Archive for September, 2015

TRUTH, The Trailer

Thursday, September 24th, 2015

Based on the memoir by 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes, Truth And Duty: The Press, The President, And The Privilege Of Power,  the movie Truth tells the story of the news team reporting on allegations that then President George Bush had avoided military service. It was later proved that the story was based on faulty documents. Those involved were fired and CBS News anchor Dan Rather stepped down.

The movie stars Robert Redford as Rather and Cate Blanchett as Mapes. The trailer was just released for the movie that opens in a limited number of theaters on Oct. 16, followed by a wider release.

Rather himself endorsed the movie earlier this month at the Toronto Film Festival.

Tie-in:

9781250098450_a25ea
Truth : The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power
Mary Mapes

Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin
Trade pbk; October 13, 2015

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Comic Book Author

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-09-23 at 10.55.10 AMNational Book Award nominee Ta-Nehisi Coates is a comic book superfan, particularly of the Marvel Comics universe.

According to The New York Times, it has been a childhood dream of Coates to write comics and he gets his chance with Black Panther, the first black superhero, introduced in 1966. T’Challa, Black Panther’s real name, was born in Wakanda, a fictional African country. According to the Marvel site, his superhuman powers were enhanced by a heart-shaped herb. Coates’s version is expected next spring.

As Entertainment Weekly reports, diversity is a focus of Marvel and the new Black Panther series “will launch as part of the All-New All-Different Marvel initiative, which promises to bring changes and shake-ups with numerous new titles, including an Sam Wilson as Captain America, Kamala Khan as an Avenger, and the recently announced Asian-American Hulk by Greg Pak and Frank Cho.”

Axel Alonso, the editor in chief of Marvel, told the NYT that Black Panther “has the baddest costume in comics and is a dude who is smarter and better than everyone.”

Screen Shot 2015-09-23 at 10.57.10 AMNot only is the comic being written by a National Book Award nominee, but it may be the first comic inspired by a Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, a history of the black political struggle in the U.S., A Nation Under Our Feet by Steven Hahn (Belknap Press).

“It’s going to be a story that repositions the Black Panther in the minds of readers,” Mr. Alonso told the NYT, “It really moves him forward.”

Black Panther will also be seen in two upcoming movies, as a character in Captain America: Civil War to be released in 2016 and as the lead in a film scheduled for 2018.

KILLING REAGAN Moves To TV Even As It Gets Panned

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-09-23 at 11.51.02 AMUSA Today bestows one of its rare negative reviews on the just-released Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (Macmillan/Henry Holt; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample), calling it a “misfire for franchise.”

Reviewer Ray Locker points out that, although it is part of O’Reilly’s Killing series no one is actually killed in this one and points to Del Quentin Wilber’s Rawhide Down as a more detailed account of the assassination attempt.

Locker says that Killing Reagan:

… deals more with Reagan’s gradual descent into dementia … the authors contend, contrary to the claims by Reagan loyalists, that Reagan exhibited signs of the illness during his presidency … [they] delve into his extramarital affairs in Hollywood, indifferent parenting, disputes with his second wife, Nancy, and the multiple instances in which Reagan appeared to be not quite there.

The negative review aside, The National Geographic Channel and Ridely Scott’s Scott Free Productions are partnering once again on the TV adaptation.

According to Variety, “The Scott Free-produced versions of the three previous books in the series — Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy and Killing Jesus — were the network’s three most-watched programs in history. Both “Kennedy” and “Jesus” received Emmy nominations for outstanding TV movie.”

FATES AND FURIES Takes a Hit

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-09-06 at 1.00.33 PMLauren Groff’s new novel Fates and Furies (Penguin/Riverhead; Penguin Audio; OverDrive Sample) has gotten a landslide of glowing pre-pub press and made the NBA fiction longlist.

So, a slight adjustment might be expected. NPR critic Maureen Corrigan says it is a “marvel” but “could be better.”

