Mark Rylance, who stars as Thomas Cromwell in the upcoming BBC production of Wolf Hall (recently wrapped, no U.S. release date yet), is set to play the lead in the live-action adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1982 picture book, The BFG, (Macmillan/FSG YR). To be directed by Steven Spielberg, it will be the director’s next film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, after he finishes his current project, St. James Place, an original Cold War thriller starring Tom Hanks (with Rylance in a supporting role).

This raises a question about what has happened to another Dahl adaptation, BBC One’s TV movie based on Esio Trot, starring Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman. The Weinstein Co. acquired the U.S. rights for its fledgling TV business back in August, and no further announcements have been made. It is set for release in the U.K. in December.

What do you do when the first movie in a planned YA series bombs at the box office?

You may want to consider another medium, television.

The producers of The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, based on the first in the Y.A. fantasy series by Cassandra Clare, are doing just that, with wrier-producer Ed Decter (Helix, Unforgettable, In Plain Sight and The Client List) as showrunner.

There’s no information on whether the cast of the movie will be returning. On her blog, author Clare addresses that question, declaring, “I have absolutely no idea! I am sure they are not casting at the moment and probably nobody knows. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever I could possibly ever do to influence whether they kept the same cast (assuming they were available) at all, so I will be waiting, like you, to see if they cast new people, and hoping that if they do, those people will be good.”

Cassandra Clare’s series consists of six books, as well as a 3-part prequel series, Infernal Devices, which concluded with Clockwork Princess, (S&S/ Margaret K. McElderry, 3/19/13). The author has also announced a new series of sequels, called The Dark Artifices, to begin in 2015.

The NYT today looks at the halo effect of the success of the Starz adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander on the books. After the TV series debuted, the first in the book series went to #1 on best seller lists for the first time since its publication twenty years ago, two others in the series also hit the lists (in addition, the most recent in the series, Written In My Own Heart’s Blood, RH/Delacorte, which came out in June, hit the list at #1).

The final eight episodes of season one are set for release on April 4 of next year. Starz has also ordered a second season, to be based on the next book in the series, Dragonfly in Amber, (RH/Delacorte, 1992). Like Game of Thrones, to which it is compared, there are plenty more books to draw on, eleven novels plus several novellas and shorter pieces (see Gabaldon’s own chronology here).

While Game of Thrones and other TV series have brought readers to the original books, the article does not mention that this is not always the case. The just-concluded HBO series The Leftovers, for instance, had only a small effect on Perrotta’s book and it seems most people didn’t even get that NBC’s About A Boy is based on Nick Hornby’s novel.

Predicting which adaptations, whether film or TV, will have a halo effect can drive selectors (and de-selectors) nuts. Over a dozen more adaptations are on TV schedules through 2015, with many more in the works (see our downloadable Books to TV listing; our full list, including film adaptations is here).

Play along with us as we try handicapping the adaptations coming up through the end of the year:

Big Driver — Lifetime TV movie, 10/18/14 — A one-off movie, based on a lesser-known Stephen King title (a novella published in Full Dark, No Stars,, S&S/Scribner, 2010), won’t inspire many to seek out the original.

Death Comes to Pemberley — PBS, 2 episodes, begins 10/16 — P.D. James riffed on Pride and Prejudice in her 2011 book. Matthew Rhys plays Darcy in the adaptation, but sorry, we don’t think he’ll have the impact that Colin Firth did when he played the role in the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. As a two-part series, it won’d have time to build an audience, so we are not expecting a big resurgence of interest in the book. Tie-in, RH/Vintage.

Olive Kitteridge, HBO, four parts, begins 11/2/14 — Winning the Pulitzer Prize shortly after it was released in trade paperback sent Elizabeth Strout’s novel on to the NYT list where it stayed for nearly two years, rising to #5. HBO publicity will remind people who always meant to read it to pick it up and it will go on to lists again, but won’t reach previous heights. Tie-in, Random House Trade

The Red Tent, Lifetime, 12/7 & 12/8/14 — Just two nights long, this won’t have much time to build a following. However, as a reading club favorite, the title has remained in the public consciousness, so the series promotion may remind people to look for the book. That beautiful new cover, displayed in the front of book stores won’t do it any harm, either. Tie-in, Picador

Mr. Miracle, Hallmark, Holidays — This is the fourth holiday-themed movie based on a Debbie Macomber book. This time, both Mr. Miracle, the book, RH/Ballantine and the movie are being released in the same season. Hallmark has already burnished Macomber’s brand, so there’s little room for growth. Watch next year, however,  when Hallmark plans to do the same for Karen Kingsbury and Sherryl Woods.

