The final Swedish-language movie of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy Luftslottet som sprängdes (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest) opens in select theaters on Oct. 29th. The trailer has just appeared on the Web.

Meanwhile, the English-language version of the first title in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is being shot in Sweden. It was recently announced that Christopher Plummer will play wealthy industrialist Henrik Vanger, who hires Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) to solve a decades-old murder. Directed by David Fincher (The Social Network), the movie is scheduled to open next year on Dec. 21, 2011.

Noomi Rapace, the Swedish actress who won acclaim as Salander in the original series, just landed her first English-speaking role; she will star in Sherlock Holmes 2.

The trailer for The Tempest, Julie Taymor’s film version of Shakespeare’s play, starring Helen Mirren as Prospera (changing the sex of the main character), has just appeared online. As expected, Taymor, director of The Lion King on stage, is not sparing with the special effects.

The movie debuts 12/10 in “select theaters.”

Official Web site: Tempest-TheMovie.com

What would you guess is the “hottest property in Hollywood right now?”

A: Seth Grahame-Smith’s mashup, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Grand Central, 3/2/10).

According to the movie news site Deadline, “After a hard fought auction that included Sony and Paramount and Universal and Summit, Twentieth Century Fox has emerged the victor.” Director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy) and producer Tim Burton optioned the book earlier this year. Shooting is to begin in March.

Deadline adds this wonderful detail,

Fox wanted the project so badly that when the filmmakers came onto the lot, the studio had bloody axes and bloody footprints strewn about, and arranged for a bugle player in a Confederate uniform playing “Taps” to accompany them to the meeting with studio executives.

Looks like cheesy tactics still work in movieland.

Meanwhile, there hasn’t been any news on the grandmother of the genre, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, also by Grahame-Smith (Quirk, 4/5/09), since Natalie Portman, who is producing it and plans to play the lead, told MTV in August that director David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings) is working on the script. UPDATE: Mike Fleming at Deadline says he doesn’t believe Portman will do PP&Z .

After the success of the Lord of the Rings films, you’d think The Hobbit would follow as quickly as a new vampire flick.

But the movie has been delayed by MGM’s financial problems. The L.A. Times reports that “barring a last-minute glitch,” production on the first of the planned two movies might start in mid-January, with a 2012 holiday release date, followed by the second film a year later.

The Social Network, the movie about the founding of Facebook, led the box office this weekend, as expected. The tie-in edition of the book it was based on, Accidental Billionaires, also rose on Amazon sales rankings. Another recent title about the company, The Facebook Effect, also received a boost.

The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World David Kirkpatrick Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2010-06-08) ISBN / EAN: 1439102112 / 9781439102114

Even though Let Me In was considered a box office disappointment, it gave the Swedish horror novel, published in hardcover in the US in 2007, a boost to its highest point yet on Amazon sales rankings.

Let Me In John Ajvide Lindqvist Retail Price: $15.99 Paperback: 496 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 0312656491 / 9780312656492

And, despite being in theaters for over seven weeks, the highest-ranking tie-in is still Eat, Pray, Love. It received another boost this weekend; but not as high as it’s opening weekend, when it rose to #2.

Books Related to Movies Moving Up Amazon Sales Rankings, 10/1 to 10/3

#46 Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin tie-in, 6/29/10)

#131 The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich (Anchor tie-in, 9/28/10)

#252 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, (tie-in, Vintage tie-in, 8/31/10)

#230 Guardians of Ga’hoole by Kathryn Lasky, (boxed set, Scholastic, 10/1/06)

#343 Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (St. Martin’s Griffin, tie-in, 08/3110)

#364 The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World by David Kirkpatrick, (S & S 6/8/10)

Arriving in theaters tomorrow is “the movie that Facebook doesn’t want you to see,” (New York magazine), The Social Network, based on Ben Mezrich’s book about the founding of the company, Accidental Billionaires. Some skeptics say the true reason behnind Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donating $100 million to Newark NJ’s School system is to garner good press in advance of the movie.

