In 2004 Susanna Clarke published Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Bloomsbury; OverDrive Sample), a moody, lavish literary fantasy novel set in an alternative 19^th century England full of magic.

It was a sensation, reaching number three on The New York Times bestseller list, winning the Hugo Award for best novel, and getting longlisted for the Man Booker.

Still, for all the readers who adored the book, including Neil Gaiman who praised it lavishly, there were others who were not as charmed.

Now the BBC has adapted it into a seven-part mini series, airing on this side of the ocean on BBC America (Saturdays at 10 p.m.) and reaction is split again.

Mary McNamara, writing for The LA Times’s “Jacket Copy” says it is “a deft combination of Dickensian satire, Austenian wit and Gothic anxiety. For those put off by beheadings and orgies and even for those who are not, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a welcome return to literate magical fantasy.”

David Fear, in his Rolling Stone review, calls it “extraordinary” and says that it offers “some of the most fantastic imported TV you’re likely to view this year… the show’s immersive deep dive into the mystic is likely to leave jaws on the living-room floor.”

Dissenters include Mike Hale writing for The New York Times. He calls it “largely unremarkable” and warns “those who enjoyed the best-selling book to temper their expectations.” The highest praise Hale manages is “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is great to look at. It moves along at a gallop, and it’s not boring, even if it’s not exactly engaging either. Most important, it has appealing performances by Bertie Carvel as Strange and particularly by Eddie Marsan as the crabbed and proud Norrell.”

The AV Club, slightly less disappointed, wraps up its review with “The BBC’s first episode demonstrates it can pull off the story, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll pull off the magic.”

Those knocks aside, it seems readers are responding. Holds are at very respectable levels for a book that came out over a decade ago, in some places topping a 3:1 ratio.

For libraries that need new copies, Bloomsbury has released a new TV tie-in edition. Readers’ advisors might want to take note that the audiobook version narrated by Simon Prebble  (Macmillan Audio; CD and downloadable) is well worth suggesting as well.

Finally. One of the Daily Show alums, other than Stephen Colbert, has had an effect on the sales of a book.

As a result of the following on John Oliver’s HBO Show, Last Week Tonight, the title under scrutiny rose to #165 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

Sorry, an audio of Helen Mirren reading the entire book is not actually available.

The Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture : Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Melville House
Trade Paperback
$16.95 USD, $16.95 CAD

Publicists are already in high gear, promoting the currently filming FX mini-series American Crime Story: The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, based on the book by Jeffrey Toobin, (Random House, 1996). Publicity stills of various characters in their roles have appeared in many publications as well as on Entertainment Tonight.

Catch glimpses in the ET video of Sarah Paulson as prosecuting attorney Marcia Clark, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simspon, John Travolta as Simpson’s lawyer, Robert Shapiro, David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, Courtney B. Vance as Simpson co-counsel Johnnie Cochran, and Billy Magnussen as Kato Kaelin.

No boadcast date yet, but the tie-in is scheduled for 9/29/15.

For some reason, the executive producer of the CBS series based on James Patterson’s Zoo, thinks the statement “We really want the whole world to fear their schnauzers,” is a good promo line.

That quote became the headline for Variety ‘s report on a press event to promote the series. The Hollywood Reporter chose to use a quote from master marketer Patterson instead, who said, “People always say the book is always better than the movie, In this case, I think the series is going to be better than the book.”

The actual tag line for the series is “Animals once ruled the Earth. What if they decided to take it back?”

The 13-episode series premieres on CBS at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30.

Tie-ins:

Zoo

The Syfy channel recently released the “First Look” trailer for its 12-episode series adapting Lev Grossman’s The Magicians (Plume; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample) which will air sometime in 2016.

The series stars Jason Ralph (he has appeared on TV series Madam Secretary and Gossip Girl and in films such as A Most Violent Year) as Quentin Coldwater, a new recruit at the Brakebills College, a school of magic.

As we noted before, the Syfy channel has several book adaptations in the works.

After several attempts to adapt it as a movie, Caleb Carr’s best selling 1994 psychological thriller set in gilded age era New York, The Alienist is now headed to the small screen, as an 8-part series for TNT with Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) attached to direct.

Deadline reports this is part of a shift in the focus for the network towards  “edgier original programming.”