Speaking on Fresh Air, she begins by lavishing praise, saying the novel:

… vacuum packs so many complex narratives between its covers that you feel like you’re reading one of those plot-heavy Victorian door stoppers …What starts off as a fairly realistic novel about domestic life digresses into chapters that read like plays and eventually morphs into a dark fairy tale that also borrows heavily from the conventions of the classic psychological suspense story. Wow. … it is a marvel of language and design … Fates And Furies is alive with wit, with language capable of shifting in the space of a sentence from the snappy to the tragic.”

But then comes the hit. Corrigan could not remember the characters shortly after closing the covers for a final time. They failed to resonate or take fully dimensional shape.

That is a failing Corrigan cannot get over, saying “without the presence of compelling characters at its core, Groff’s novel ends up being an austere, architectural achievement. There are certainly worse things for a novel to be, but there are also better.”

Corrigan’s extraordinarily high bar will not stop Fates and Furies from being a best seller — currently at #58 on Amazon sales rankings, it’s sure to show up on this week’s lists.

Ebooks: Just Another Format

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

The New York Times declares today that the storm and drang over ebooks is now over. Sales have dropped, bookstores are thriving on print sales and ebooks, once expected to dominate the market in 2015, have settled down to being just another format, representing about 20% of the market.

Among the many reasons that ebooks have not taken over is one that may be key, they are not significantly cheaper, as a result of bloody battles between publishers and Amazon. Says the NYT, “As publishers renegotiated new terms with Amazon in the past year and demanded the ability to set their own e-book prices, many have started charging more. With little difference in price between a $13 e-book and a paperback, some consumers may be opting for the print version.”

The NYT admits that we may not be seeing the full picture, “The declining e-book sales reported by publishers do not account for the millions of readers who have migrated to cheap and plentiful self-published e-books, which often cost less than a dollar.”

It may be too early to say what the ultimate impact of ebooks will be. The story ends by quoting Carolyn Reidy, CEO of S&S, who says this could just be a pause in ebook sales and we don’t yet know the reading preferences of next generation.

In case you’re wondering, the article doesn’t say anything about libraries.

BIG SHORT, Major Aspirations

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

9780393338829Get ready for another film version of a book about financial shenanigans. Following in the footsteps of  The Wolf of Wall Street  is a  film adaptation of  Michael Lewis’s best seller The Big Short, (Norton, 2011). It was just announced that it will be released on Christmas Day, after opening in a limited number of theaters
on Dec. 11.

Because of the sudden announcement and the timing, Deadline is calling it a “Surprise Oscar Entry” saying  it “adds another film to what is shaping up to be the most competitive year-end movie market in recent memory.”

The trailer for the film that stars Brad Pitt, Steve Carrell, Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling was released today.

More financial skullduggery is on its way, with two TV adaptations of books about Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

Recently released was a first look at Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer in HBO’s The Wizard of Lies. Based on the  book of the same title by Diana Henriques (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin; Tantor Audio) with additional material from Truth and ConsequencesLife Inside the Madoff Family by Laurie Sandell (Hachette/Little Brown), it is directed by Barry Levinson. It is expected to air in 2016.

ABC recently wrapped production on Madoff a limited series starring Richard Dreyfuss in the title role with Blythe Danner as his wife, Ruth Madoff. It is also expected to debut next year.

Donald Trump: New Book
On The Way

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-09-22 at 10.14.43 AMScreen Shot 2015-08-05 at 10.19.34 AMSet to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight, Donald Trump may announce that he has a new book coming on Oct. 27, on the heels of his update of Time to Get Tough: Making America Great Again (Regnery Publishing).

Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint of S&S that also publishes works by Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and Lynne Cheney, will release the as yet untitled book (S&S/Threshold Editions; 240 pages; ISBN 9781501137969; October 2015; $26.00).