Whether or not the movie is a accurate portrayal of Zukerberg, the New York Times finds it a “a resonant contemporary story about the new power elite.” Also, it is a chance to see Rooney Mara, the actress who won the role of Lizbeth Sanders in the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Movie Title: The Social Network

Director: David Fincher

Starring: Joseph Mazzello, Rooney Mara, Rashida Jones, Jesse Eisenberg, Malese Jow, Justin Timberlake

Official Web Site: TheSocialNetwork-Movie

Based on: The Accidental Billionaires, Ben Mezrich

Tie-in:

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal Ben Mezrich Retail Price: $15.95 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Anchor – (2010-09-28) ISBN / EAN: 0307740986 / 9780307740984

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Also releasing today is a movie based on Freakonomics, which the NYT calls “The jocular screen adaptation of the 2005 best seller…a shallow but diverting alternative to the book” and Let Me In, the American remake of a Swedish vampire movie, based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. The NYT says, “Even if you think you’ve had enough of the vampirization of popular culture …find room in your heart for this one.”

For tie-in information, go to our Now Playing — With Tie-ins listings. For upcoming movies based on books, go to Upcoming — with Tie-ins.

The word got out quickly that the pseudonymn Pittacus Lore, author of the YA title I Am Number Four, hid the identities of co-authors, James Frey and Jobie Hughes.

News also arrived quickly that Hollywood, always on the look out for a successful YA series (I Am Number Four is the first in a projected trilogy) had snapped up the film rights. The book came out in August; the movie is coming February 18.

Below is the just-released trailer.

Official Web site: FindNumberFour.com

…………………………
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

She may be interview-shy, but she couldn’t resist the call of Oprah. J.K. Rowling will sit down with the media mogul on Friday. The AP reports that Oprah will ask if there will be another Harry Potter book; a pretty transparent bid to get people to tune in.

A new trailer for the next in the HP movie franchise was released last week (check it out in HD on the official web site). If you’re wondering about future Harry Potters, perhaps the tagline is a clue — “It All Ends Here.”

The movie arrives Nov. 19th.

Just unveiled is the trailer for the much-anticipated Coen brothers’ remake of True Grit, the 1969 movie for which John Wayne won his only Oscar. Jeff Bridges takes on Wayne’s iconic role, offering the opportunity to play with nicknames (“The Dude Playing the Duke“).

Reportedly, the movie is not as much based on the movie as the 1968 Charles Portis novel. A Newsday article from 2001 articulates the difference,

True Grit was both critically acclaimed and a bestseller when it was published in 1968. But today most people are more likely to be familiar with the John Wayne movie version that appeared in 1969, and that’s a pity. The film sticks to the plot and gets the tone wrong: It’s picturesque instead of possessed of a rough beauty; it’s antic and contrived, while the book is plain, direct and deep, like an old ballad.

Overlook Press rescued True Grit as well as Portis’s other books from being out-of-print cult titles.

The movie opening on Dec. 25 stars Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin who may have to work hard to hold their own against newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

Official Web Site: TrueGritMovie.com

True Grit: Movie Tie-In Edition Charles Portis Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Overlook TP – (2010-10-05) ISBN / EAN: 159020459X / 9781590204597

Tyler Perry known for “…churning out populist money-making vehicles that get slammed by critics for playing on stereotypes and going for cheap laughs and easy sentiment” (The Wall Street Journal) is breaking out of that mold with an adaptation of the Tony-nominated play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The all-star cast includes Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Anika Noni Rose, Loretta Devine and Kerry Washington.

On the movie news site Deadline, Nikki Finke predicts that the producer, Lionsgate, “…doesn’t begin to understand yet what a PR nightmare will surround [the movie]” and says that even Oprah didn’t want him to do it (although now that she’s seen it, she’s given it her blessing), because as a black man, he cannot understand the black female experience that the play explores.

Doesn’t seem to be a problem for the women in the cast. It’s hard to imagine Whoopi Goldberg joining the project if she didn’t believe in it.

Below is the trailer; originally scheduled for January, it now debuts on Nov. 5, making it eligible for the Oscars. UPDATE: The publisher tells us that the release date has been moved up to Nov. 2.

