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We're happy to announce our latest addition -- EarlyWord YA GalleyChat. Please join us the second Tuesday of every month at 4 p.m. Eastern (mark your calendars for Feb. 14. Yes, we heart YA) for a lively discussion of the new galleys grabbing readers' attention. And, don't forget our adult GalleyChat, the first Tuesday of each month (info on how to join each, here).
Let us know what is happening in your library. Email me with information on books that are getting an unexpected number of holds and the titles you enjoy recommending.
Keep on reading,
NoraNora Rawlinson Co-Founder and Editor
On the heels of the arrival of the latest in the Fancy Nancy series yesterday, comes the news that Tina Fey is in talks to join Shawn Levy in producing a live-action movie based on the series, for Fox.
Levy directed Fey in Date Night and directed the Night at the Museum movies.
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The first trailer for HBO’s Hemingway and Gellhorn just appeared on line (the YouTube version was quickly yanked, we don’t know how long the one we nabbed will be available. If it disappears, try linking to FilmOFillia).
The film stars Clive Owen as Hemingway, Nicole Kidman as Martha Gellhorn, with David Strathairn as John Dos Passos, Peter Coyote as Maxwell Perkins, and Parker Posey as Mary Welsh Hemingway. It is directed by Phiilp Kaufman, who directed another movie based on a literary love story, Henry and June, as well as The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Right Stuff.
It is produced by Sopranos star James Gandolfini, who worked for 6 years to get it made.
It is not based on a specific book. There are plenty of bios of Hemingway, of course. A bio of Martha Gellhorn was published in 2003 (a profile on NPR’s Morning Edition gives a sense of Gellhorn’s personality; a writer and war correspondent, she hated being known primarily as “Hemingway’s third wife”). It is still available in paperback as well as in many libraries.
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The Super Bowl movie trailer that most increased book sales may be The Lorax. Dr. Seuss’s 1971 book rose to to #108 from #287 after the spot aired.
In addition to the original book, Random House has released a series of tie-ins, including a pop-up and two titles in the ”Step into Reading” series.
It’s difficult to judge the effect the pre-Super Bowl trailer for The Hunger Games. The series has been in the Top Five on Amazon for months.
Several tie-ins release tomorrow (full list, after the jump):
SAG Best Actress Award winner (and Oscar nominee), Viola Davis has been signed for two book-to-movie projects; Beautiful Creatures (see previous story) and the movie based on Orson Scott Card’s sci fi classic, Ender’s Game.
The movie already has a strong cast, with rising young actors Asa Butterfield (Hugo) and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) as well as veteran, Harrison Ford.
According to Variety, Ender’s Game will shoot first. If that’s true, it will start soon; other sources report that Beautiful People is scheduled for shooting in April.
Fox has acquired John Green’s new book and #1 NYT Best Seller, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton; Brilliance Audio). Variety reports that Twilight producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen have signed on to do the adaptation.
John just wrapped a 17-city tour for the book. He talks about how it felt, below.
Technically, it’s true, as we reported earlier, that a Hunger Games teaser won’t air during the Super Bowl — however, one will appear during the pregame show.
Trying to stay current with this is dizzying. A teaser for the teaser appeared on Entertainment Tonight, briefly on the Web before it was yanked by the studio. As of now, it’s back up:
Finally, an answer for all the teens who have been anxiously awaiting news about the film version of Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Hachette/LBYR, 2009). Movie news sources, including Entertainment Weekly‘s blog, report that it now has financing from Warner Bros. and the first cast member has been named, Oscar nominee, Viola Davis. Filming is scheduled to begin in April in New Orleans.
Davis will play Amma, referred to by some sites as a librarian. However, in the book is Amma is a housekeeper. There is a librarian in the book, but she is called “Marian” (of course).
The filmmakers may have been waiting for the full series to be complete before moving ahead. Since it was signed in 2009, the second two books in the trilogy have been published, Beautiful Darkness (2010) and Beautiful Chaos (2011). Hollywood loves teen franchises.