Quoting from a statement by S&S, Vanity Fair reports the book will:

“… outline how a crippled America could be restored to greatness [and] explore Trump’s view on key issues including the economy, big CEO salaries and taxes, healthcare, education, national security, and social issues. Of particular interest will be his vision for complete immigration reform, beginning with securing the borders and putting American workers first.”

Included in the same statement is Trump’s own take on his newest offering:

“I am excited to announce that work on my new bestseller is almost done and I’ll have a new book out from Threshold Editions and Simon & Schuster later this year. Not since The Art of the Deal have I had this much fun writing a book.”

The Washington Post’s nonfiction critic, Carlos Lozada, earlier offered a round-up of some of Trump’s other bestsellers, experienced via a massive binge-reading session.

From our previous story on Lozada’s reactions, he “encountered a world where bragging is breathing and insulting is talking, where repetition and contradiction come standard, where vengefulness and insecurity erupt at random.” He doubts Trump would be satisfied if he actually became President, quoting him on what makes him happy, “The same assets that excite me in the chase, often, once they are acquired, leave me bored … For me, you see, the important thing is the getting, not the having.”

OLIVE KITTERIDGE, Emmy Winner

Monday, September 21st, 2015

Olive KitteridgeHBO had a good night at the Emmys, particularly for its book-based series, Olive Kitteridge and Game Of Thrones.

Olive Kitteridge, based on Elizabeth Strout’s 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, took home a total of 8 Emmys, including one for best miniseries. A passion project for Frances McDormand, who bought the rights to the novel in 2010, she was rewarded by winning her first Emmys, as star and producer.

In accepting the award, McDormand gave full credit to the source, declaring twice, “It started as a book!” effectively refuting host Andy Samberg’s opening monologue, in which he inexplicably dissed books, saying, “The Emmy’s are all about celebrating the best of the year in television. So, sorry, books, not tonight,” as the words, “SUCK IT BOOKS” appeared on the screen.

McDormand signaled her interest in continuing the series, according to Deadline, telling reporters in the press room after the Awards, “It’s 13 short stories … it was infinitely exciting to read and I thought that it could be a great town to spend some time in,” adding, “We would love to do more and we would love for you all to start a social media campaign to do more.”

PBS’s Wolf Hall, based on the first two books in Hillary Mantel’s Tudors series, was nominated in several categories, but ended up with no wins

Holds Alert: ACCIDENTAL SAINTS

Sunday, September 20th, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 1.05.55 PMNadia Bolz-Weber’s third book, Accidental Saints: Finding God in all the Wrong People (RH/Convergent Books; Random House Audio), just hit the NYT Bestseller list and is getting widespread attention, with holds rising as a result.

Bolz-Weber spoke with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air last week, giving a sense of both her book and her approach, saying “Some churches might have a hard time welcoming junkies and drag queens; we’re fine with that.”

The Atlantic and The Huffington Post have also posted features with Huff Post saying Bolz-Weber is:

“… one of the most important Christian voices around — not because she has come up with some catchy, easy new way to do faith, but because when she talks about the destructive power of sin, as well as redemption and grace, she knows of what she speaks.”

Like her memoir’s title, Bolz-Weber is an accidental pastor. She found her path in the Lutheran church only after working as a standup comic with a heavy drinking problem. Her book is inviting, profane, and big hearted.

Holds are exceeding a 3:1 ratio in many libraries we checked. Some libraries have yet to place orders.

Jackie Collins Dies at 77

Sunday, September 20th, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 11.46.22 AMJackie Collins, author of many bestsellers such as Hollywood Wives (Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books), died of breast cancer on Saturday at the age of 77.

The author of over thirty novels, Collins helped define the genre of detailed, glitzy, rich and famous Hollywood stories. Her books were full of sex, power plays, and ambition. They offered fun, over-the-top stories with a quick pace and plenty of plot twists.

