The trailer for the adaptation of Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s best selling YA title, Beautiful Creatures, has just arrived online. The movie doesn’t debut until February, but the Hollywood Reporter has been speculating since March that it will be the next Hunger Games.

How about Emma Thompson’s Southern accent?

The movie site Collider offers stills from the set.

Official Movie Site: BeautifulCreaturesMovie.com

As they did for the Twilight series, Little, Brown YR is publishing an “official illustrated movie companion” as well as trade paperback and mass market tie-ins.

Emma Watson and her co-stars from the film version of The Perks of Being A Wallflower presented an exclusive clip from the movie on MTV’s First Look last night, followed by a 30 min interview.

Six additional clips are available here.

Below is the most recent trailer:

The movie opens in NYC and LA on Friday and expands to more theaters the following week.

The actors all attest to their love for the book. Since the film’s director is also the book’s author, we would expect it to be faithful to the original (read a comparison here). Clearly, others want to be prepared to do their own analyses; libraries are showing heavy holds on both the original and the movie tie-in version.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: MTV Books – (2012-08-14) ISBN / EAN: 1451696191 / 9781451696196

Critics are placing bets on which movies will score with the Oscars, based on showings at the Toronto International Film Festival, which concluded over the weekend.

The Silver Linings Playbook won the festival’s top prize, raising expectations that it will be nominated for Best Picture. Vanity Fair also predicts that Jennifer Lawrence will pick up a Best Actress nomination for her performance in the film, while the Wall Street Journal gives kudos to co-star Robert De Niro, saying “the 69-year-old seems positively rejuvenated in David O. Russell’s sensational comedy … portraying a gambling addict and obsessive football fan who believes every factor in his environment — even the placement of his remote controls — affects how his beloved Philadelphia Eagles perform.”  The film, based on Matthew Quirk’s novel, also stars Bradley Cooper and opens Nov 21. The tie-in arrives in October.

The Silver Linings Playbook [movie tie-in edition] Matthew Quick Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books – (2012-10-16) ISBN / EAN: 0374533571 / 9780374533571

Several sources commented on the sheer length of many of the films (the Wall Street Journal complains in its headline “When Will It End“?), including the much-anticipated Cloud Atlas which runs 2 hours and 43 minutes (and is called the “Most overwhelming visual experience of the T.I.F.F.” by Vanity Fair). It opens on Oct. 26th, the same day as another long film, Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children which, at 2.5 hours, is slightly shorter. Critics lost patience with the it; the Toronto’s Globe and Mail commented, “With the book’s wryly witty tone mostly gone, all that’s left is plot – diminished yet recitative, like episodic milestones duly checked off on a laboured journey.”

Also  clocking in at over two hours are  Great Expectations (128 minutes; release not yet scheduled) and Anna Karenina (130 minutes; opens 11/16), with Keira Knightley. Critics were divided on the latter, with The Hollywood Reporter saying it “lacks emotional depth, moral resonance,” while Time magazine enthused that it is an  “intelligently ecstatic new adaptation.”

Author Lee Child appeared on CBS This Morning yesterday to talk about his new book, A Wanted Man  (Delacorte Press; RH Large Print; RHAudio). The interview begins with comments about the striking physical difference between Child’s character, Jack Reacher, who is six-feet-five and 250-pounds, and Tom Cruise, who plays the lead in the upcoming movie, Jack Reacher. Child insists that Cruise is a “fantastic” Reacher, “How? I don’t know. He’s an actor. That’s what they do.”

Child was involved in the making of the film (including a cameo) and was writing A Wanted Man during production. He says the energy of the movie influenced the pacing of the new book.

Jack Reacher, the movie is scheduled for release on 12/21. It’s based on Child’s 9th title in the Jack Reacher series, One Shot. The new book is the 17th.

The trailer for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, which focuses on the last four months of the president’s life, premiered last night (yes, trailers now have premieres — this one was on Google+ and featured a conversation with Spielberg and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Robert Todd Lincoln). In addition to being online, it was featured on the ABC Jumbotron in Times Square.

Entertainment Weekly’s analysis of the film gives a warning in the headline; “Know your Civil War history before watching Daniel Day-Lewis bring it to life,”

The film opens in a limited number of theaters on Nov, 9, expanding to many more on Nov. 16.

The following is the Google+ presentation:

The movie is based on the later sections of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals.

It is being released in trade paperback and audio tie-in editions (S&S, 10/16).

