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Read the Book - then see the film

Calling all film buffs! Do you want to read a book before you see the film rather than the other way around? If so, we've gathered together most of the movies coming up that are based on books so that you can get in first.

Each title is linked to our catalogue and to the Internet Movie Database so that you can see what's happening with the upcoming movie.

If you are interested in movies based on children's and young adults books try our Kids Read the Book list.
For books based on movies and T.V. that have already come out see Books into Film and TV.

Recent Additions

Beast of Bataan: Lawrence Taylor’s 1981 book A trial of generals (now out of print) is the source for the latest film from Australian director Fred Schepisi. It’s the story of the trial of the Japanese general executed for his part in the death of thousands of American and Filipino P.O.W.’s during the notorious Bataan Death March in 1942. Japanese actor Koji Yakusho plays the general and Hayden Christensen plays the lawyer who defends him. William Hurt and Willem Dafoe also star.
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Cirque du freak: Darren Shan’s enormously successful series – The saga of Darren Shan - started back in 1999 with this novel. Shan is the pseudonym of an Irish author named Darren O’Shaughnessy and the stories have as hero a resourceful boy named Darren Shan who visits a mysterious freak show which leads him into the world of vampires. Paul Weitz, who produced the film of Philip Pullman’s The golden compass, is directing the film version with locations in New Orleans. The main character is played by Chris J. Kelly with a cast that includes Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Josh Hutcherson and Ken Watanabe.
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Confessions of a shopaholic: The epitome of the chicklit novel, this is the first, originally published in 2000, in the bestselling series by Sophie Kinsella (the film carries the American title of the novel; it was published in the rest of the world as The secret dreamworld of a shopaholic) Isla Fisher plays the title character, a compulsive shopper who’s up to her neck in debut and, ironically, gets a job as a financial advice columnist. Aussie director P.J. Hogan, famous for Muriel’s wedding, is doing this one and the cast also includes Hugh Dancy and Krysten Ritter.
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Doubt: John Patrick Shanley’s stage play, first produced in 2004, is set against the backdrop of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, telling the story of a strong-minded woman faced with a difficult decision. Should she voice concerns about one of her male colleagues…even if she’s not entirely certain of the truth? Sister Aloysius, the nun with the doubts, is played by Meryl Streep and the priest she suspects of abuse is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Shanley himself has adapted and directed the film and the supporting cast includes Viola Davis, Amy Adams and Joseph Foster.
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The green zone: Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s 2006 book Imperial life in the emerald city is a work of non fiction that has been adapted by the author and director Paul Greengrass and changed somewhat to a fictional tale set in Iraq’s zone of the title, the safe zone where U.S. troops, officials, media and diplomats reside. Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear play CIA officers with Amy Adams as an investigative reporter.
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The life before her eyes: Laura Kasischke’s 2002 novel is about a woman living a privileged life as an artist and housewife with a supportive husband and a young daughter. This perfect world starts to fall apart because of what happened twenty years ago when she and her best friend were targets in a Columbine-like school shooting and the best friend died. The film version is directed by Vadim Perlman who previously did the adaptation of the Andre Dubus novel House of sand and fog. Uma Thurman is in the lead with Evan Rachel Wood playing the young version, Eva Amurri as the teenage friend, Sherman Alpert and Brett Cullen.
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Miracle at Saint Anna: The 2002 novel by James MacBride, author of the bestselling memoir, The colour of water, is based on a true but little known tragedy that happened in a Tuscan village during World War II. The main characters are three African American and one Puerto Rican soldiers who are trapped behind enemy lines and take refuge among a group of villagers. Spike Lee is directing the film version with a big cast including Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, James Gandolfini, John Turturro, D.B. Sweeney and Valentina Cervi.
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My sister’s keeper: Previously Jodi Picoult’s novels have ended up as television movies which is often the destination of issues based fiction. This one will be a big screen production and it will be interesting to see if it breaks through and attracts the same large audience that read her novels. The story concerns a teenage girl who had been conceived as a genetic match for her sister with cancer. The girl’s decision to fight for the rights of her own body lead to a court case in which her mother has to defend herself. Abigail Breslin plays the girl and Sofia Vassilieva is her sister. Cameron Diaz plays the mother and Alec Baldwin the girl’s lawyer with Jason Patric and Joan Cusack also in the cast.
