Several tie-ins to upcoming movies, and a heavily-promoted HBO series, are being released this week (See below, in order by movie release date). For more upcoming movies with tie-ins, check out Upcoming — with Tie-ins listings.

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SEPT 15, 2010, Limited

Movie Title: Never Let Me Go

Director: Mark Romanek

Starring: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins

Official Web Site: FoxSearchlight

Based on: Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro, (Knopf)

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

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Sept 19, 2010; series begins on HBO

Movie Title: Boardwalk Empire

Studio: HBO

Producer: Martin Scorsese

Official Web site: HBO.com/Boardwalk-Empire

Based on: Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, Nelson Johnson

Tie-in:

Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City Nelson Johnson Retail Price: $17.95 Paperback: 296 pages Publisher: Plexus Publishing, Inc. – (2009-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0966674855 / 9780966674859

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SEPT 24, 2010

Movie Title: HOWL

Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

Cast:

James Franco … Allen Ginsberg
Mary-Louise Parker … Gail Potter
Jon Hamm … Jake Ehrlich
Jeff Daniels … Professor David Kirk
David Strathairn … Ralph McIntosh

Official Web Site: HOWLTheMovie

Based on: Allen Ginsberg’s obscenity trial for the publication of the poem, HOWL

Tie-in:

Harper Perennial is releasing Howl in graphic novel format, including art from the film.

Howl: A Graphic Novel Allen Ginsberg, Eric Drooker Retail Price: $19.99 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Harper Perennial – (2010-09-01) ISBN / EAN: 0062015176 / 9780062015174

Related Titles:

Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: City Lights Publishers – (2006-11-01) ISBN / EAN: 0872864790 / 9780872864795

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Howl and Other Poems (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) Allen Ginsberg Retail Price: $7.95 Paperback: 57 pages Publisher: City Lights Publishers – (2001-01-01) ISBN / EAN: 0872860175 / 9780872860179

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OCT 1, 2010

Movie Title: Let Me In

Director: Matt Reeves

Cast:

Chloe Moretz … Abby
Kodi Smit-McPhee … Owen
Richard Jenkins … The Father

Based on: Swedish horror debut by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Offcial Web Site: LetMeIn-Movie

Tie-in:

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

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OCT 8, 2010

Movie Title: It’s Kind of a Funny Story

Directors: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Starring: Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, and Keir Gilchrist

Official Web Site: ItsKindOfaFunnyStoryMovie

Based on: YA novel It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Tie-in:

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

If you’re coming to this the first thing in the morning, fair warning, it may be a bigger jolt to the system than your double decaf latte.

Filmmaker Danny Boyle, Oscar winner for Slumdog Millionaire, directs 127 Hours based on mountain climber Aron Ralston’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place, (Atria, 2004; original cover at left), his memoir of being trapped by a boulder in a canyon for five days. To save himself, he finally had to cut off his own arm.

Rising star James Franco (he’s Julia Robert’s younger lover in Eat Pray Love and was recently profiled in New York magazine),  plays Ralston.

The movie is scheduled for release on Nov. 5.

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Tie-in pbk:
127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Aron Ralston
Pocket, October 2010; Mass Market Paperback, 448 pages; $7.99
ISBN-13: 9781451617702

Tie-in Abridged Audio:
Read by: Aron Ralston
Simon & Schuster Audio, October 2010;  5 CD’s $14.99
ISBN-13: 9781442340015

Naomi Watts plays Valerie Plame Wilson in the movie based on her book, Fair Game, coming to theaters on November 5th. Sean Penn plays her husband, Joseph Wilson.

Official Web Site: Fairgame-movie
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Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House Valerie Plame Wilson Retail Price: $26.00 Hardcover: 411 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (2007-10-22) ISBN / EAN: 1416537619 / 9781416537618

Movie Tie-in; Trade Pbk; 9781451623871; Oct.; $15

So many books get signed for movies, so few actually make it. Below are updates on several that are showing life.

Incredibly Close Somewhat Closer

Director Stephen Daldry and producer Scott Rudin have been working on a film version of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for the last five years. As the movie news site, Deadline, nicely understates, the book is “not the easiest film adaptation.” Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks have been “circling the project,” Deadline 8/22.

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On The Road Shooting

For the tabloid press, it was big news when Robert Pattinson stopped by a Montreal movie set to “snuggle” with his Twilight co-star, Kristen Stewart. For Kerouac fans, the big news is that the film is On The Road, which is finally moving ahead, 31 years after Francis Ford Coppola acquired the rights. The director is Walter Selles (Motorcycle Diaries), with Coppola as executive producer.