Official Movie Site: TheLincolnMove.com

What’s special about the news that Hollywood has bought the rights to yet another YA title? As Entertainment Weekly puts it, “although every studio would like to grab a fresh YA book series in the hope that it can be turned into the next Harry Potter-style film franchise, not every film has the actual producer of the Potter movies overseeing it.”

The debut YA novel, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (Macmillan BYR) came out in June and hit the NYT Chapter Book Best Seller list for one week, at #8. The first in a planned series, it will be produced for Dreamworks by David Heyman, who also produced Harry Potter.

A few other YA franchises are already in the works. Next year alone brings Beautiful Creatures (Feb 13), Mortal Instruments (Aug. 23), The Seventh Son (Oct 18; based on Joseph Delaney’s the Last Apprentice series) as well as the second Hunger Games movie, Catching Fire (Nov. 22). 

In addition, Divergent was just given a release date of 3/21/14. It is based on the first in the series by Veronica Roth, whose blurb,”unlike anything I’ve ever read” appears on the cover of Shadow and Bone. Lionsgate is still touting a series based on Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy, and the screenplay for the film of Marie Lu’s Legend was completed this summer. In July, Paramount acquired the rights to Libby Bray’s forthcoming first book in a series, The Diviners.

To throw a bit of title confusion into the mix, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor was acquired by Universal in December. The second title in the planned book trilogy, Days of Blood and Starlight, is coming in Nov.

That’s just the series; we’ll also be seeing  several films based on YA standalones.

It’s a good time to remember that there have been some failed YA film franchises.

The cast of the film version of David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas is so impressive, it’s enough to fill the entire movie poster (click on it for a larger version).

In an 8-page feature, in this week’s New Yorker, writer Aleksandar Hemon looks at how the book, which was widely considered unfilmable, finally made it to the screen (and nearly didn’t).

The sibling filmmakers, Lana and Andy Wachowski, first learned about the novel in 2004 while working on V for Vendetta. They noticed Natalie Portman reading the novel obsessively between takes. It took many years to figure out how to film it, and, perhaps more importantly, how to finance it.

In reporting on the film’s first screening, Hemon gives  the first review, “…the movie carefully guided the viewer through its six story lines with just enough intriguing unfamiliarity, while succeeding — nearly miraculously — in creating a sense of connectedness among the myriad characters and retaining Mitchell’s idea of the unviversality of love, pain, loss and desire… In addition to applause at this screening, there were tears and triumphant hugs.”

The film premieres at the Toronto Film Festival this month and opens in teathers on Oct. 26.

Official Web Site: CloudAtlasMovie.com

The tie-in arrives in early October. Meanwhile, the paperback reprint of the original has been in the Amazon Top 100 for over two months (it is now at #21). Holds are heavy in many libraries.

Cloud Atlas: Movie Tie-in David Mitchell Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 528 pages Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks – (2012-10-02) ISBN / EAN: 0812984412 / 9780812984415

Remember when there were two movies about writer Truman Capote, one of them with Toby Jones in the lead role?

We will soon be treated to two movies about director Alfred Hitchcock, one of them with Toby Jones in the lead role. Both are based on books.

The Girl, which airs on HBO on October 20th, is about Hitchcock’s relationship with Tippi Hedren, the star of The Birds. Sienna Miller plays Hedren and Toby Jones, the driector. It is based on Donald Spoto’s Spellbound By Beauty (RH/Three Rivers), which examines Hitchcock’s obsessive fascination with all his leading ladies.

Anthony Hopkins has the lead in the theatrical film, Hitchcock, based on the 1990 book, Hitchcock!: Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello, being re-released in January by Soft Skull Press. Helen Mirren plays Hitchcock’s wife, Alma with Scarlett Johansson as Psycho‘s star, Janet Leigh. No U.S. release date has been set. Earlier this summer, the Daily Mail published side-by-side shots of the stars on set and their real-life counterparts.

In addition, Bates Motel, a prequel to Psycho is in production for an A&E TV series. It was just announced that Vera Farmiga will play the creepy mother of young Norman Bates. Pscyho itself was based on a 1959 horror novel by Robert Bloch, which was re-released in 2010 by Overlook Press.

The studio that revived its fortunes with the Twilight series, Summit Entertainment (now owned by Lionsgate, which is behind a little teen series of their own, The Hunger Games), is stepping up production for a new YA franchise.

After acquiring the rights to Veronica Roth’s Divergent (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books) before publication in 2011, Summit now plans to begin filming this coming March with a release date in the spring of 2014. They are reportedly in talks with Neil Burger to direct. Burger’s most recent film Limitless, came out last year, and was also based on a book, the 2003 techno-thriller, The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn.