The series still has to be cast and filmed, so it will be at least a year until it comes to fruition, depending on Fukunaga’s schedule. He just completed work on Beasts of No Nation, based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala, for Netflix and is gearing up for an adaptation of Stephen King’s IT. Variety reports that Will Poulter is currently in negotiations to play the demonic clown Pennywise.

The Daytime Emmys for children’s programming are usually the provence of PBS. This year, however, some new players got nods, including Netflix, Youtube and Amazon Studios which won five awards for their original stop-motion adventure series for preschoolers, Tumble Leaf, tying with the perennial winner, Sesame Street.

Amazon Studios is now turning to adaptations. Of the six pilots offered in January, four got series orders, including the two that are based on childrens books.

The Stinky & Dirty Show
Based on the award winning series that began with I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan (HarperCollins Childrens), Amazon’s adaptation is expected to debut in 2016. EarlyWord Kids Correspondent, Lisa Von Drasek is a looking forward to it, saying, “The pilot episode is brilliant, high production values and a great story.”

Just Add Magic
Based on the book by Cindy Callaghan (S&S/Aladdin, 2010).

Amazon also announced that they have ordered six more pilots for kids, three of them based on books. Following their now-established process, Amazon will debut the pilots this summer for  customers to review and vote on their favorites.

The Kicks
Based on the middle-grade book series about four soccer players by US Olympic Gold Medalist Alex Morgan The Kicks, which began with Saving the Team (S&S Books for Young Readers).  The fifth in the series, Hat Trick, is set for publication next month. The adaptation will be directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum (Ramona & Beezus).

Bear in Underwear
Based on the books by Todd Goldman, (Blue Apple Books)

Lily the Unicorn
Based on the book by Dallas Clayton (HarperCollins, 2014) and produced by the Jim Henson Company.

The Lost Generation will be back on the big screen this year. The film adaptation of A. Scott Berg’s National Book Award winning bio, Max Perkins: Editor Of Genius, (Dutton, 1978; available in trade pbk. from Penguin Berkley), has been acquired for distribution by Lionsgate.

Colin Firth plays the legendary Scribner editor, with Jude Law as Thomas Wolfe, Dominic West as Ernest Hemingway and Guy Pearce as
F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Also in the cast are Laura Linney as Perkins’ wife Louise Saunders, and Nicole Kidman as Aline Bernstein, who was romantically involved with Wolfe.

To be released some time this year, the film has already generated Oscar buzz (which means it’s likely to be released towards the end of the year).

No trailer is available yet, but the Daily Mail gives glimpses of the actors during production last fall.

Our Books to Movies & TV listing has updated information on over 400 adaptations in the works (for tie-ins, check our Edelweiss collection).

Recent news:

The Circle, adapted from Dave Eggers’ book of the same title (RH/Knopf, 2013), starring Tom Hanks and Alicia Vikander is set  to begin filming in California, Aug, 2015

Queen of the South, based on the novel by Arturo Perez-Reverte, (RH/Alfaguara, 2010), already adapted as a hit show by Telemundo, has been ordered as a series by USA Network, to be released some time in 2016.

The Sense of an Ending, based on Julian Barnes’ Booker award winner, (RH/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), produced by BBC Films, has signed Jim Broadbent to star.

A Dog’s Purpose, based on the 2010 best seller by Bruce Cameron (Macmillan/Forge), is in development with Lasse Hallstrom to direct

American Crime Story: The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, a series for FX, based on the book by Jeffrey Toobin, (Random House, 1996) is ramping up. Selma Blair just joined the cast to play Kris Jenner, the ex-wife of Simpson’s attorney, Robert Kardashian, to be played by David Schwimmer. Also in the cast are Cuba Gooding Jr. as Simpson and John Travolta as Simpson’s co-counsel Robert Shapiro. No boadcast date yet, but the tie-in is scheduled for 9/29/15.

The seven-part adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, is finally set to air on BBC America beginning June 13.

The U.S. trailer has just been released:

When the book was published in 2004, it went on to  become a hit, heralded by an profile of the author in the NYT Magazine. In the NYT Sunday Book Review, Gregory Maguire approvingly called it “Hogwarts for Grown-Ups,” saying, “Clarke’s imagination is prodigious, her pacing is masterly and she knows how to employ dry humor in the service of majesty.”

Today, the TV series is being compared to Game of Thrones.

The U.S. tie-in is scheduled for the end of this month.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA, May 26, 2015
9781620409909, 1620409909
Trade Paperback, $18.00 USD, $20.00 CAD

Pilot season is in full swing, with the networks announcing which of the hopefuls will make the transition to full series.

