Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter, The Woman in Black) has just signed for the lead in the film adaptation of Joe Hill’s 2010 supernatural horror novel, Horns, directed by Alexandre Aja. At the time it was published, Time magazine called Hill “one of America’s finest horror writers,” based on “the strength of two masterly thrillers – 2007′s Heart-Shaped Box and his newest, Horns.”

On his Web site, Hill expresses his excitement, saying he is “amped beyond all rational measure. I could not be happier about the casting of Daniel Radcliffe as Ig Perrish. My fanboy feelings for the Harry Potter pictures are well-established, but aside from that, I thought Woman in Black was one of the best horror films of the last decade, and the picture worked because of Radcliffe’s quietly focused performance. I hope HORNS serves the kid just as well.”

The film is scheduled to begin shooting this fall, with a likely release date sometime in 2013.

Horns: A Novel Joe Hill Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 370 pages Publisher: Harper/Morrow – (2010-02-16) ISBN / EAN: 0061147958 / 9780061147951

Entertainment Weekly gives us a look at a behind-the-scenes video of Jennifer Lawrence shooting a scary scene for Hunger Games (EW claims it as an exclusive, but it’s on YouTube) which was shown at Comic-Con:

Locations for the sequel, Catching Fire, are being scouted in Atlanta (the first film was shot in North Carolina). Several new cast members have been announced, the most notable being Philip Seymour Hoffman, who will play Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Glee star Grant Gustin recently tried out for the role of Finnick Odair.

Catching Fire is scheduled to be released just before Thanksgiving, 2013. Following the tradition set by the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, the final book in the series, Mockingjay will be released as two movies. They are scheduled to follow each successive November. The L.A. Times questions whether the studio can handle the intense schedule of a new movie every twelve months.

News sources are advising Peter Jackson to get his Oscar speech ready. The 12-minute footage (or 13-minute, depending on which source you believe) from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, that he presented at Comic-Con over the weekend was, by all accounts, a huge hit with the 6,500 fans who lined up, many overnight, to see it.

Unexpected Journey opens on December 14. The sequel. The Hobbit: There and Back Again is due next year. Peter Jackson made comments during an interview at  Comic-Con, that touched off rumors that the second film may be split into two, resulting in a trilogy. He quickly backed off, however, saying talk of a trilogy is “very premature.”

The clips shown at Comic-Con were up on YouTube briefly and then removed. For now, the only glimpse we have is the trailer that was released last December and behind-the-scenes footage on Peter Jackson’s blog.

Official Movie Web Site: TheHobbit.com

The tie-in is being published in September.

The Hobbit (Movie Tie-In) J.R.R. Tolkien Retail Price: $13.95 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: HMH/Mariner Books – (2012-09-18) ISBN / EAN: 0547844972 / 9780547844978

HMH/Mariner also lists a behind-the-scenes book for young readers.

On the other hand, reports the NYT, The Host, Stephenie Meyer’s new project, ” was greeted with puzzled expressions and tepid applause. That sent a publicist for its distributor, Open Road Films, scrambling to point a reporter toward positive reactions from bloggers.”

Hollywood deal making isn’t just about self-published erotica these days. Gillian Flynn’s major breakout, Gone Girl, was the subject of a major rights auction, resulting in a 7-figure deal to 20th Century Fox, with Reese Witherspoon producing.

All three of Flynn’s books have been optioned. Dark Places (RH/Crown) is moving along; Amy Adams will to star and Gilles Paquet-Brenner direct (Word and Film recently interviewed Flynn about that project). Flynn’s first novel, Sharp Objects (RH/Broadway), was optioned by Alliance Films and has a producer, but no director or cast yet.

Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 412 pages Publisher: RH/Crown – (2012-06-05) ISBN: 9780307588364

Audio, BOT; audio and ebook on OverDrive; Thorndike Large Print, Sept.

Step two in the process toward the big screen has just been announced for Fifty Shades of Grey.

Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who worked with Scott Rudin on The Social Network, have been chosen as the producers (via The Hollywood Reporter).

We particularly enjoy this statement from Universal co-chairman Donna Langley in the press release: “At its core, Fifty Shades of Grey is a complex love story, requiring a delicate and sophisticated hand to bring it to the big screen.”

New cast members have been signed up for the movie version of City of Bones, the first book in the YA series, Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, indicating that the project is moving forward after several delays.

Lily Collins, who is the daughter of Phil Collins and plays Snow White in the recent Mirror Mirror, was signed earlier to play the lead character, Clary Fray, with Jaime Campbell Bower as her love interest, Jace Wayland.  Variety reports that Kevin Durand (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Robert Maillet (Sherlock Holmes) have joined the cast.

The movie is scheduled to release on Aug, 23, 2013.

After months of debate about whether he can pull it off, we finally get a glimpse of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher in the film version of Lee Child’s ninth novel, One Shot, (Delacorte, 2005). The movie, which has been renamed Jack Reacher, opens Dec. 21.

Not much to go on here. About the only thing we can say is that Cruise didn’t dye his hair.

The movie is planned as the first in a trilogy.

The tie-in arrives in Nov.

The 17th Jack Reacher novel is coming in Sept.

A Wanted Man: A Reacher Novel (Jack Reacher) Lee Child Retail Price:  $28 Hardcover: 416 pages Publisher: RH/Delacorte Press – (2012-09-11) ISBN / EAN: 9780385344333

Good news, Glee fans. Coming in October is Pitch Perfect, a movie about an a capella female collegiate group that is being described as “Glee meets Bridesmaids.” The trailer, which just arrived is below.