Following the release last month of a brief teaser and a few clips, the first full length trailer has arrived for the adaptation of Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Olive Kitteridge Random House, 2008).

The 4-hour series was a hit with critics at the Venice Film Festival, It will air on HBO on Sunday, Nov. 2 and Monday, Nov. 3

Tie-in:

Olive Kitteridge

Elizabeth Strout

Random House Trade Paperbacks, 10/28/14

OverDrive Sample

Beth Macy’s nonfiction debut, Factory Man, (Hachette/Little, Brown, 7/15), which received media attention when it was published this summer, is being developed by Tom Hanks’s production company, Playtone, for an HBO mini-series, reports Deadline.

The book’s subtitle outlines the story, How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local–And Helped Save An American Town. It received strong support from the NYT‘s Janet Maslin, who called it “in a class with other runaway debuts like Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit and Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers … Ms. Macy writes so vigorously that she hooks you instantly. You won’t be putting this book down.”  The author was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air in July (read the first three chapters via OverDrive).

The book debuted at #10 on the New York Times Hardcover Non-fiction Best Sellers list during its first week on sale, remained on the main list for 3 weeks, and continued on the extended list for 4 more weeks.

Playtone is also producing the upcoming Olive Kitteridge miniseries for HBO, to debut Nov. 2, and is set to begin production on another mini series adaptation, based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s book about Lewis and Clark, Undaunted Courage, (S&S, 1997), with Casey Affleck in the role of  Meriwether Lewis.

A new Fox TV series, The Red Band Society is the #1 People Pick of  the week, which describes the pilot as “a small miracle — warm, intelligent, sympathetic and offbeat without being jarring … If you can imagine a show that somehow combines The Fault in Our Stars and Glee, that would be this one.”

Entertainment Weekly, features it in their Fall TV preview, with a slightly different description, “The Breakfast Club meets The Fault in Our Stars.”

Set in a pediatric hospital, about a group of kids with life-threatening diseases, it shares another characteristic with The Fault in Ours Stars that is rarely mentioned; it is based on a book, El mundo amarillo, (2008),  Spanish author Albert Espinosa’s memoir of his ten years undergoing cancer treatments. In 2011, he adapted it into a successful Catalan TV series titled Polseres vermelles (The Red Band Society). Last year, Steven Spielberg bought the rights to produce a U.S. version.

Espinosa explains that the book “is about my life when I was very young. I had cancer from the age of fourteen to twenty-four, and during those ten years I lost a leg, a lung, and part of my liver, but it was also a happy time for me. In The Yellow World I do not talk about cancer, I talk about what I learned from cancer  and everything it taught me about everyday life.” He uses the term “Yellow World” to signify a happy place, the color of the sun. “Red Band Society” refers to the bracelets the kids wear in the show.

When it was published in 2012 in the U.K., The Guardian noted that in Spain, it was  “A word-of-mouth sensation … sold more than a million copies and … published in 20 other countries.”

It will be published in print in the U.S, for the first time tomorow as a tie-in, in both the original Spanish and in English (interestingly, the Spanish language edition currently is higher on Amazon’s sales rankings than the English translation).

Several libraries own the original Spanish language edition as well as a U.K. translation from Penguin.

Tie-ins:

The Yellow World  How Fighting for My Life Taught Me How to Live, OverDrive Sample
Albert Espinosa
RH/Ballantine: September 16, 2014
9780345538123, 0345538129
Trade Paperback
$16.00 USD / $19.00 CAD

El mundo amarillo (Movie Tie-in Edition): Como luchar para sobrevivir me enseñó a vivir, OverDrive Sample
Albert Espinosa
RH/Vintage Espanol: September 16, 2014
9781101873762, 1101873760
Trade Paperback
$14.00 USD / $17.00 CAD

Official Web Site: Fox.com

Author site: AlbertEspinosa.com

Fans have waited a long time for a movie adaptation of the 1997 novel, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, which has been in development at Lifetime since 2011. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly, (9/19) features a first look at a still from the movie (not online yet) and announces that the two-part miniseries will air on that channel Dec. 7 and 8.

