Of course you know that The Social Network is based on Ben Mezrick’s The Accidental Billionaires and that the upcoming Gulliver’s Travels is nominally based on Jonathan Swift’s satire.

But some connections are less obvious. Two movies getting heavy promotion right now are the upcoming Anne Hathaway/Jake Gyllenhaal rom/com Love and Other Drugs, which is based on a memoir of a Viagra salesman. The Way Back, with Collin Farrell and Ed Harris is based on The Long Walk,  a memoir of soldier captured by the Red Army in 1939 who escaped with six others, by foot, all the way to India. The latter is getting Oscar buzz for both director Peter Weir and star Ed Harris.

Below are the trailers and tie-in information:

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS — 11/24

Tie-in:

Hard Sell: Now a Major Motion Picture LOVE & OTHER DRUGS Jamie Reidy Retail Price: $12.99 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing – (2010-11-30) ISBN / EAN: 0740799134 / 9780740799136

THE WAY BACK — 12/29, limited; Expands 1/21/11

Tie-in:

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom: Movie Tie-In Slavomir Rawicz Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Lyons Press – (2010-11-16) ISBN / EAN: 1599219751 / 9781599219752

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You can stay up to date by regularly checking our listings of Movies Based on Books (links are available at the right):

Upcoming — with Tie-ins

Now Playing — With Tie-ins

For those who want to look even further out, we also list movies that are In Production and books that have had their Film Rights Acquired.

The London premiere of  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (opening next week in the US) proved that the franchise still has a strong fan base.

The Telegraph gives an assessment of the UK reviews.

Is Mia Wasikowska the next Gwyneth Paltrow? Like her predecessor, she is taking on classic heroines. Last year she starred as Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and now she’s Jane Eyre (coming March 11).

Looks like this adaptation will capture all the spookiness of the book (and then some).

It may be a stretch to say Gulliver’s Travels, scheduled for release on 12/22, is actually based on the book (we don’t remember a tiny Kiss band in Jonathan Swift’s novel).

No movie tie-in edition of the original book has emerged, but there are two novelizations.

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Gulliver’s Travels Movie Novelization Retail Price: $5.99 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Simon Spotlight – (2010-11-16) ISBN / EAN: 1442409045 / 9781442409040

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The Tale of Gulliver (Ready-to-Read. Level 3) Emily Sollinger Retail Price: $3.99 Paperback: 32 pages Publisher: Simon Spotlight – (2010-11-16) ISBN / EAN: 1442408669 / 9781442408661

Tyler Perry’s movie For Colored Girls, based on Ntozake Shange’s 1975 play (with the much longer title For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf), opens tomorrow and is drawing heat.

The new People magazine says it “…fuels a dangerous fallacy that black women are perpetual victims and black men border on villainous,” but that “black women will see it in droves.”

The Los Angeles Times says,

Anticipation…has been building for months, especially among African American women; many are planning informal opening-weekend viewing parties. Given the pedigree of the play and the film’s high-caliber cast, some observers predict the movie may have a cultural influence similar to 1995’s Waiting to Exhale, which became a touchstone of female bonding and grossed about $67 million in the U.S.

The cast is definitely high-caliber, featuring a who’s who of African American women, including Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson, and Phylicia Rashad.

For a high-def version of the trailer, go to the film’s official web site.

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The movie was moved up from it’s original January release date, to qualify it for the Oscars, leaving the publisher to scramble to get the tie-in out in time. It was released on Monday.

For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Ntozake Shange Retail Price: $12.00 Paperback: 112 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-11-02) ISBN / EAN: 1439186812 / 9781439186817

I was pleased to see one of my all-time favorite books, Eric Larson’s true crime story, The Devil in the White City, suddenly moving up Amazon’s sales rankings (now at #190 from #526 yesterday).

It turns out that Leonardo DiCaprio is working on acquiring film rights, with the intent of starring as the serial killer who used the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair to lure his victims.

The obvious question is why is this just happening now, seven years after the book was published? According to Deadline, Tom Cruise originally optioned it, but that recently lapsed.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America Erik Larson Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 447 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2004-02-10) ISBN / EAN: 0375725601 / 9780375725609

The Stewart and Colbert shows focus on the election this week. There’s just one author interview; David Sedaris on Thursday. His new book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary is currently at #9 on the NYT Fiction Hardcover best seller list, after 4 weeks.

Sedaris last appeared on the show in 2008.

Expecting a Movie

Here’s one I’m having difficulty imagining; the ever-popular pregnancy guide, What to Expect When You Are Expecting, is being adapted for a movie.

According to Entertainment Weekly‘s PopWatch blog, it’s being planned as a “series of intertwining vignettes” à la Love Actually and Valentine’s Day. It’s the early stages; no director or cast has been announced yet.

If it’s a success, they might consider following up with What Color is Your Parachute?

The standoff between director Peter Jackson and the New Zealand actors guilds over the filming of The Hobbit has finally reached a resolution. As reported in the NYT and elsewhere, the New Zealand government has agreed to change their labor laws to accommodate the filming of the two movies, expected to begin in February. The films are scheduled for release in Dec. 2012 and 2013.

Meanwhile, casting has been moving forward. Martin Freeman (from the UK TV series, The Office) is set to play Bilbo Baggins.

Shakespeare wrote a play about the Battle of Agincourt (Henry V), Bernard Cornwell recently wrote a best selling book about the lead up to it (Agincourt) and now filmmaker Michael Mann is considering a movie based on Cornwell’s book, according to an interview in the Financial Times.

