A trailer for the film adaptation of the popular reading group book, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, was released last week. It is scheduled to open in theaters on July 15th. The first of See’s books to be adapted as a movie, it is directed by Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club, Maid in Manhattan and Because of Winn-Dixie).

The author’s next book, Dreams of Joy, to be published May 31, is a continuation of the story begun in her 2009 novel, Shanghai Girls.

Web site: SnowFlowerMovie.com

Trailer on YouTube:

Tie-in:

The rumor mill has been churning for days and now the movie news site The Wrap claims the exclusive that Jennifer Lawrence (nominated for an Oscar for Winter’s Bone) will play Katniss Everdeen in the film version of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. It is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 23 next year and is planned as the first in a trilogy, followed by Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

The role of Peeta Mellark has not been cast yet, but The Wrap says the Alex Pettyfer (I am Number Four and Beastly) is one of the actors under consideration

The major film adaptation opening tomorrow is based on a picture book, Mars Needs Moms. Author Berkeley Breathed describes in the L.A. Times what it was like to see his 38-page book become a big-budget 3-D Disney movie (the filmmakers added back a segment that Breathed’s “lily-livered publisher” axed). In another piece, the L.A. Times says the movie may suffer at the box office, partly because of its potentially frightening ending. People magazine’s review gives it a lowly 1 of 4 possible stars, objecting to a “vicious caricature of a feminist” but sister mag. Entertainment Weekly completely disagrees, awarding it an A-.

A better landing is expected for Catherine Hardwicke’s…

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Who’s going to play Sarah Palin in the HBO adaptation of Game Change?

No, not Tina Fey.

According to Entertainment Weekly, that role just went to Julianne Moore.

No news yet on who will play John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.

Coming in second at the box office last weekend is The Adjustment Bureau (after the children’s animated feature, Rango) based on Philip K. Dick’s short story, “The Adjustment Team.”

The love interest, played by Emily Blunt in the film, was not in the original story. In the L.A. Times blog, Jacket Copy, Carolyn Kellogg explores the differences between the two versions.

Many successful films have been adapted from Dick’s novels and stories, including Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and Total Recall (a full list is available here).

The story “The Adjustment Team” is available in various anthologies, including the following and as an audio tie-in.

Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick Philip K. Dick Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 496 pages Publisher: Pantheon – (2002-11-05) ISBN / EAN: 0375421513 / 9780375421518

Audio tie-in: Brilliance Audio; under the title “The Adjustment Bureau”; Read by Phil Gigante; $39.97

OverDrive; Selected Stores available in Adobe EPUB eBook

Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first Twilight movie, releases her next film, Red Riding Hood on Friday. The tie-in novelization has been on the NYT children’s paperback bestseller list since it came out in January, debuting at #1. The L.A. Times today gives the back story on how the book came to be. Far more than just writing the introduction, Hardwicke was the moving force behind the book.

The ebook version “includes video interviews with Hardwicke and her many collaborators, an animated short film, audio discussion about the set design and props, costume sketches and Hardwicke’s hand-drawn maps of the world where Red Riding Hood takes place, among other things.”

Unfortunately, it is not available for library lending.

Red Riding Hood Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, David Leslie Johnson Retail Price: $9.99 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Poppy/Little Brown  (2011-01-25) ISBN / EAN: 0316176044 / 9780316176040

The King’s Speech won four Oscars last night, including Best Picture. The tie-in basked in the glow, moving to #40 (from #62) on Amazon sales rankings.

The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy Mark Logue, Peter Conradi Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Sterling – (2010-11-26) ISBN / EAN: 140278676X / 9781402786761

The audio (Tantor) includes the actual speech that the King worked so hard to perfect.
OverDrive; Adobe EPUB eBook

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Although it was nominated for 10 Oscars and was an early front-runner, True Grit came away with no wins, but the tie-in rose to #63 (from #79) on Amazon.

True Grit Charles Portis Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Overlook TP – (2007-08-28) ISBN / EAN: 1585679380 / 9781585679386

OverDrive; Adobe EPUB eBook

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However, the highest-ranking movie-related title is for the forthcoming (April 22) Water for Elephants, curently at #8. The tie-in releases tomorrow.

Water for Elephants (movie tie-in) Sara Gruen Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: Algonquin Books – (2011-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 1616200707 / 9781616200701

OverDrive; WMA Audiobook and Adobe EPUB eBook

Kathryn Stockett gave a statement to USA Today on the lawsuit filed by a woman who claims the author used her name and image, without permission, as the basis for Aibileen Clark, one of the characters in her book.

The movie based on the book is scheduled for release on August 12th. Pictured below are Emma Stone as Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan and Viola Davis as Aibilene. The L.A. Times featured an interview with the film’s director, Stocktett’s childhood friend, Tate Taylor, last month.