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The other man: Richard Eyre, the well known English theatrical director, is directing (and adapting, along with playwright Charles Wood) this adaptation of the short story of the same name by Bernhard Schlink (which is in the collection Flights of love). The story centres around a man who is convinced his wife is cheating on him and sets out to track down her possible lover. A first rate cast is led by Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Antonio Banderas and Romola Garai.
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Push: The first novel by singer and poet Sapphire came out in 1996 and twelve years later a film version appears. It’s the story of a Harlem teenager who’s been abused by both parents and grown up poor, illiterate, overweight, angry and unloved. She is mentored by a kindly teacher and her thoughts are recorded in a journal and her hard won literacy results in poetry and a life that is improved by support groups. Lee Daniels, whose only previous movie was Shadowboxer, directs and Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe, a Harlem resident who had been working towards a degree in psychology, makes her film debut in the lead. Paula Patton plays her mentor and comedian/reality show host Mo’nique plays her mother with Lenny Kravitz making his film debut as a kindly nurse.
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Radio Free Albemuth: Philip K. Dick’s novel was not published in his lifetime. He died in 1982 and this one didn’t make it into print until 1987. In this semi-autobiographical story Alanis Morissette plays a woman who shows up as a glamorous singer in the vision of a record label executive named Nick (Jonathan Scarfe). In reality, she's an ordinary woman in unexpected remission from lymphoma who, after appearing in Nick's visions, gets a job as his secretary. She becomes his soul mate thanks to the pair's shared spirituality and visions. The film is a low budget independent production that marks the directing debut of John Alan Simon and the supporting cast includes Shea Whigham, Katheryn Winnick and Frances Fisher.
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The ruins: Scott Smith’s 2006 novel is a violent action thriller with a strong horror component about a bunch of tourists in Mexico who run into trouble with some sinister locals and even more sinister vegetation. Former fashion photographer Carter Smith directs a film that enthusiastically promises a lot of blood and gore and stars Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Jonathan Tucker and Laura Ramsey.
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The secret life of bees: Sue Monk Kidd’s 2002 novel, a favourite with book clubs, is about a young girl who grows up on a peach farm in South Carolina in the 1960s. Her mother has been killed some years before, her father is brutal and overbearing and her only real companion is Rosaleen, a black woman who acts as a sort of surrogate mother. When things turn nastier, the two run away and are taken in by a trio of beekeeping sisters. The film version is directed and adapted by Gina Prince-Bythewood who has a background in television. Dakota Fanning plays the young girl and Rosaleen is played by Jennifer Hudson. The three sisters are Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo and the supporting cast includes Paul Bettany and Hilarie Burton.
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Twilight: Stephenie Meyer, author of the hugely popular YA series that mixes romance and today’s favourite monsters, vampires, has become as much a phenomenon as an author. Twilight, published 2005, is the first in a series about a teenage girl who moves from Arizona to Washington where she falls in love with a mysterious classmate who turns out to be a vampire. Catherine Hardwicke, whose last film, ironically, was The nativity story, directs and the cast includes Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter series) as the romantic duo, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Elizabeth Reaser and Jackson Rathbone.
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The vintner’s luck: Elizabeth Knox’s 1998 novel, which won two Montana awards back in 1999, has taken a long time to get to the screen but expectations are high with Niki Caro directing. The story, about a 19th century winemaker in France and his lifelong relationship with an angel, is sufficiently unusual to be both a risk and a potential hit. Location filming has been done in France and in New Zealand and the international cast includes Belgian actor Jeremie Renier as the vintner, Keisha Castle-Hughes as his wife, French actor Gaspard Ulliel as the angel, and American actress Vera Farmiga.
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Yes man: British comedy writer Danny Wallace’s 2005 book is about how on the advice of a stranger on the bus, he spent six months saying yes where he might previously have said no. The locale of the book has been changed from London to Los Angeles and the film becomes a vehicle for Jim Carrey. Peyton Reed, whose last film was the hit comedy The break-up, directs and the cast also includes Zooey Deschanel, Danny Masterson, Terence Stamp and New Zealand actor Rhys Darby.
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…And… don't forget these…