The book had  slow word-of-mouth growth, finally hitting best seller lists four years after publication, in 2001. Independent booksellers, who were recognized as key to that success, made it the “Booksense Book of the Year 2001”

When the series got the green light in May, Deadline saw it as part of a trend, “following the blockbuster success of The Bible miniseries on Lifetime sibling History.” But if the series sticks to the spirit of the book, it is unlikely to be simply “a tableau of great biblical moments” as the NYT called the Roma Downey and Mark Burnett series.

Diamant’s novel is not just a retelling of the Old Testament story of Leah and Rachel, two of four sisters who married Jacob. Its in-depth examination of women’s lives in that period, and of the power of female relationships, has kept it an enduring reading group favorite. Read an excerpt on OverDrive.

Minnie Driver plays Leah; Iain Glen, Jacob; Morena Baccarin (Homeland), Leah’s sister, Rachel and Debra Winger, Jacob’s mother Rebecca.

Lifetime Network Red Tent Promo from NITROUS Ltd on Vimeo.

Tie-ins (for tie-ins to all upcoming movies and TV see our catalog on Edelweiss):

The Red Tent
Anita Diamant
Macmillan/Picador: November 4, 2014
9781250066619, 1250066611
Trade Paperback
$16.00 USD / $17.50 CAD

Mass Market
9781250067999, 1250067995
$9.99 USD / $11.99 CAD

Anita Diamant’s next book, her fifth novel and twelfth book,The Boston Girl, (S&S/Scribner; S&S Audio) will be published December 9, 2014.

It’s brief, but here it is:

Three clips are also available.

The 4-hour series, which was a hit with critics at the Venice Film Festival, will begin airing on HBO on Sunday, Nov. 2.

Tie-in:

Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Random House Trade Paperbacks, 10/28/14

Eat your hearts out, Americans — season 5 of Downton Abbey begins in the U.K. in  a few weeks, but won’t hit these shores until January 4.

The first full trailer was released last week.

And  this tasty clip appeared yesterday:

Meanwhile, colonists will have to content themselves with the tie-ins:

A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes
Jessica Fellowes, Julian Fellowes
Macmillan/St. Martin’s: October 28, 2014
9781250065384, 1250065380
Hardback / With dust jacket
$29.99 USD / $34.50 CAD

Downton Abbey: Rules for Household Staff
by “Carson” (the show’s head butler )
Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin: November 25, 2014
9781250066329, 1250066328
Hardback / Paper over boards
$14.99 USD / $17.50 CAD

Former NASA roboticist turned webcomic, Randall Munroe is scheduled to get the Colbert bump tomorrow night. His book, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (HMH; Blackstone; 9/2/14) is also on Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List” in the current issue, saying Munroe “provides considered scientific explanations (and fantastically funny cartoons) in response to absurd hypotheticals about physics, space, the human body and whether Wikipedia is printable. (Technically, yes).”

UPDATE:

Tonight on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart interviews Ramita Navai, author of City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death, and the Search for Truth in Tehran (PublicAffairs, 9/2/14).

The first review of HBO’s four-hour mini-series based on Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, (Random House, 2008) has arrived and it’s a rave.

The series premiered at the Venice Film Festival yesterday. The Hollywood Reporter calls it, “emotionally satisfying, funny-sad …  directed with an impeccable balance of sensitivity and humor by Lisa Cholodenko [The Kids Are All Right].”

UPDATE: More reviews have appeared and it’s a hit with the critics — Variety calls it “finely crafted, wonderfully cast,” but fears it may lose audiences; IndieWire hails it as “the biggest positive surprise at Venice” and the U.K.’s Telegraph calls it simply, “brilliant.”

Three clips are now available via IndieWire. Below is Clip #3, featuring Bill Murray with Frances MacDermond as Olive, who optioned the book and produced the series with Tom Hanks, among others. Click here for Clip 1 and Clip 2.

The series will be shown on HBO beginning Sunday, Nov. 2.

Tie-in:

Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Random House Trade Paperbacks, 10/28/14

HBO’s miniseries based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout (Random House, 2008) is scheduled to debut on Sunday, Nov. 2. The first two parts will be shown that night, followed by the final two parts the next night.