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Mr. Popper Signed

Deadline announced that Jim Carrey has signed to star in the  film version of the 1938 children’s classic, Mr. Popper’s Penguin, after “everyone from Jack Black to Owen Wilson to Ben Stiller…has circled the project.” The director is Mark Waters (Mean Girls, The Spiderwick Chronicles). Liberties are being taken with the script; Mr. Popper is described as a “high-powered businessman,” rather than a house painter (Deadline, 8/20/10). According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film is on the “fast track” and will begin production in NY in October.

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Hugo Cabret Scheduled

This one has moved at lightning speed. Optioned in 2007, Martin Scorsese’s first foray into 3-D (and into children’s films), Hugo Cabret, based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, is currently filming and is now scheduled for release next year, on Dec. 9, 2011. It stars Jude Law, Chloe Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Coming to theaters Oct. 1, a documentary based on the best seller Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, (Harper).

News that Anne Hathaway would star in the movie of the British novel One Day propelled it up the charts. It’s currently filming in Scotland and is slated for release some time next year (the tabloid press has been going on about her “geeky look” on set).

Meanwhile, Hathaway is starring, with Jake Gyllenhaal, in another romantic comedy based on a book, Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, renamed Love and Other Drugs for the film version (and the paperback tie-in). It comes out this Thanksgiving.

(for more Movies Based on Books information, check the links at the right).

Love And Other Drugs Trailer

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Original Title:

Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman Jamie Reidy Retail Price: $19.95 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing – (2005-03-01) ISBN / EAN: 0740750399 / 9780740750397

Tie-in:

After a highly publicized search, actress Rooney Mara has landed the role of Lisbeth Salander in the English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

If you’re saying “who?” then you are not up on your Nightmares on Elm Street (she played Nancy Holbrook in this year’s version; the brunette in the trailer). The director of Dragon Tattoo, David Fincher, also worked with her on the upcoming film The Social Network (based on Ben Mezrich’s book Accidental Billionaires, it’s due in theaters 10/1. You’d be hard-pressed to identify her in that trailer, however).

The movie will begin shooting in Sweden next month and is scheduled for release Dec. 21 this year. Also in the cast are Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, Robin Wright as Erika Berger and Stellan Skarsgård asMartin Vanger.

Many other actresses were reported to be vying for the role, including Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Emma Watson (Harry Potter), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) and Kristen Stewart (Twilight).

The filming of reading club favorite, Water for Elephants, starring Robert Pattinson (if you are not up on your heart throbs, he plays Edward in the Twilight movies) wrapped earlier this month. The movie is now scheduled for release on April 15, 2011. Author Sara Gruen’s next title, Ape House, is coming Sept 7th.

The Tempest, directed by Julie Taymor, stuck in limbo because of the sale of Miramax, is now scheduled for release by Disney on December 10th. It stars Helen Mirren as Prospera (in a move Shakespeare would no doubt appreciate, the gender of Prospero has been switched) and Russell Brand is Trinculo. The poster at right suggests it will feature the strong visual effects that are Taymor’s signature.

Photo by Ron Batsdorff

One for the Money, based on the first in Janet Evanovich’s mystery series, still in the midst of shooting, is scheduled for July 18, 2011. Several people commented earlier on EarlyWord that they thought Katherine Heigl was not a good choice to play Stephanie Plum; does the publicity shot of her in character at left change anyone’s mind?

Evanovich’s next book Wicked Appetite, (9/14), inaugurates a new series, which incorporates two hot trends; cupcakes and the paranormal.

Lincoln Lawyer, based on the Michael Connelly title, currently shooting with Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Phillippe, is scheduled for March 18, 2011. Connelly’s next title, The Reversal, is coming Oct. 5.

Check our “Movies Based on Book — Upcoming— with Tie-ins” section for a full schedule.

Good Morning America has been having a week-long love fest with Eat Pray Love. After separate interviews with stars Julia Roberts and Javier Badem, Stephanopoulos spoke to Elizabeth Gilbert on Friday, the movie’s opening day. She says she doesn’t understand authors who are upset by the way Hollywood handles their books; it’s like selling your house and then complaining about the changes that the new owners have made.

The Home Shopping Network has had its own love fest, featuring products related to the movie.

The tie-in book rose to #2 on Amazon the day after the movie opened. It has been at #1 on the NYT paperback nonfiction list since it was released.