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - R - S - T - W

Adam resurrected: Yoram Kaniuk’s novel, first published 1969 and first translated 1971, is set in the aftermath of World War II and is about Adam, a former circus clown who was spared from death in the concentration camp and arrives in Israel in 1958 where he becomes the ringleader of a group of holocaust survivors. The film version is directed by American Paul Schrader and the title character is played by Jeff Goldblum. Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi, Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer and top German actors Moritz Bleibtreu, Juliane Kohler and Veronica Ferres also star.
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The alchemist: Portugal's biggest selling novelist penned this work some years back (first translated into English 1993) and it's had great appeal to those who like stories about people following their dreams. The novel, set in Spain at the time of the Inquisition, deals with a boy whose dreams of a treasure take him on a journey from his home in Spain to Egypt. Laurence Fishburne directs as well as playing the lead and the cast includes Jeremy Irons and Madonna.
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America: The noted Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski is making a film of Susan Sontag’s big historical novel In America (2000). It is the story of polish actress Maryna Zatezowska who immigrated to America and travelled to California to form a utopian commune. She is played by French actress Isabelle Huppert and others in the cast include Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel and Helen Mirren. The book was adapted by English novelist Frederic Raphael.
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And when did you last see your father?: Blake Morrison’s highly readable memoir of his doctor father first appeared in 1993. It’s a very touching and honest memoir of a man who was affectionate, loved by his family and his patients but also a man who couldn’t resist getting something cheap or for free if he could wangle it, who was impatient, loved practical jokes and possibly had a roving eye. Morrison followed this some years later with an equally revealing and moving memoir of his mother. This has been a long time coming to the screen with Anaud Tucker, who made the film biography of Jacqueline Du Pre, directing. Colin Firth plays Morrison with Gina McKee as his wife. The father is played by Jim Broadbent and the mother by Juliet Stevenson.
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Angus, thongs and full frontal snogging: Louise Rennison’s 1999 YA novel is coming to the screen directed by Gurinder Chadha who made Bend it like Beckham and Bride and prejudice. The main character, Georgia (who features in a series of novels of which this is the first) is played by Georgia Groome and her father is played by comedian Alan Davies with the film being made on location in Eastbourne on the South Coast.
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B