It’s based loosely (very loosely, it seems) on the 2008 nonfiction book of the same title by GQ editor, Mickey Rapkin, an examination of the evolution of the style, capped by a look at three groups and their competition for the 2005 championship.

Rapkin also wrote Theater Geek (S&S/Free Press; 2010), about Stagedoor Manor, a summer theater camp that counts Natalie Portman and Robert Downey, Jr. as former campers.

Official Movie site: PitchperfectMovie.com

Tie-in:

The cover of the new issue of Entertainment Weekly reminds us that An Unexpected Journey, the first of the two Hobbit movies, will land  in theaters on December 14.

Why the early attention? It’s a lead-in to the upcoming Comic-Con (July 12-15 in San Diego), where it will be previewed.

EW notes there will be changes from the book,

To expand the classic J.R.R. Tolkien book so that it could support two feature films, Jackson drew from a range of Tolkien’s writings, adding characters not present in the Hobbit book, including Orlando Bloom’s elf Legolas and Cate Blachett’s elven rule Galadriel.

‘In the movie we want these characters to have story lines and a little more substance than they do in the book,’ Jackson explains. ‘Almost everything we’re doing is from Tolkien somewhere, whether it’s in the book or the subsequent development that wasn’t published in The Hobbit itself.’

That’s the first time we’ve heard that a book didn’t have enough substance for the movies.

Official Movie Web Site: TheHobbit.com

The tie-in is being published in September.

The Hobbit (Movie Tie-In) J.R.R. Tolkien Retail Price: $13.95 Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: HMH/Mariner Books – (2012-09-18) ISBN / EAN: 0547844972 / 9780547844978

HMH/Mariner also lists a behind-the-scenes book for young readers.

Remember when so many people thought Jennifer Lawrence wasn’t right to play Katniss in The Hunger Games that Suzanne Collins had to defend her?

All that has changed. She stars with big names Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro in the upcoming The Silver Linings Playbook but she’s the one grabbing the headlines. The movie is based on the debut novel by Matthew Quick (it was one of Nancy Pearl’s picks for summer reading, 2009). The trailer was just released; the movie opens Nov 21.

A tie-in edition is coming in Oct. (FSG/SarahCrichton, Trade Pbk, 9780374533571)

The first trailer has just been released for Joe Wright’s film of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightly and Jude Law, with screenplay by Tom Stoppard. It arrives in theaters on November 9.

Official Site: FocusFeatures.com/Anna_Karenina

The book was released in a special edition when it was an Oprah pick in 2004.

Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy Retail Price: $17.00 Paperback: 862 pages Publisher: Penguin Classics – (2004-05) ISBN / EAN: 0143035002 / 9780143035008

Warner Bros. officially announced that the film of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas will be released on October 26th. According to the studio, test audiences “have been elated by its powerful and inspiring story, as well as its breathtaking visuals.” The film has three directors, two separate production crews and the actors play multiple roles.

The star-studded cast which includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Jim Sturgess and Hugo Weaving. Sarandon gushed in a recent interview, “I saw a 10-or 15-minute reel at a party I was at in Berlin and it looked like the trailer for an entire season … it had so many different locales and periods, and it was just gorgeous.”

The movie was originally scheduled for early December, which is the reason the tie-in is listed for Nov. 13; expect that date to change as well.

Someone remarked to me the other day, “This vampire thing is going crazy. Now there’s a movie about Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter.”

If you happen to know someone who is new to this, point them to Next Movie‘s “Everything We Know About Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”

The latest trailer gives more information than the first one did (movie opens on Friday).

Official Movie Site: AbrahamLincolnVampireHunterMovie.com

Tie-ins:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Seth Grahame-Smith Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Hachette/ Grand Central – (2012-04-03) ISBN / EAN: 1455510173 / 9781455510177

Mass Market Paperback:
Hachette/Grand Central1; $7.99
9781455510184, 145551018

Audio:
Narrated by Scott Holst
Hachette Audio; $17.98
9781611132151, 1611132150

Just in time for the July 6th release of Oliver Stone’s film version of Savages, author Don Winslow’s prequel, The Kings of Cool arrives today.

Reviewing it in today’s NYT, under the headline, “Sexy Drug Dealers Have Parents, Too,” Janet Maslin says Winslow “tantalizingly divides his story between two generations: the original main characters, and the 1960s hippies who spawned them.”

The Kings of Cool Don Winslow Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2012-06-19) ISBN 9781451665321

Maslin was a major fan of Savages, including it in her list of the “Top 10 Books of 2010“; its only Best Books nod that year. About the movie, she is concerned whether it “can sustain Mr. Winslow’s heavenly understatement without drowning in the violence of drug warfare.”

Perhaps she hasn’t seen the trailer.

Movie tie-in:

Savages: A Novel Don Winslow Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2012-05-29) ISBN / EAN: 1451667159 / 9781451667158

Also mass market pbk (9781451672534)

Production on the second movie in The Hunger Games series, Catching Fire, is set to begin this fall. The first casting news was just released. Philip Seymour Hoffman has been offered the role of Plutarch Heavensbee, according to a tweet from Variety reporter Jeff Sneider, later confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.

Hunger Games Head Gamemaker Heavensbee is not a major character in the book, but the role is likely to be expanded for the movie. Director Gary Ross quit the franchise after the first installment. This one will be directed by Francis Lawrence (Water for Elephants, I Am Legend). Jennifer Lawrence will again play Katniss Everdeen, along with Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne. The film is scheduled for release on Nov. 22, 2013.