Yesterday, we wrote that this year’s Super Bowl ads bring new twists; advertisers are using social media both to tease the ads and to make them interactive.
A good example of both trends just appeared on the interwebs; a teaser trailer for the longer Super Bowl teaser trailer (calling M. C. Escher!) of the movie John Carter (based on the first book in the classic series by Edgar Rice Burroughs). The interactive part is signaled by voice-over proclaiming, “For a chance to win tickets to next year’s Super Bowl, look for the exclusive code in the John Carter commercial at this year’s big game!” Viewers can then rush to their computers, pick up their tablets or smart phones to enter the code.
Clearly Disney is pulling out all the stops for John Carter. The first trailer had a “world premiere” on Good Morning America, in early December.
The movie arrives on March 9, with a wide range of tie-ins. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic pulp fiction John Carter series, also referred to as the Barsoom series, predates his Tarzan series, and was the basis of several graphic novels. The series began with A Princess of Mars, which was first published as a book in 1917 and is the basis for the movie.
There are numerous movie tie-ins (including coloring and activity books, indicating it’s expected to attract kids).
Disney Book Group is releasing a novelization, which also includes the original text of A Princess of Mars, for ages 13 and up.
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Marvel is releasing a “prequel” (ages “13 to 99″ — if you’re 100 or over, you’re out of luck),
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Plus a new graphic novel version (also ages “13 to 99″),
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Aimed at collectors, Marvel is also releasing a pricey omnibus of various classic 1970′s graphic novels based on the series, (ages “13 to 99″),
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Disney Book Group is releasing collections of the original novels (the series is in the public domain, so there are several other editions as well as audio versions available. Ebook versions are available from OverDrive.)
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Other volumes in the series are:
Collected John Carter of Mars, The (Swords of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, Llana
Collected John Carter of Mars, The (Thuvia, Maid of Mars; The Chessmen of Mars
Disney is also realeasing an “art of the movie” tie-in,
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Terry Brooks announced on his blog yesterday that Warner Brothers has optioned his Magic Kingdom of Landover series. He cautions, however, that he’s been down this route before with no result. As he said in his 2009 holiday letter, Universal had the rights to the series until April of 2010, but it went nowhere. Warner has had an option on his Shannara series for a while. In that case, a director was hired, but then moved on.
He seems more hopeful about Warner’s plans for The Magic Kingdom. He says there has been interest from “a major actor” and a screen writer is working on the adaptation, giving ”reason to believe after talking to the principals that this time we have more than words to suggest something might really happen.”
The first book in the series is Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! (RH/Del Rey, 1986).
The book War Horse by Michael Morpurgo is now a best seller, thanks to the long-running play in London and on Broadway, and Steven Spielberg’s movie. Today’s NYT Arts Beat blog quotes the author saying that before the adaptations, “It simply was not a book that anyone really knew about or cared about,” selling just 25,000 copies in its first 25 years. The play brought sales of 950,000 copies and the movie put it at #1 on the NYT Children’s paperback list, where it has remained for the last seven weeks (it rose as high as #17 on the USA Today general list).
Now Morpurgo and his book are getting even more attention. ALA has announced that the author, who is the Children’s Laureate in the UK, will deliver the 2013 Arbuthnot Lecture. Applications for hosting the lecture will be available this spring on the ALSC Web site.
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Elton John’s production company, Rocket Pictures, has purchased the best selling children’s fiction series, Nerds (Abrams/Amulet), reports Deadline. The books are about five nerdy kids who happen to be secret agents (or, as author Michael Buckley describes the characters, “James Bond with asthma”) .
The most recent title in the series, NERDS Book Three: The Cheerleaders of Doom came out in September. Elton John’s company has had experience with adaptations, having produced Gnomeo and Juliet.