Bag of bones: A novelist (Billy Crudup) gets writer's block after the death of his wife and moves out to his holiday home. A chance encounter when he rescues a small girl from being run over leads him into a relationship with the child's mother (Jennifer Garner) a widow whose psychopathic father-in-law will do anything to get custody of the child. Mix in some strange dreams and you have typical Stephen King material and indeed this is an adaptation of his 1998 bestseller.
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Ballet shoes: Noel Streatfield’s 1936 novel was filmed for television some years back but this new television adaptation, scheduled to run in Britain over Christmas, has Emma Watson, Hermione in the Harry Potter films, in the lead and a prestigious cast of adults including Victoria Wood, Eileen Atkins, Richard Griffiths, Peter Bowles, Emilia Fox, Marc Warren and Gemma Jones.
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Black Water Transit: Carsten Stroud’s 2001 novel is a tough dark thriller follows the divergent agendas of crooks, cops and lawyers as they clash over a shipment of illegal firearms, mafia ties and a double homicide. The film is the feature debut of music video director Samuel Bayer and it is a vehicle for action star Vin Diesel. Filmed in Chicago, it co-stars James Franco, Kevin Bacon and Sophie Okonedo.
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Blindness: Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (last film, The constant gardener) is directing an adaptation of the classic novel by Portuguese author Jose Saramago (first published in 1995; first translated, 1997). It’s a dark apocalyptic tale about an epidemic of blindness that sweeps through a modern city and pushes society to the brink of breakdown. The cast is headed by Julianne Moore, Gael Garcia Bernal, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga and Danny Glover.
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Body of lies: A former journalist turned CIA agent is sent to Amman to work with Jordan’s intelligence chief to track down an Al Qaeda leader who is rumoured to be planning a major attack on the U.S. in the 2007 novel by David Ignatius. Ridley Scott is making the film version on location in Morocco with Leonardo Di Caprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Carice Van Houten. Simon McBurney and Oscar Isaac leading the cast.
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The boy in striped pyjamas: Mark Herman (Brassed off, Purely belter) is directing, on location in Budapest, the film version of John Boyne’s 2006 Young Adult novel about two boys caught up in events beyond their control and comprehension. One of the boys is the son of the commander of a concentration camp and the other is one of the child prisoners. The novel is something of a crossover title in that it was written for young people but has had a lot of interest from adults. The boys, Bruno and Shmuel, are played by Asa Butterfield and Jack Scanlon and adult members of the cast include Vera Farmiga, Rupert Friend, David Thewlis, Sheila Hancock and Jim Norton.
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Brideshead revisited: It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to bring Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel to the screen given that the television adaptation in 1981 is regarded as near perfect and is still watched on DVD and television. It was first announced last year as a film with Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly in the leads but that went nowhere and now a lavish adaptation by Andrew Davies is coming up under the direction of Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane). Charles and Sebastian (originally Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews) are played by Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw.
Julia Flyte, Lord and Lady Marchmain, Charles Ryder’s appalling father, Lord Marchmain’s mistress, Cordelia Flyte and Rex Mottram (played so memorably by Diana Quick, Laurence Oliver, Claire Bloom, John Gielgud, Stephane Audran, Phoebe Nicholls and Charles Keating in the original) are now in the hands of Hayley Attwell, Michael Gambon, Emma Thompson, Patrick Malahide, Greta Scacchi, Felicity Jones and Jonathan Cake. The locations have been done at – where else? – Castle Howard. All it needs is the famous score by Geoffrey Burgon and the copy is complete.
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Brief Interviews With Hideous Men: This is a short story in a 1999 collection of the same name by the highly original American author David Foster Wallace. The film version is directed by John Krasinski who is best known for the American version of The office. In the film Julianne Nicholson plays a woman who decides to cope with a relationship breakdown by interviewing a number of men to find out why men are like they are. The males under the microscope, many of them known from television, include Max Minghella, Timothy Hutton, Ben Shenkman, Lou Taylor Pucci, Josh Charles, Bobby Cannavale and Christopher Meloni.
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C