People conducted the last interview with Collins on Sept. 14 in which she publicly reveled her diagnosis for the first time:

“I did it my way, as Frank Sinatra would say. I’ve written five books since the diagnosis, I’ve lived my life, I’ve traveled all over the world, I have not turned down book tours and no one has ever known until now when I feel as though I should come out with it.”

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 11.43.00 AMScreen Shot 2015-09-20 at 11.47.53 AMHer most recent book is The Santangelos (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample), the ninth title in a long-running series that began in 1981 with Chances (Hachette/Grand Central).

Her first novel was The World Is Full of Married Men, which the NYT reports was banned in Australia and South Africa due to its overt depictions of extramarital sex.

According to Entertainment Weekly, every book Collins published has hit the NYT Besteller list.

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 12.02.42 PMIt’s hard to imagine that anyone interested in the genre has not discovered Collins, but for those few who are ready to try her writing for the first time, a good beginning is Chances the first in the series she devoted much of her career to developing or the stand-alone Lovers & Players (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press) for a vintage taste of her trademark style.

While promoting The Santangelos she told Access Hollywood Live, that she was working on a memoir entitled Reform School Or Hollywood. If it makes it to press (and no word on that yet) it will include her affair with Marlon Brando, “to this day, he is the most beautiful guy I’ve ever seen.”

Slate Discusses Ta-Nehisi Coates

Sunday, September 20th, 2015

Ta-Nehisi CoatesAdd this to your podcast playlist. Slate‘s Audio Book Club convenes this month to discuss Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me (RH/Spiegel & Grau; OverDrive Sample).

Written as letter to his teenage son about racism in America, it continues to draw attention and debate. One of the ten selections on this year’s NBA Nonfiction longlist, it is also once again holding the #1 spot on the NYT Hardcover Nonfiction Best Sellers list (it hit the list at #1 during its first week on sale and stayed there for three weeks before dipping to the #2 spot for five weeks).

Jamelle Bouie (Slate’s chief political correspondent), Meghan O’Rourke (Slate’s cultural critic), and Katy Waldman (Slate’s “Words” correspondent) engage in a conversation on what they all agree is a searing and demanding experience that forces readers to struggle with Coates’s multiple indictments.

Describing the book as a mix of memoir, polemic, and literary essay that evokes Richard Wright and James Baldwin, the three panelists struggle themselves to come to grips with Coates’s essential message, his slippery take on hope and the iffy possibility for justice.

They praise the book’s lyrical, literary power, agree that it is forcefully animated and rigorously demanding, and call it a book without answers that they each recommend to readers.

The Audio Book Club will take on Andy Weir’s The Martian (RH/Crown) in October. NASA is a fan, claiming the book has already “saved the entire the entire space program.” It is currently #1 on the NYT Paperback Trade Fiction Best Sellers list after 46 weeks.

The film version debuts Oct. 2, starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain.

Titles to Know and Recommend,
the Week of Sept 21

Friday, September 18th, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 8.53.39 PM  9780062404084_37537  9780399167454_3db2f  9781594747588_d10f6

Next week is a big one for YA and Middle Grade titles. In a strange coincidence, four of the ten titles on the longlist for the National Book Award Young People’s Literature will be published on the same day (our look at the full list here).

Familiar names appearing next week include Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert with a nonfiction title, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (an Indie Next pick), former GMA host Joan Lunden with a memoir about surviving breast cancer, Had I Known (Harper), Jan Karon’s next Mitford novel, Come Rain or Come Shine (Penguin/Putnam) and Ransom Riggs’ third Miss Peregrine book, Library of Souls (Quirk Books . NOTE: Tim Burton’s movie of the first book is scheduled for release on March 4 next year) and Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Reagan (Macmillan/Holt).