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The tie-in is still showing a Dec. release date; expect it to be moved up, also.

The tie-in for Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro hit the NY Times Trade Paperback best seller list this week at #17 (tied with #16), in advance of the movie which debuted in theaters on Friday.

Libraries are showing holds, up to 8:1 in some instances, on the hard cover.

Below is a behind the scenes video of the movie’s stars, director and the author discussing the book.

Below is the movie trailer.

Tie-in:

Never Let Me Go (Movie Tie-In Edition) Kazuo Ishiguro Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Vintage – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 0307740994 / 9780307740991

After talking to several potential candidates, Lionsgate is in early negotiations with director Gary Ross to direct The Hunger Games, the first movie in a projected series based on Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, according to Deadline

Ross’s previous directing credits include Pleasantville and Seabiscuit.

According to Deadline, “The huge sales of the trilogy make the film adaptations a potential game-changer for Lionsgate, the way that Twilight was for Summit Entertainment.”

It’s probably no surprise that there’s several directors vying for a crack at the film version of Hunger Games. Hollywood seems to thinks it’s like Twilight — a series with a strong following by both kids and adults. Here’s the possibilities, according to the movie news site, Deadline, along with the films they are know for.

Gary Ross — Pleasantville, Sea Biscuit

Sam Mendes — American Beauty, Revolutionary Road

David Slade — The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Andrew Adamson — Shrek, Chronicles of Narnia

Rupert Sanders — a “major British director of commercials”; this would be his film debut

Susanna White — Nanny McPhee Returns, Generation Kill

Francis Lawrence — I Am Legend and, coming in April, Water for Elephants

Meanwhile, many are saying that Kick-Ass star Chloe Moretz is the top candidate to play the teen heroine, Katniss Everdeen.

The best-selling historical adventure story about a grueling 1815 desert trek, Skeletons on the Zahara, by Dean King (Little, Brown, 2004), is being adapted as a screenplay, according to the movie news site, Deadline.

Don’t hold your breath, however, Deadline also notes that the screen writer, Ronan Bennett, has many other projects on his plate.

Carolyn Kellogg examines whether a book’s popularity translates to box office success on the LA Times Jacket Copy blog, in response to Deadline‘s Mike Fleming’s post theorizing that the success of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy bodes well for the English-language film version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Kellogg says not so fast; the movie Eat Pray Love suggests differently. This enormous hit as a book translated into a merely “satisfactory” movie at the box office, despite a strong opening weekend. Kellogg concludes that this lack of success proves movies can never fulfill readers’ expectations (she doesn’t take into account the success of the Twilight series in both book and movie form, however).

Relativity Media, the company behind the film based on Nicholas Sparks’ forthcoming book, Safe Haven (Grand Central, 9/14) clearly disagrees. They are sinking money into promoting the book a full year before the movie’s release (perhaps nobody told them that Sparks is already a best-selling author).

But can movies rely on a book’s devoted fans? A look at the numbers shows that a film requires a much larger audience than a book to become a success. According to Gilbert’s web site, Eat, Pray, Love has 7 million copies in print after four years, making it a blockbuster. On the other hand, the movie has sold nearly 8 million tickets in just two and a half weeks, rendering it merely satisfactory. (Ticket sales arrived at by dividing the movie’s gross by average ticket price, as reported by TheNumbers.com)

Title recognition may help in marketing a movie based on a best-selling book, but the movie must connect with audiences on its own to succeed.

The more important question for the book business is the reverse; how a movie affects book sales. The tie-in of Eat, Pray, Love hit lists shortly after its release and quickly became the top-selling book in the country well before the movie arrived. In 2008, the tie-in edition of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road became a best seller even without the movie it tied in to, which ended up being delayed for over a year.

In both cases, it was not the quality of the movie that sent people to the book. We probably don’t have to look very deeply for motivation; buyers may simply respond to a familiar title reappearing front of store with a brand new jacket featuring Hollywood stars, regardless of whether they see the movie.

Note: The issue is different for comics and movies, as Robin Brenner explored in an earlier post on EarlyWord (Comics to Film: Who Boosts Whom?).