Choke: Chuck Palahniuk never writes easy feelgood novels and his best known novel Fight club is perhaps the prime example. This 2002 novel is another pretty dark tale, concerning a young man who’s a self-hating sex addict who’s worked out a clever scam: he pretends to choke in restaurants and the kindness of strangers leads to a steady income for him and this helps pay for the care his schizophrenic mother needs. Things change when he falls in love rather than lust with one of his mother’s doctors. Actor Clark Gregg makes his directing debut as well as writing the adaptation. The main characters are played by Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston and Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald.
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The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian: The second of the C.S. Lewis Narnia novels, originally published in 1951, is another large scale production, this time filmed in Czechoslovakia and Poland as well as in various locations around New Zealand (Coromandel, West Coast, Lake Moeraki, etc) and once again Andrew Adamson is directing. The four Pevensie children are once again played by Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Anna Popplewell and William Moseley. Prince Caspian is played by a young English actor, Ben Barnes, and Liam Neeson once again provides the voice of Aslan. Peter Dinklage plays Trumpkin, Vincent Grass is Doctor Cornelius, Ken Stott is Trufflehunter. Warwick Davis is Nikabri and Spanish actress Alicia Borrachero is Prunaprismia.
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City of ember: In a future world the people of Earth have moved underground and the city of Ember is dying as its electricity generator is slowly failing. It’s up to two teenagers to save the day in this adaptation of the 2003 children’s novel by Jeanne Duprau. Gil Kenan, who made Monster house, is directing the film in Belfast and the two children are played by Saoirse Ronan (also the lead in The lovely bones) and Harry Treadaway with the adult cast headed by Bill Murray, Martin Landau, Toby Jones, Tim Robbins and Marianne-Jean Baptiste.
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The City Of Your Final Destination: Peter Cameron’s 2002 novel is about an Iranian graduate student in Kansas who wants to write a biography of a distinguished poet. Unfortunately he has failed to get authorisation for the book from the three executors of the poet's estate, the poet’s brother, wife, and mistress, all of whom live in Uruguay. After he contacts them, he receives a letter refusing authorization. Pushed by his overbearing girlfriend, he journeys to Uruguay to meet the family. With the death of the Merchant part of Merchant-Ivory, it is left to James Ivory to direct and their customary scriptwriter, novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, to adapt the novel. The young biographer is played by Omar Metwally and his girlfriend by German actress Alexandra Maria Lara. Others in the international cast include Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kate Burton and Argentinian actress Norma Aleandro.
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The Colossus: It takes a long time for some books to get to the screen and the 1999 novel Manly pursuits by South African novelist Ann Harries is a case in point. The novel won the Author's Club Best First Novel Award and concerns the life of Cecil Rhodes, an English imperialist who wanted to subjugate the whole of Africa for the Crown. Harries's story finds Rhodes on his deathbed in 1899, just months before the beginning of the Boer War, which resulted in English domination of South Africa. Rhodes believes that if he can hear the song of native English birds, his life will be rejuvenated and he will survive to see his imperialist plans through. As a result, he sends for an Oxford ornithologist named Francis Wills, who acts as the story's narrator. A fictionalised version of some real events, the film stars Ian McKellen as Rhodes, Colin Firth as Wills, Rachel Weisz as a political activist who Wills falls for, and Susan Sarandon. The director is the notable English stage director Sean Mathias.
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Coraline: The market for big animated features is inexhaustible, and this adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 2002 novel about a little girl who discovers a secret door which leads to another world where she has a different set of parents and a whole new life, is ideal screen material. As usual there are well known voices for the cartoon characters and they include Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Teri Hatcher and Ian McShane with Dakota Fanning doing the voice for the title character.
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The curious case of Benjamin Button: The F. Scott Fitzgerald short story of the title is most well known for appearing in Fitzgerald’s collection, Tales of the jazz age. It tells the story of an elderly man who ages backwards. At the age of 50, he falls in love with a 30 year old woman and then must come to terms with the relationship as they literally grow in opposite directions! The film version will be a real change of pace for director David Fincher who previously made hard edged fare such as Seven and Fight club. Peter Donald Badalamenti, an actor and stunt performer who played one of the shortest pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean plays the old version of Benjamin who is played in younger incarnation by Brad Pitt. The rest of the cast includes Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond and Jason Flemyng.
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D