Once again, a come-from-behind movie is poised to sweep the Oscars on Sunday. The King’s Speech has been nominated in twelve categories, making it one of the most-nominated films in history.

The movie and the tie-in book are both based on material that came to light as screenwriter David Seidler was working on the movie. That background is explored on Sixty Minutes

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The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy Mark Logue, Peter Conradi Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Sterling – (2010-11-26) ISBN / EAN: 140278676X / 9781402786761

The audio includes the actual speech that the King worked so hard to perfect:

Just released on the web is the trailer for Something Borrowed, based on the novel by Emily Griffin, starring Kate Hudson, Ginnifer Goodwin, John Krasinski and Colin Egglesfield. The movie opens on May 6.

Official Movie Site: www.SomethingBorrowedMovie.com

Tie-in:

Something Borrowed (Movie Tie-In Edition) Emily Giffin Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin – (2011-03-29) ISBN / EAN: 0312600720 / 9780312600723

Focus Films is beginning its push for the new adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, which arrives in theaters on March 11. A new clip appeared on the Web this week.

Let the smouldering begin.

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Based on: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Official Web Site: FocusFeatures.com/Jane_Eyre
Tie-in:

Jane Eyre (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Classics) Charlotte Bronte Retail Price: $9.95 Paperback: 624 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2011-02-08) ISBN / EAN: 0307744221 / 9780307744227

The top three films at the box office on President’s Day weekend are all book adaptations. Overturning predictions, Unknown, adapted from the book Out of My Head by Didier van Cauwelaert, and starring Liam Neeson, came in at #1.

The #2 film, Gnomeo and Juliet is a very loose adaptation (we doubt that even a modern-day Shakespeare would use the line, “Tell him I’m washing my hair”); as the trailer nicely understates, it’s “Shakespeare’s legendary tale as you’ve never seen it before.”

I Am Number Four, underperformed expectations and came in  at #3. An adaptation of the book by James Frey and Jobie Hughes, under the pseudonym “Pittacus Lore,”  it was sold to Dreamworks last year before it appeared as a book.

Sales of the tie-ins are the reverse of the box office; as shown below by each title’s Amazon sales ranking.

Amazon – #110 (and #1 on the NYT Children’s Chapter Books list)

I Am Number Four Movie Tie-in Edition Pittacus Lore Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: HarperCollins – (2011-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0062026240 / 9780062026248

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Amazon – #10,807

When Out of My Head, a French thriller about identity theft, was published here in 2005, it received admiring reviews. Entertainment Weekly called it a “convincing little nightmare” and awarded it an A-.  The NYT presciently noted, “this is a novel that really, really wants to be a movie.” The tie-in uses the movie title.

Unknown: A Novel Didier van Cauwelaert Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 176 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2011-01-12) ISBN / EAN: 014311901X / 9780143119012

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Amazon – #15,941

Gnomeo and Juliet Junior Novelization (Disney Gnomeo and Juliet) Molly McGuire Woods Retail Price: $4.99 Ages: 8 to 12 Publisher: RH/Disney – (2011-01-11) ISBN / EAN: 0736428232 / 9780736428231

The L.A Times calls the movie The King’s Speech, “perhaps the award season’s most extraordinary box-office tale,” overturning conventional Hollywood wisdom about American audiences (for instance, that, in some areas of the country, “James Bond is still considered too much of a foreigner.”)

The tie-in book continues on the NYT Trade Paperback Best Seller List after four weeks. It was released in audio this week from Tantor, narrated by Simon Vance (listen to a sample here). It also includes King George VI’s original speech (listen here).

The King’s Speech
How One Man Saved the British Monarchy
By Mark Logue, Peter Conradi
Narrated by Simon Vance

6 Audio CDs: $23.99

1 Mp3-CD: $15.99

Focus Features chose Valentine’s Day to release the poster of the adaptation of One Day, by David Nicholls. Starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, it is directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education) and releases on July 9th.

A huge best seller in the UK, the book was well-received here, with the announcement of a movie version starring Hathaway making it a hit. Published in trade paperback, it spent 25 weeks on the NYT Best Seller list, reaching #4 for two of those weeks.

No trailer yet, but  several stills from the movie here.

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MTV interviewed producer Roberto Orci, currently at work on a movie of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.

There was great excitement among fans when it was announced that the Orci and producing partner, Alex Kurtzman, were involved with the film, but the interview is not particularly encouraging;

“The first thing is to set it up somewhere. The last 48 hours I’ve been running around trying to sell the damn thing, and someone needs to get some guts, and get in here and buy it.”

Orci and Kurtzman are behind the upcoming Cowboys and Aliens as well as Star Trek and Transformers. They are therefore seen as having the connections to make the Ender’s Game adaptation happen. Orci admits, however,

This is one of those books, since it came out in ’85, it turned into a classic, but there was always this feeling that somehow you can’t be faithful, because the audience isn’t sophisticated enough.