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right), with Tom Hanks and Frances McDormand producing, the series stars:

Frances McDormand … Olive Kitteridge

Richard Jenkins … Henry Kitteridge (Olive’s husband)

John Gallagher Jr. … Christopher Kitteridge, (Olive and Henry’s son)

Cory Michael Smith … Kevin Coulson, (Olive’s former student)

Zoe Kazan … Denise Thibodeau, (works with Henry at the pharmacy)

Brady Corbet … Henry Thibodeau, (married to Denise)

Rosemarie DeWitt … Rachel Coulson

Unfortunately, no trailers have been released yet.

Official Web Site: HBO.com/Olive-Kitteridge

Tie-in:

Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
Random House Trade Paperbacks: October 28, 2014
Trade Paperback: $15.00 USD / $15.00 CAD

Syfy has ordered a TV series based on John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series (Macmillan/Tor). Although it is titled after the second book, Ghost Brigades (because it sounds “sexier” says the author in his blog post), it will draw from all five books.

Scalzi’s latest, Lock In, (Macmillan/Tor; 8/26/2014) is a LibraryReads pick for August. Read how happy that pick made the author here (and remember to make your favorite authors happy by nominating their upcoming books for LibraryReads). 

Attending the recent PBS press tour were Tom Branson, Lady Edith, Anna Bates, and Lady Mary (in real life, Downton Abbey cast members Allen Leech, Laura Carmichael, Joanne Froggatt, and Michelle Dockery). Parade magazine examines the few hints they gave about what the new season may bring. The Christian Post, of all places, thinks they’ve sussed out some spoilers. The season begins in the U.S. on Jan. 4, but U.K. audiences will get to see it this fall.

A tie-in has been announced, complete with an “exclusive cover reveal” (based on the set photo, above) by Entertainment Weekly. Titled A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey, it is organized by month and includes “research on great houses in 1924 and detail on how the production operates over the year,” says the author Jessica Fellowes, niece of the show’s creator, Julian Fellowes.

A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes
Jessica Fellowes, Julian Fellowes
Macmillan/St. Martin’s: October 28, 2014
9781250065384, 1250065380
Hardback / With dust jacket
$29.99 USD / $34.50 CAD

Also coming,

Downton Abbey: Rules for Household Staff
by “Carson” (the show’s head butler )
Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin: November 25, 2014
9781250066329, 1250066328
Hardback / Paper over boards
$14.99 USD / $17.50 CAD

Teaser trailer:

Book adaptations are not only hot in the film industry, they’ve also become a major source for TV, as evidenced by the nominations for the upcoming Emmy Awards (there’s so many this year that Word & Film created a  Book Lover’s Look at the 2014 Emmy Nominations. led, of course, by Game of Thrones).

Many more are in the pipeline. Outlander begins August 9. Upcoming is Olive Kitteridge (HBO, November), Fresh Off the Boat (ABC) and Astronaut Wives Club (also ABC).

In total, we are tracking 35 titles that have been announced for TV adaptation.  We know because we recently organized our adaptation information into a spreadsheet, EarlyWord’s Upcoming Book Adaptations,

Here are a few highlights:

Wolf Hall — The BBC series based on Hilary Mantel’s bestseller and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, is currently filming (see photos from the set).

American Gods — Neil Gaiman — After HBO announced they has passed on their planned adaptation of Gaiman’s book, Starz picked it up earlier this month. Gaiman gave fans hope when he told the Guardian, “It already looks like it’s going to be a smoother run developing it than it had at HBO.” New York magazine, however, dumped rain on the parade with, “Why Adapting Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for TV Is a Bad Idea.The companion novel, Anansi Boys, is being developed by BBC, but there’s been no news since the February announcement. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. is moving along with its adaptation of Gaiman’s graphic novel, The Sandman, as a feature film, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt set to play Morpheus The Lord of Dreams. It is expected for release in 2016.

The Clan Of The Cave Bear  — based on Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children series — Although it was  made into a disastrous movie in 1986, starring Daryl Hannah, Ron Howard seems to think he can do better. Lifetime has set him up to executive produce a pilot.

The Magicians  — Syfy has greenlighted a pilot for  an adaptation of Lev Grossman’s fantasy trilogy.

The Last Kingdom  — Bernard Cornwell —  The Saxon Stories series — Named after the first book in the series, it is set to begin filming this fall, BBC America has hired the producers of Downton Abbey to run the production.