The second book in Veronica Roth’s series, Insurgent, came out in May. A third will be released sometime in Fall 2013 and does not yet have a title.

Author James Dashner has a several things to celebrate these days. The first book in his new series, Infinity Ring #1: A Mutiny in Time releases next week, and 20th Century Fox has signed  hot newcomer Wes Ball to direct the adaptation of The Maze Runner series.

Not only that, Dashner’s prequel to the series, The Kill Order, debuts on best seller lists (USA Today, #23; Indie Children’s Fiction Series, #5).

There’s a good omen for the movie, the book trailer for The Maze Runner won the Kirkus 2009 Book Video Awards.

Many roles are still being cast for the second installment of The Hunger Games, scheduled to open in theaters on 11/22/13.

The leads (Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth) are returning. So are Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Lenny Kravitz and Elizabeth Banks. But director Gary Ross has headed off for other projects and has been replaced by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend; Water for Elephants).

A dozen new players have already been announced (Amanda Plummer! Philip Seymour Hoffman!), but many more roles are still open.

Trying to keep them straight is exhausting.

Fortunately, The Hollywood Reporter has put together a handy scorecard.

Let the games begin.

The DVD and Blu-Ray version of the first in the series begins shipping on midnight this Friday.

Are two versions of Charles Dickens’ beloved classic, Great Expectations, too many in one year? Perhaps not, since 2012 is also the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth. The BBC series appeared earlier this year on PBS and the film version is about to be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival next month. Both feature the youngest actresses to ever play Miss Havisham.

Called “a cougar rather than a crone,” the 43-year-old Gillian Anderson played the role for BBC. The film Havisham is portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, who is just two years older (Anderson in the role on the left, below; Bonham Carter on the right).

The international trailer has just been released, with German subtitles. No news yet on when it will appear in US theaters.

UPDATE: the trailer has been removed. Until it reappears, here is the one for the 1946, David Lean version.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (HarperCollins/Ecco, 2008), may be one step closer to the screen. The best-selling, Oprah anointed title was acquired by Universal back in 2009, with Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey producing, in their first collaboration. A screenwriter was announced in 2010. Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Wentworth Miller may take over. Although he is best known as the star of Fox’s Prison Break, Wentworth also has a career as a screenwriter.

Meanwhile, another 2008 best selling book that involves dogs, The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper) by Garth Stein, is also in development. It has both a screenwriter and a star; Patrick Dempsey, of Grey’s Anatomy, is set to play the lead and a screenwriter was signed in December. Both the author and the star are racing buffs; Stein’s Web site pictures the two together at Daytona in February.

The current media frenzy about Kristen Stewart may make promotions for the next Twilight movie awkward, but IFC seems to feel it’s a fine time to introduce a new trailer for her more sexually explicit performance in the adaptation of On the Road, based on Jack Kerouac’s seminal beat generation novel.

Although Stewart is the main focus of stories about the new trailer, her role is secondary. The movie, like the book, focuses on Sal Paradise, played by Sam Riley and his relationship with Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund). Stewart plays Moriarty’s 16-year-old wife, Marylou.

It was also announced that the release date will be December 21st. The movie tie-in, is scheduled for Oct. 30.

Official Site: OnTheRoad-TheMovie.com

Speculation is rife about why Warner Bros. suddenly decided to move Baz Luhrmann’s 3-D film of The Great Gatsby from Christmas Day (qualifying it for the Oscars) to some time next summer.

Is it because there is so much competition towards the end of 2012 — The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Misérables, Jack Reacher, This is 40, Zero Dark Thirty,  and Django Unchained?

Or, is it just a more “appropriate” time, since the movie is set in the summer, as actor Joel Edgerton, who plays Tom Buchanan, tells Entertainment Weekly?

Or, does the L.A. Times have the scoop, reporting that “two people close to the picture not authorized to speak publicly” say Luhrmann needs the time to finish the 3-D effects and the soundtrack (like the director’s Moulin Rouge, it will be filled with songs by major contemporary artists)?

The good news — they’ve managed to fix that typo in the sign above Times Square.

Official Movie Site: TheGreatGatsby.WarnerBros.com

The tie-ins are scheduled for October.

Trade pbk, S&S/Scribner, 9781451689433, Oct.23

Mass Market Pbk, S&S/Pocket, 9781476711546, Oct.23