Mann directed another historical film, The Last of the Mohicans.

Don’t hold your breath, though. Mann is also considering a film about 1940’s Chicago’s crime boss, Tony “Big Tuna” Accardo and is currently producing a series for HBO about horse racing called Luck, due to begin in late 2011 or early 2012.

Neither of those projects are based on books.

Agincourt Bernard Cornwell Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 512 pages Publisher: Harper Paperbacks – (2010-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061578908 / 9780061578908

Director Ang Lee has completed his search for an actor to play the lead in his movie adaptation of Life of Pi, Yann Martels’ 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning novel. According to the movie news site, Deadline, newcomer Suraj Sharma won the part over 3,000 other teenagers Lee auditioned. Shooting will begin in January.

Life of Pi Yann Martel Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 326 pages Publisher: Mariner Books – (2003-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0156027321 / 9780156027328

Two eagerly anticipated movies made from books have been scheduled for release and on the same day, August 12, 2011; The Help and Mr. Popper’s Penguins.

The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling debut and directed by her childhood friend, Tate Taylor, includes the following cast,

Emma Stone … Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan
Bryce Dallas Howard … Hilly Holbrook
Mike Vogel … Johnny Foote
Sissy Spacek … Missus Walters
Allison Janney … Charlotte Phelan
Chris Lowell … Stuart Whitworth
Viola Davis … Aibileen Clark
Ahna O’Reilly … Elizabeth Leefolt
Anna Camp … Jolene French
Jessica Chastain … Celia Foote

Mr. Popper’s Penguins, starring Jim Carrey and Carla Gugino is directed by Mark Waters (Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, The Spiderwick Chronicles). Certain liberties have been taken with the script based on the 1938 Newbery Honor Book; Mr. Popper is a high-powered businessman, rather than a poor house painter.

Also, War Horse, based on the book by Michael Morpurgo, has been rescheduled from August to Dec. 28th, 2011, just a few days after The Adventures of Tintin. Both films are directed by Steven Spielberg.

War Horse Michael Morpurgo Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2007-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0439796636 / 9780439796637

Helen Mirren goes “badass” (to quote the People review) in Red, the movie based on the relatively unknown comic series by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, opening today. “Red” stands for “Retired: extremely dangerous,” which gives fimmakers an opportunity to bring out some “aging actors” (quoting People again), like Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Morgan Freeman (even Richard Dreyfuss makes an appearance).

Unfortunately, the reviews are pretty terrible; People gives it just 2.5 of a possible 4 stars and the NYT‘s A.O Scott says, “It is possible to have a good time at RED, but it is not a very good movie.” Sounds like it’s a watered down version of the original story; Ellis has the deserved reputation of gleefully offending anyone and everyone, but being so hardcore and entertaining that he makes you love it (see Transmetropolitan, now being printed in new editions, for a splendid case in point.)

Thanks to the movie, Red is now back to print and I am taking the opportunity to pick it up. Warren Ellis is still one of the top writers. His work always goes out from my collection, so it’s a good bet regardless of how well the movie does.

Red Warren Ellis Retail Price: $14.99 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: WildStorm – (2009-06-16) ISBN / EAN: 140122346X / 9781401223465

D.C. comics is producing a miniseries based on the movie. I won’t be buying those titles unless I get requests; I find most of the time my readers aren’t as interested in tie-ins as they are in the original source material.

Whatever the merits of the movie, it’s fun to watch Helen Mirren in “badass” mode in the trailer.
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Now that Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Pleasantville) is in negotiations to direct Hunger Games, based on the first book in Suzanne Collins’ YA series, the rumor mill is turning its attention to who will be cast in the lead.

Entertainment Weekly‘s book blog, “Shelf Life” reports Kaya Scodelario and Lyndsy Fonseca receive ‘The Hunger Games’ script as well as Chloe Moretz. Here’s the basics on each actress:

Kaya Scodelario, appeared in the British teen series, Skins, appearing here in BBC America

Lyndsy Fonseca appeared in the movie Kick-Ass. She also appears on the CW series, Nikita, currently in its second season

Chloe Moretz also appeared in Kick-Ass

Of the movies based on books opening today, the one likely to pull ahead at the box office is Disney’s take on Secretariat, the race horse who set records in the 1970’s that still stand today. As the NYT review puts it, the movie “sticks to the Disney gospel that life means following your dreams.” The movie was “suggested by” William Nack’s book Secretariat: The Making of a Champion, which has been on the extended NYT Paperback Non-fiction list for the past two weeks.

Click here to see the trailer.

Secretariat William Nack Retail Price: $16.99 Paperback: 480 pages Publisher: Hyperion – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 1401324010 / 9781401324018

The NYT says of It’s Kind of a Funny Story, also opening today and based on the book by Ned Vizzini, “For a movie set in a psychiatric hospital…[it’s] disarmingly gentle, sweet and whimsical.”

View the trailer here.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Movie Tie-in Edition) Ned Vizzini Retail Price: $9.99 Paperback: 448 pages Publisher: Hyperion Book CH – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 1423141911 / 9781423141914

Also opening, but only in NYC and LA is Tamara Drewe, based on the graphic novel by British cartoonist Posy Simmonds. In turn, it is roughly based on thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. The NYT‘s A.O Scott finds it only “moderately diverting.”

View the trailer here.

Tamara Drewe Posy Simmonds Retail Price: $16.95 Paperback: 136 pages Publisher: Mariner Books – (2008-10-08) ISBN / EAN: 0547154127 / 9780547154121