Movies Based On Books Opening Today
Three of the four major movie releases opening today have a book connection. Click on the movie titles to watch the trailer.
Moneyball — Based on the best selling book by Michael Lewis, the new Brad Pitt movie may knock the 3-D version of The Lion King out of its #1 position, but money is also on Dophin Tale (see below). Moneyball has been receiving great reviews and Oscar buzz. The book, as MTV notes, “isn’t exactly an obvious candidate for Hollywood’s adaptation machine. It’s filled with geeky tales about the importance of obscure stats like ‘wins above replacement,’ the founding of fantasy sports and the evolution of a guy named Bill James from factory worker to baseball deity.”
Lewis’s next book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World (W.W. Norton, 10/3/11), explores how cheap credit fueled bubbles around the world with disastrous effects (as in Ireland and Greece) and how it that may come home to the US. Tie-in, published by W.W. Norton.
Dolphin Tale — is not based on a book, but on the true story of a dolphin named Winter whowas rescued from trapping ropes, only to lose her tail due to her injuries. A prosthetic engineer figured out how to create a replacement, which also led to a breakthrough in engineering human prostheses. The story was covered in the news and Scholastic published a picture book about it, Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again (2009). Scholastic has published an official movie book, Dolphin Tale: A Tale of True Friendship, with stills from the movie, Dolphin Tale: The Junior Novel and a paperback reprint of Winter’s Tail.
The Killer Elite — The smallest of the movies opening this weekend, both in size of budget and number of theaters carrying it, this movie is based on The Feather Men by the British explorer and writer, Ranulph Fiennes. The story of an elite group of British soldiers, it raised controversy when it was publishing in the UK in 1991, which resurfaced when the movie was announced last year. It stars Robert De Niro, Jason Statham, Yvonne Strahovski, and Clive Owen. Tie-in published by Ballantine.