In case your inbox isn’t already overflowing with news of the release of the first official poster for the second Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire, you can view it here (via the movie’s Facebook page).

Unlike traditional movie posters, it doesn’t mention the date it debuts (Nov. 22 of this year), the names of the stars (Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence are pictured), or even the title (although the studio is listed in the fine print at the bottom).

Filming in Hawaii is currently on break for the Oscars. Two of the movie’s stars are nominated, but for their work on other movies; Lawrence for Best Actress in Silver Linings Playbook and Philip Seymour Hoffman for Best Supporting Actor in The Master.

Hunger Games did not garner a single nomination, but then, young adult movies generally do not play well with Oscar.

“How long before Fifty Shades of Grey hits theaters?” asks a weary world.

Not before summer of 2014, says Universal chairman Adam Fogelson in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Is he worried about the danger of missing the buzz?

He’s more concerned that rushing it into production would not be a good strategy for the “second or third film” in the series. They haven’t chosen a director yet and, no, they didn’t ask Angelina Jolie to fill that chair (she’s heading up Unbroken, based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand).

He also notes, in an understatement, that “there are totally legitimate questions about what this book is as a movie.”

Close on the heels of a new trailer for The Host, comes a “featurette” with a cameo by Stephenie Meyer, attesting that, although the movie is set in the future, it is actually  a love story. Looks like they feared that previous trailers overlooked an important segment of the potential audience.

The film opens March 29.

Official Movie Site: TheHostTheFilm.com

The adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s adult stand-alone, The Host, arrives in theaters on March 29. In anticipation, a new trailer has just arrived online. The trade paperback, mass market and audio tie-ins were released in January. Also available is an official movie companion.

Official Movie Site: TheHostTheFilm.com

Speaking of Harry Potter, David Heyman, who produced the movie adaptations, was signed by DreamWorks last fall to do the same for the debut YA novel, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (Macmillan/Holt BYR; 2012).

A script writer is now in place (chillingly, his name is Christopher Kyle, who shares a name with the recently killed author of  American Sniper), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Shadow and Bone was praised by the NYT Book Review and appeared on the NYT Chapter Book Best Seller list for one week, at #8. The second book in the planned trilogy, Siege and Storm (Macmillan/Holt BYR), is scheduled for release this June.

Echoing the history of another well-known book that originated as Twilight fanfiction, Beautiful Bastard, an erotic novel by Christina Lauren (aka, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings), originally published online as The Office, was picked up for publication by a large New York publishing house (in this case, Simon and Schuster’s Gallery Books imprint) and comes out this week. Rights were just acquired for a movie (the news on that deal sent the book up Amazon’s sales rankings).

WorldCat indicates that several public libraries have ordered Beautiful Bastard, without benefit of professional reviews (there are nearly 400 reviews on GoodReads; warning, some of the images contained in those reviews may not be NSFW). At this point, holds are minimal.

The second book in the (inevitable) series, Beautiful Stranger,(S&S/Gallery) is scheduled for publication on May 28 of this year.

Whats’ happened to the movie of that other book? No director or cast have been announced yet, although rumors are rampant (we’re not buying the one about Kristen Stewart).

Perhaps the film adaptation of James Dashner’s dystopian The Maze Runner (RH/Delacorte, 2009) will play up the relationship between Thomas and Teresa? 20th Century Fox just announced that it’s scheduled for release on Valentine’s Day next year.

Wes Ball has replaced Catherine Hardwicke in the director ‘s chair, but no cast has yet been announced.

Dashner releases The Eye of Minds,(RH/Delacorte; Listening Library), the first in a new series, The Mortality Doctrine, in October.

The 2006 YA/crossover phenomenon, The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak (RH/Knopf Young Readers), is scheduled to make its film debut almost a year from now, on Jan. 17, 2014.

Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson will play the foster parents of Lisel, a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany, according to the Hollywood Reporter. French-Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse will make her English-language film debut as Lisel. Production is expected to begin this month in Berlin.

The film will be directed by Brian Percival, who directed the series pilot, and several episodes of Downton Abbey (including the first two of season three).

The book is still on the NYT Young Adult Best Seller list, at #8, as of the current list and was a 2007 Printz Honor book.

In an unusual blend of page and screen, the stars of the upcoming adaptation of Beautiful Creatures joined authors Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl and director Richard LaGravenes for a book signing at an L.A. Barnes& Noble on Saturday, (photos of the event are posted here).

The cast members at the event were Alice Englert (Lena), Alden Ehrenreich (Ethan), Zoey Deutch (Emily) and Thomas Mann (Link).

The movie premieres in Hollywood tonight and opens in theaters a week from Thursday, on Valentine’s Day.

Official Movie Site: BeautifulCreatures.WarnerBros.com

The fourth and final title in the series, Beautiful Redemption, (Hachette/Little, Brown YR), was published in October.