The titles covered here, and several more notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of Sept 21, 2015

National Book Award YP Longlist Titles, Arriving Next Week

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 8.47.59 PM 9781596439528_531f6 9780763668181_21791 9780316380836_11204

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson (Harper/Greenwillow Books; HarperCollins Publishers and Blackstone Audio)

Steve Sheinkin, Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War (Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press)

M.T. Anderson, Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad (Candlewick Press)

Ali Benjamin, The Thing About Jellyfish (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Media Attention

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 8.56.28 PMMycroft Holmes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse  (Titan Books; OverDrive Sample)

As Esquire writes, Abdul-Jabbar has had a 45-year obsession with Sherlock Holmes. In this, his first novel for adults, he focuses on Sherlock’s older brother in a prequel to Arthur Conan Doyle’s series.

He is scheduled for several TV appearances:

MSNBC-TV – Morning Joe – 9/21
NBC-TV – Today Show – 9/21
Comedy Central  – The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore – 9/24

Peer Picks

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 8.49.59 PMFuriously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson  (Macmillan/Flatiron Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample) – LibraryReads (sept)

Popular with the BEA Librarian’s Shout ‘n’ Share panel, this memoir is both an Indie Next and a LibraryReads pick:

“Lawson’s hilarious memoir is a romp between absurdity and despondency. Passages alternate from ridiculously funny stories of her life to episodes of her sometimes debilitating depression. Lawson embraces living life, rather than merely surviving it. Why be just happy when you can be furiously so? Recommended to fans of David Sedaris and Sloane Crosley.” PJ Gardiner, Wake County Public Libraries, Raleigh, NC
 

9780778317531_0f096-2The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine, Alex Brunkhorst, (Harlequin/MIRA)

Indie Next:

“As Thomas walked into Lily Goldman’s antiques shop, he had no idea that his life was about to change completely. Assigned to write about Lily’s deceased father, a famous film industry mogul, Thomas meets a host of fabulously wealthy and eccentric people and quickly becomes a part of their privileged lives. Things get complicated when he meets Matilda, daughter of the most powerful man in Los Angeles, who has kept her confined to their estate her whole life. Thomas’ journalistic instincts kick in as he is enchanted by Matilda and he soon uncovers the many secrets these powerful people would rather not have revealed. This book is the definition of a page-turner: filled with romance, mystery, and great writing.” —Lori-Jo Scott, Island Bookstore, Kitty Hawk, NC
 

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 8.55.11 PMThe Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’ Lives, Theresa Brown, (Workman/Algonquin)

One of the titles brought up at BEA’s Librarian Shout ‘n’ Share, this is the perfect response to the Miss Colorado “Just a Nurse” controversy.

Screen Shot 2015-09-15 at 8.49.34 PM

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Macmillan Audio)
Saul Black is a pseudonym for bestselling author Glen Duncan, The Last Werewolf (2014). All four trade reviews give it a star.

Screen Adaptations

 

Hitting theaters today are the movie adaptations of:

Dashner, James, The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials (RH/Delaccorte),  expected to land at #1 at the box office, recouping he losses from the first in the series.

Lehr, Dick and Gerland O’Neil, Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob  — movie starring Johnny Depp is being reviewed widely, including NPR’s Morning Edition, saying Depp’s performance is  “some of the best, most chilling work he’s done in awhile.”

Krakauer, Jon, Into Thin Air, (RH/Villard, 1997) — Movie Everest tells the story of terrifying ascent that Krakauer chronicled in his book (he is also portrayed in the movie). Reviewed in Rolling Stone.

Smith, Ashley, Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story Of The Atlanta Hostage Hero, (HarperCollins/Zondervan, 2005) — movie is titled Hostage, reviewed in today’s NYT.

Brower, Sam and Jon Krakauer, Prophet’s Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints, (Bloomsbury, 2012) — reviewed in today’s NYT

Coming next week:

Petit, Philippe, To Reach The Clouds — Movie titled The Walk opens in iMAX theaters on Sept. 20 and expands more widely on Oct. 1

Dick, Philip K., short story “Minority Report” (1956)  — FOX TV series of the same title begins 9/21, a sequel to 2002 movie by Steven Spielberg which is based on the short story

For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins).