The Syfy channel has picked up Lev Grossman’s fantasy trilogy The Magicians as a 12-episode series. Set to begin shooting in Vancouver in July, it stars Jason Ralph (A Most Violent Year) as Quentin Coldwater.

Syfy has a few other book adaptations in the works. Coming in December, a series based on Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, (RH/De Rey).

Also set to premiere in December is The Expanse, based the series by James S.A. Corey, beginning with Leviathan Wakes, (Hachette/Orbit, 2011).

Coming some time next year, is a thriller series, The Hunters based on Whitley Strieber’s Alien Hunter, (Macmillan/Tor, 2013).

In addition, Syfy recently announced that they are isteaming with Steven Spielberg’s company Amblin TV for a series based on Aldous Huxley’s classic,  Brave New World.

Shooting is expected to begin this summer on the HBO series Lewis and Clark, based on the book Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, (S&S, 1996). Starring Casey Affleck as Meriwether Lewis and Matthias Schoenaerts as William Clark, the series is being produced by Tom Hanks’s company, Playtone, along with Brad Pitt’s Plan B. Entertainment. It is expected to be released some time in 2016.

Playtone, with Steven Spielberg, adapted another book by Ambrose Band of Brothers (1992) into a successful HBO series in 2001 just before the author’s death in 2002.

HBO and Playtone have also aquired the rights to David Mcullough’s The Wright Brothers (S&S; S&S Audio; Thorndike; OverDrive Sample), publishing this week. This will be the second of McCullough’s books the companies have adapted, after 2008’s John Adams.

In what may be the first press release written in rhyme, Netflix announces that they are adapting Green Eggs and Ham as a 13-episode animated series.

We’d love to share some happy news
based on the rhymes of Dr. Seuss.
Green Eggs and Ham will become a show
and you’re among the first to know … [more]

Executive producer Ellen DeGeneres contributes her own rhyme in the video below.

Coming in 2018, she promises the series will use cutting edge animation

Take heart, YA series fans. If a book doesn’t succeed as a movie adaptation, it may go to TV, and vice versa.

The CW network played a game of on again, off again with their plans to develop a series based on Kiera Cass’s YA title, The Selection (HarperTeen, 2012), finally abandoning the idea after two tries, each going as far as the pilot stage. Now, according to Deadline, Warner Bros. has won the film rights and has a screen writer set to adapt it for the big screen.

The fourth novel in the series, The Heir (HarperTeen), arrives next week.

On the other hand, the movie based on The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, the first in the Y.A. urban fantasy series by Cassandra Clare, made it to the screen, but plans to turn it into a franchise died along with the box office receipts. ABC Family now plans to create a spin-off TV series, titled Shadowhunters, and has just announced that Dominic Sherwood (Vampire Academy) has won the male lead.

New trade paperback editions of the six titles in the series as well as of the 3-part prequel series, Infernal Devices are coming in September.

A year after it was controversially featured as the opening film at Cannes, American audiences will finally get to see the bio-pic featuring Niclole Kidman as Princess Grace, titled after the book it is based on, Grace of Monaco by Jeffrey Robinson (Perseus/Da Capo; Audio, Dreamscape).

It is not coming to the big screen, however. In quite a comedown from opening the Cannes Festival, it makes its U.S. debut on the cable network Lifetime on Memorial Day, May 25th.

The film was booed at Cannes and the kinder critics said is was “not Kidman’s finest hour.”

Promoted as the heir to Game of Thrones, MTV executives debuted a clip yesterday at a “glitzy event” (according to the L.A. Times) held in New York of the as yet unscheduled series The Shannara Chronicles.

Part of MTV’s efforts to win back ratings, it is based on Terry Brooks’s long-running series which began with The Sword of Shannara (RH/Del Rey 1977). I just  recently begun production, but MTV has already begun promoting the stars on their web site.

Tie-ins are currently scheduled for release in December.

The Elfstones of Shannara (The Shannara Chronicles Book One) (TV Tie-in Edition)
Terry Brooks
RH/Del Rey, December 1, 2015
Trade Paperback; Mass Market

The Wishsong of Shannara (The Shannara Chronicles Book Two) (TV Tie-in Edition)
Terry Brooks
RH/Del Rey, December 1, 2015
Trade Paperback