about to begin production on Divergent, based on the first in Veronica Roth’s YA series, in which she plays Tris. Currently, she is at work on The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Author Green tweeted his approval, “There were so many amazing auditions for the role of Hazel, but Shailene’s love for the book and her understanding of Hazel blew me away.”

Harlan Coben has honed his ability to hook readers. He begins his Today Show interview with the opening line of  his new book, the “romantic thriller” Six Years (Penguin/Dutton; Thorndike Large Print), released this week,

“I sat in the back pew and watched the only woman I would ever love marry another man.”

Separately, The Hollywood Reporter writes that Hugh Jackman is set to star in a movie of the novel. There’s no news yet on when filming will begin. This may be the first English-language film of a Coben novel; Tell No One was adapted as a French-language film in 2006. Ben Affleck has been attached to direct an English-language remake.

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Joss Whedon, best known for as creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and  for his adaptation of The Avengers, turns next to a different source of material; Shakespeare.

Much Ado About Nothing opens in a limited run on June 7th and in more theaters on June 21.

As part of her interview with Judy Blume on Rock Center, Chelsea Clinton talks to Blume’s son about Tiger Eyes, the movie he adapted from his mother’s book.

The movie is set to debut in theaters and V.O.D. on June 7th, according to Entertainment Weekly‘s “Inside Movies” blog.

A trailer has not yet been released, but scenes from the movie are featured in the interview.

Called “Oz: The Not-So-Great” by critics, Disney’s prequel to the classic is now being called “Oz the Great and the Profitable,” after pulling in over $80 million, making it the first official blockbuster of 2013. In anticipation, Disney has already green lighted a sequel (a sequel to a prequel? When does it merge with the original?)

Official Movie Site: Disney.com/TheWizard

Those looking for tie-ins will not be disappointed (for tie-ins to upcoming movies, check our Upcoming Movies with Tie-ins list):

The first two books in L. Frank Baum’s series have been re-released, featuring “beautifully repainted [cover art] and original Stromberg imagery.”

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, intro. by the film’s star, James Franco, Disney Press

The Marvelous Land of Oz, L. Frank Baum, intro. by the film’s screenwriter Mitchell Kapner, Disney Press

Audio: Dreamscape  has released new recordings of the first two Oz books (also on OverDrive).

  
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, read by Tara Sands (Jan 22)

The Marvelous Land of Oz read by Tara Sands (Feb 19)

Disney Press offers several tie-ins.

Oz The Great and Powerful, Elizabeth Rudnick — the junior novel adaptation

Oz The Great and Powerful: Land of Oz — Level 2 World of Reading title

Oz The Great and Powerful: Witches of Oz, Scott Peterson– picture book

The Art of Oz The Great and Powerful, Grant Curtis — behind-the-scenes book

Oz The Great and Powerful: The Movie Storybook, Scott Peterson — features movie stills.

Now that the Oscars have wrapped, George Clooney is turning to his next film, The Monuments Men, based on the true story of a group of  museum directors and curators who, in the last days of WWII, were sent by FDR to retrieve stolen works of art from the Nazis before they are destroyed. It begins shooting in Berlin this month, according to an announcement from Columtia Pictures with the plan of opening in theaters in December.

The film is based on a book by Robert M. Edsel who, after selling his oil and gas exploration company, began researching the efforts of the group called “The Monuments Men,” (which, despite its name,  included at least one woman, Rose Valland, a French Resistance fighter).

Clooney directs and stars, along with Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and John Goodman.

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History Robert M. Edsel Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 513 pages Publisher: Hachette/Center Street – (2009-09-03) ISBN 9781599951492

There are several other books on the subject (see our earlier story). Edsel is also publishing new book, Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nations Treasures from the Nazis, this coming May.

Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis Robert M. Edsel Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 464 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company – (2013-05-13) ISBN / EAN: 0393082415 / 9780393082418

Martin Scorsese’s next film, The Wolf Of Wall Street was just given a release date of November 15, 2013. Based on the 2007 memoir of the same title by former high-flying investment firm honcho Jordan Belfort, who was indicted in 1998 for securities fraud and money laundering, it also stars Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, Margot Robbie and Jon Bernthal.

DiCaprio stands a chance of going up against himself in the next Oscar race; he also stars  in Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby, which arrives on May 10.

The NYT‘s formidable book reviewer, Michiko Kakutani, can’t hold back her enthusiasm for Mohsin Hamid’s new book, How to Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia (Penguin/Riverhead; Dreamscape Audio; March 5), publishing a glowing review well over a week before the book is released.

She describes it is both “a deeply moving and highly specific tale of love and ambition, and as a larger, metaphorical look at the mind-boggling social and economic changes sweeping ‘rising Asia’.” She ends by saying that this, Hamid’s third novel, “reaffirms his place as one of his generation’s most inventive and gifted writers.”

His second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (HMH, 2007) has been adapted for the screen by director Mira Nair and is scheduled for limited release in the US on April 26. It stars Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland and Liev Schreiber.

Tie-in:

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Movie Tie-In) Mohsin Hamid Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 208 pages Publisher: HMH/Mariner Books – (2013-03-26) ISBN / EAN: 0544139453 / 9780544139459

The Oscars caused several tie-ins to rise on Amazon’s sales rankings. Below are the titles that are currently in the top 100 on Amazon’s sales rankings:

#8 The Life of Pi (from #84) — Best Director, Cinematography, Music, Visual Effects

#38 The Silver Linings Playbook (from #137) — Jennifer Lawrence, Best Actress

#90 Team of Rivals (from #115) — the basis for Lincoln — Daniel Day-Lewis, Best Actor; Best Production Design

For some reason, movie fans are not curious about the real story of behind the Best Picture winner, Argo. The tie-in edition of the book it is based on trails at #402.

In prep for the Oscars this evening, try “The Literary Oscar Quiz” on the L.A.Times book blog, “Jacket Copy.”

We only got 6 out of 10. Tell us your scores and, as a bonus, which of the above did NOT get an Oscar nomination.

UPDATE: We weren’t able to fool anyone — Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter is the correct choice. A different Lincoln movie caught the Academy’s eye.