The trailer is light on humor, but Alden indicates the film may be different. He tweeted during a live Q&A on the movie’s Twitter site,  “Alice and I from the beginning wanted to make this film as funny, offbeat, and unusual as possible.”

The rom com zombie novel, Warm Bodies (S&S/Atria/Emily Bestler) broke onto the new NYT Paperback fiction list at #14, after three weeks on the extended list. The movie adaptation, which opened this weekend, beat out its more violent competition, Sly Stallone’s Bullet to the Head, and topped the box office (industry watchers note that this may reflect the fact that movie audiences are dominated by teen girls on SuperBowl weekend).

Several libraries are showing heavy holds.

Before it was published, Ridley Scott bought the film rights to  Child 44, (Hachette/Grand Central), Tom Rob Smith’s heavily promoted debut, set in the 1950’s era Soviet Union. It went on to become a best seller and the author has since completed the trilogy with The Secret Speech (2009) and  Agent 6, (2012).

Today, Deadline reports that filming may begin this year, with Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) directing and Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) in talks to star. Noomi Rapace (who starred in the Swedish-language Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) is in talks to play his wife, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

A favorite at the Sundance Film Festival, which wraps on Sunday, is an adaptation of the 2008 National Book Award finalist, the YA novel, The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp, (RH/Knopf Books for Young Readers; Brilliance Audio). It was acquired by start-up distributor, A24 Film, which plans to release it this summer

The film stars Miles Teller (who won kudos for his role in the remake of Footloose) and Shailene Woodley (known for her role in the TV series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and for nearly stealing the show from George Clooney in The Descendants). Woodley is also set to star in the upcoming adaptation of Divergent (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen, 2011) which is scheduled for release on March 21, 2014.

Stephenie Meyer’s first effort as an independent film producer has paid off. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday night. Yesterday, Sony announced they had picked it up for distribution, expecting to release it this summer.

The movie is based on Shannon Hale’s first adult novel Austenland, (Bloomsbury USA, 2007; a sequel, Midnight in Austenland, was published last year), starring Keri Russell as a obsessive fan who tries to overcome her debilitating infatuation with Mr. Darcy (specifically, Colin Firth’s version in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) by going to an English resort that caters to the Austen-obsessed.

The AP reports that Meyer explained during an interview at Sundance,

I have seen firsthand fanatic fans, passionate people who want to live in that world so badly, who want to be a part of it. I’ve seen tattoos that scare me to death. I mean, those things are forever. That’s not a joke. And I do think people can definitely take that fan love too far. I think it’s nice actually to see Jane’s journey here, because she realizes this and sort of steps out of it.

The following MTV interview with Meyer offers glimpses of the movie:

Meyer also served as a producer on the adaptation of her book, The Host. It releases March 29.

The director of the English-language The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo may have his sights on a new girl; Variety reports that David Fincher is in talks to direct an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

20th C. Fox acquired the rights to the book in July, with Reese Witherspoon set to produce and star.

Fincher has a good track record with book adaptations:

House of Cards (Netflix series)  — Directed the pilot and second episode of season one, coming from Netflix Feb 1. This is Netflix first foray into creating programs. Based on: Novel by Michael Dobbs (HarperCollins, 1990) [UPDATE; Earlier, we incorrectly listed House of Lies as the series]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson

The Social Network — Based on The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, (RH/Doubleday)

Fight Club — Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (Norton, 1996)

[UPDATE] One of our readers points out another Fincher book adaptation (and says it is her favorite):

Zodiac — Based on the novel by Robert Graysmith, (St. Martin’s, 1986)

The weekend was filled with analyses of the Oscar nominees (winners will be announced on Feb. 24). One of the big surprises was the number of major nominations for the indie flick, Beasts of the Southern Wild. which is up for four categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. The latter goes to Quvenzhane Wallis, the youngest person ever to be nominated (in a neat bit of symmetry, this category also includes the oldest person ever nominated, Emmanuelle Riva, 85, for Amour). Beasts is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. It is based on the one-act play Juicy and Delicious, by Lucy Alibar (not the  short story by Doris Betts).

Only one of the nominated films is based on a children’s book [UPDATE: one of our readers points out that, as much silly fun as they may be, Defoe’s books are published, reviewed and classified as adult. The film, however, is aimed at kids]. The Pirates! Band of Misfits is up for Best Animated Feature Film and faces some stiff competition, including Brave! which just won a Golden Globe Award. According to the Hollywood Reporter, director Peter Lord was taken by surprise by the nomination, saying, “I had kind of given up, you know? The movie came out in March, after all.”

The movie is based on the first two books from a series by British children’s author [see above], Gideon Defoe. Official Movie Web site: ThePirates-Movie.com. The movie tie-in (RH/Vintage) was released in April, 2012.

Following the jump, the full list of the other ten nominees based on books, with tie-ins:

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