Long in the works (it was first signed in 2009), a movie version of the YA series Sweet Valley High will be musical. Diablo Cody, who wrote the screenplay for Young Adult (now in theaters, starring Charlize Theron) and Juno, is at work on the adaptation. She recently told MTV that original music is being written for it and it “may be” a musical. Last week, she confirmed that it will be in an interview in The Guardian. No casting yet, but with so many adult fans in the media, speculation is rife.
The first Sweet Valley High book came out in 1983. The series ran for 20 years spawning over 150 titles plus multiple spin-offs as well as a TV series, and last year’s Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later (St. Martin’s; released in paperback this month) which takes the characters into adulthood.
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The number of Oscar Best Picture nominees adapted from books (6 of 9) has piqued the interest of Entertainment Weekly‘s “Shelf Life” blog. As a result, through the upcoming weeks, they will compare the books to the movies in a series called, “Reading the Oscars.”
First up is a look at The Descendants, a debut novel that had limited success before the release of the movie. In this case, says EW, the movie follows the book closely, and manages to improve upon it.
Six of the nine Academy Awards Best Picture nominations were adapted from books. In all, thirteen movies based on books received nominations. Two of those titles, Hugo and The Descendants, also received nominations for Best Director [NOTE: Thanks to those that pointed out that we overlooked the Best Picture nomination for Hugo in the earlier version of this story. We have now corrected that oversight].
Hugo is regarded as the film that stands to gain the most from winning. Worldwide box office so far is about half the movie’s $170-million production cost. The L.A. Times quotes Scorsese, ”I think this could help the audience understand that it’s an enjoyable and very moving experience — that it has some depth to it.”
Below are the thirteen movies based on books that received major nominations, with links to an EarlyWord story about each. Full tie-in information is in our 2011 Books-to-Movies Archive (plenty of titles there for a book display, whether actual or online).
The Adventures of Tintin — Best Music (John Williams) – Tintin Teaser
Albert Nobbs – Best Actress (Glenn Close), Best Supporting Actress (Janet McTeer), Best Makeup – ALBERT NOBBS, The Book
The Descendants — Best Picture, Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Director (Alexander Payne), Best Editing (Kevin Tent), Best Adapted Screenplay – What Makes George Clooney Run?
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close — Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Max von Sydow) – INCREDIBLY CLOSE This Christmas
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Best Actress (Rooney Mara), Best Cinematography (Jeff Cronenweth), Best Editing (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall), Best Sound Editing – Still Talking about DRAGON TATTOO
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, Best Visual Effects
The Help – Best Picture, Best Actress (Viola Davis), Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Chastain), Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer) – Alternate Ending to THE HELP
Hugo — Best Picture, Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Best Art Direction, Best Costume, Best Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker), Best Music (Howard Shore), Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Adapted Screenplay – Behind the Scenes with Hugo and Martin
Jane Eyre – Best Costume – JANE EYRE At the Box Office
Moneyball – Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Best Editing (Christopher Tellefsen), Best Adapted Screenplay – MONEYBALL Is Rolling
My Week With Marilyn – Best Actress (Michelle Williams), Best Supporting Actor (Kenneth Branagh) – THE MARILYN OBSESSION
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Best Actor (Gary Oldman), Best Music (Alberto Iglesias), Best Adapted Screenplay – The Anti-Bond
War Horse – Best Picture, Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Best Music (John Williams, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing – Spielberg’s WAR HORSE
The news that the studio behind the Hunger Games, Lions Gate has bought Summit, the studio behind Twilight, has raised speculation that Meyer’s series will not go gentle into that good night after Breaking Dawn Part 2 hits theaters in November. An L.A. Times headline procliams “Twilight saga may continue after fifth film, Lions Gate CEO says.”
The actual comment is not so definitive. Asked whether Twilight will continue, Lions Gate CEO Jon Feltheimer basically said, ”Boy I hope so.”
Meanwhile, Meyer is part of the production team working on the adaptation of her non-Twilight title, The Host. It begins shooting February 13 in Baton Rouge and stars Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) William Hurt and Max Irons (Red Riding Hood) and is scheduled to release on March 12, 2013.