The following tie-ins arrive next week:

Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 10.55.20 AM  9781484709139_29238

Tie-ins to the Peanuts movie, coming Nov. 11 arrive.

Many books are being published to tie in to the Star Wars movie which hits theaters in December. Tom Angleberger, the man who introduced Star Wars to origami, is one of the authors of three tie-ins for kids arriving next week.

Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 10.43.02 AM  Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 10.39.21 AM

Premiering on BBC America on Oct. 10 is The Last Kingdom, an 8-part series based on the first two books in the series Bernard Cornwell’s novels. The first two are being released as tie-ins:

The Pale Horseman, Bernard Cornwell (Harper Paperbacks; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample)

The Last Kingdom, Bernard Cornwell (Harper Paperbacks; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample)

More Dystopia On the Way

Friday, September 18th, 2015

The second Maze Runner movie, Scorch Trials, opens this weekend, and is expected to land at #1 at the box office, recouping he losses from the first in the series.

Perhaps capitalizing on the attention, trailers of two other movies based on dystopian novels were released this week, even though the movies themselves won’t appear until next year.

9780147519085_6714dThe first official trailer for The 5th Wave, starring Chloë Grace Moretz and Maika Monroe was released for the movie that opens on January 15th. The first in a planned series, it is based on the book by Rick Yancey. Movie tie-ins will be published in both trade paperback and hardcover (Penguin/Putnam Juvenile).

The second book in the series, The Infinite Sea, was published last year.

The third movie in The Divergent Series, Allegiant, starring Shailene Woodley and Theo James arrives on March 16 next year. Of course, this final book is being made in to two movies. Part 2, titled Ascendant is scheduled for release in 2017, around the same time as the third Maze Runner movie, The Death Cure,

Based on the book by Veronica Roth, the movie tie-in will be released in both trade paperback. and hardcover (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen).

Pope Francis Arrives Next Week

Thursday, September 17th, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-09-17 at 10.21.57 AMIn case you haven’t heard, Pope Francis will make his first visit to the US next week, arriving in Washington, DC on September 22, followed by tours of NYC and Philadelphia.

In anticipation, yesterday’s NPR Fresh Air featured Paul Vallely, who wrote Pope Francis: The Struggle For The Soul Of Catholicism (Bloomsbury; OverDrive Sample; 2013), discussing the changes the Pope as made within the Church.

9781426215827_7afb4Published to coincide with the visit, National Geographic released Pope Francis and the New Vatican by David Yoder last month. Filled with 140 “never-before-seen” photographs, the publisher says the photographer got them by being “embedded with the Pope inside the Vatican for 6 months.”

For those planning displays, last year Publishers Weekly offered a rundown of the big new and forthcoming books on the Pope, including the “highest-profile book in the Francis lineup,” Garry Wills’s The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis (Penguin/Viking; Blackstone Audio; OverDrive Sample; March, 2015).

Haruf’s Final Novel to Netflix

Thursday, September 17th, 2015

9781101875896_9b5d3Robert Redford and Jane Fonda are teaming up for an adaptation of Kent Haruf’s final novel Our Souls at Night (RH/Knopf; Random House Audio; OverDrive Sample; May. 2015).


According to Deadline, Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises is putting the deal together and hopes to bring the screenwriting team behind The Fault in Our Stars on board. Redford will produce with Netflix backing the project and planning to stream it as well as making it available to theaters.

Redford and Fonda starred together in Barefoot in the Park in 1967 and The Electric Horseman in 1979.

Haruf’s quiet and bittersweet final novel (he died in 2014) is set in the same small Colorado town as his Plainsong trilogy. It features two 70-year-olds who spend platonic nights together for company and conversation – until the judgments of the town and the displeasure of their families get in the way. Hollywood sees it through their own filter. Deadline reports, “the vision of the movie is similar in spirit to the Clint Eastwood-Meryl Streep-starrer Bridges of Madison County.”