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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia Elizabeth Gilbert Retail Price: $16.00 Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) – (2010-06-29) ISBN / EAN: 0143118420 / 9780143118428

Two big movies based on books go head-to-head this weekend; Eat Pray Love, (inexplicably, the commas in the book’s title are missing from the screen version) starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, starring Michael Cera, based on the comic book series. From the critics’ point of view, Pilgrim is the winner.

The People magazine reviewer admits to not being a fan of Eat, Pray, Love, the book, but gives the movie 3 of 4 stars even though it “sags in the middle,” On the other hand, Entertainment Weekly’s reviewer loved the book, but isn’t so hot on the movie, giving it a C+

If only Roberts’ warmth, coupled with Javier Bardem’s scruffy sexiness as Felipe, were enough to compensate for the folded-map flatness of this production. If only this glossy Eat Pray Love — an armchair journey for these staycation times — didn’t amount to a whole lot of navel-gazing about problems that, absent the author’s unique narrative language, don’t nearly fill up the 133-minute space the movie version allots.

The movie tie-in has been steadily rising on the USA Today list since it’s release on 6/29; it’s now at #2. NielsenWire’s blog offers a look at  BookScan’s figures on how the movie has affected sales. (Note that BookScan does not include all sales; Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and libraries are not tracked).

And, is it possible? Libraries are still showing holds on all formats of the book; audio, large print, as well as the Spanish-language translation; in some cases, 4:1 for the book.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is getting better response from critics. People designates it a Critics Choice, with four out of a possible four stars, calling it “one of the most exuberant movies of the year…resplendent in its geekiness.” Entertainment Weekly gives it a B+ , calling it possibly “the first rock & roll kung fu videogame youth love story,” but marking it down because the reviewer would have preferred “a little less kick-ass. Still, it’s a true original.”

The books, however, are not getting quite the lift that Eat, Pray, Love is enjoying. The final volume of the Scott Pilgrim series went to #42 on the USA Today list shortly after its release. It stayed on the list for 2 weeks, but is no longer in the top 150. Libraries are showing holds on the entire series, with slightly more for volume 1, but on far fewer copies than they own of Eat, Pray, Love (check out Robin Brenner’s related story on the affect of movies on comics).

Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour Bryan Lee O’Malley Retail Price: $11.99 Paperback: 248 pages Publisher: Oni Press – (2010-07-20) ISBN / EAN: 1934964387 / 9781934964385

Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Olive Kitteridge, may become an HBO series.

According to the movie news site, Deadline, Frances McDormand will produce and play the lead, if the script is accepted.

McDormand is also working on a large screen adaptation of Laura Lippman’s Every Secret Thing, with Diane Lane in the lead role. Lippman’s new book, I’d Know You Anywhere, is coming out next week.

Speculation is rampant on who will play The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in the American version of the movies based on the Stieg Larsson trilogy.

In the UK, the tabloids are writing that Emma Watson (who has had some experience with a book series brought to the movies; she played Hermione in the Harry Potter films) has “hacked off” her hair to audition for the role.

The CBS Early Show reported on the “hot buzz” yesterday, mentioning Natalie Portman and Ellen Page (Juno, Inception), but holding out the idea that an unknown would be more interesting.

One of the early front-runners, Cary Mulligan, is no longer a candidate; some speculate that director David Fincher found her too “clean cut.”

Daniel Craig will play the lead, Mikael Blomkvist. Robin Wright is reportedly in negotiations to play Erika Berger, Blomkvist’s love interest.

On Friday, ABC’s Nightline interviewed Larsson’s real-life partner, the woman he lived with for 32 years, Eva Gabrielsson.

Meanwhile, critic Maureen Corrigan spoke about other Nordic mysteries on NPR’s Fresh Air last night, propelling titles by the writing team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo up the Amazon sales rankings.

Those wonderful folks who brought you the Twilight movies may now be bringing you Babar. According to the movie news site, Deadline, Twilight producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey have sealed a deal to produce a series that combines live-action and animation.

Heading to the both the Toronto and Venice film festivals in September, is the film version of Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version, starring Paul Giamatti. No theater dates yet; it’s waiting to find a US distributor.

The book has a big following in Italy, where the editor of one of the newspapers fell in love with it in 2001 and began running daily stories featuring it, according to a Canadian Broadcasting story:

Because of that, the book’s Paris scenes have been changed to Rome for the film.

The cast also includes Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, and Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight).

USA Today reports that Steven Spielberg begins shooting the movie of the children’s book War Horse this week.

Release date is scheduled for August 2011.

Spielberg is also finishing up The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, starring Daniel Craig, scheduled for Dec. 23, 2011.

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