The Dark Is Rising: This is an adaptation of the five novel sequence by Susan Cooper - (Over sea, under stone (1965), The dark is rising (1973), Greenwitch (1974), The grey king (1975) and Silver on the tree (1977). The series is an epic fantasy aimed at a young adult readership and about a group of contemporary English children who become involved in a cosmic battle between good and evil, referred to as Light and Dark in the books. The film is directed by David L. Cunningham, who made such disparate television series as The path to 9/11 and Little house on the prairie. The main character, Will, is played by Alexander Ludwig and the old man who mentors him, Lyon, is played by Ian McShane. Others in the cast include Christopher Eccleston, Frances Conroy, Jonathan Jackson, Amelia Warner and Frances Conroy.
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The December Boys: The first post Potter role for Daniel Radcliffe is in this Australian film based on Michael Noonan’s 1960 novel. It’s a book considered a classic in Australia, the tale of a group of close friends who leave the dusty outback orphanage where they’ve grown up for a summer holiday together at the coast, their future is full of possibilities. However, the chance that one of them, just one, might gain a real family to live with calls everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other into question. Radcliffe, Teresa Myers, Lee Cormie and Christian Byers play the principal orphans and there are well known Aussie actors such as Jack Thompson and Kris McQuade.
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Dream Boy: This 1995 novel is the second novel by a leading Southern writer. It’s about a teenage boy in North Carolina who falls in love with the farm boy next door. It’s a disturbing story in that the boy has been sexually abused by his drunken father, abuse his mother turns a blind eye to. The main character is played by Maximillian Roeg (as everyone in the acting profession seems to be related in some way, it is no surprise to find he’s the son of two notables, director Nicolas Roeg and actress Theresa Russell, and his friend by Owen Beckman. The abusive father is played by Thomas Jay Ryan and the mothers of the boys by Diana Scarwid and singer Rickie Lee Jones.
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The Duchess: Amanda Foreman’s book, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was a bestseller back in 1998 and won the Biography section of the Whitbread Prize. The title character was a celebrity of her day, a glamorous figure whose scandalous life involved various love affairs, a gambling addiction, drink, all amid the racy world of the powerful and famous of the late 18th century. Saul Dibb, who did the recent television adaptation of the Booker Prize novel The line of beauty, is directing and the Duchess is played by Keira Knightley who seems to be first choice for anything these days. Ralph Fiennes plays the Duke and a large British cast includes Simon McBurney, Dominic Cooper, Charlotte Rampling, Hayley Attwell, Aidan McCardle (as the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan) and Richard McCabe.
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The dying animal: Philip Roth’s 2001 novella is about a lecturer and cultural critic who finds his life – which he describes as being in a state of “emancipated manhood” – is knocked sideways by a beautiful woman student with whom he becomes obsessed. Teacher and student are played by Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz in a film directed by Isabel Coixet (the Spanish director of the current Secret life of words) and adapted by novelist Nicholas Meyer. Others in the case include Patricia Clarkson, Deborah Harry, Peter Sarsgaard and Dennis Hopper.
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F

The feast of love: Robert Benton, who directed previous literary adaptations such as Kramer vs Kramer, Billy Bathgate, Nobody’s fool and The human stain is making this adaptation of Charles Baxter’s 2000 novel. The novel is an interesting literary work which features a writer named Charles Baxter who’s having trouble writing his latest book. He goes into a local coffee shop where the owner tells him he should call his book The feast of love, the title of a painting which hangs in the shop, depicting a sunlit table on which dishes, cups and glasses “seemed to be tipped towards the viewer, as if all this light, and all this food, and all this love, was about to slide into our laps, The feast of love was the feast of light, and it was about to become ours.” From there on the novel moves to a whole cast of characters who reveal the whole concept in their lives. The main roles are taken by Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear with Radha Mitchell, Jane Alexander, Selma Blair, Fred Ward, Alexa Davalos and Billy Burke leading a large supporting cast.
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Fugitive Pieces: The 1996 novel by Canadian writer Anne Michaels won the UK-based Orange Prize for Fiction in 1997. It is a highly unusual book that weaves together the stories of two men from different generations whose lives are transformed by the Holocaust. It is told in an elusive and poetic way and wouldn’t be many people’s choice of a novel easy to adapt to the screen. The film, made in Canada with some locations in Greece, is directed by Jeremy Podeswa who has adapted it with the author. The cast is headed by Stephen Dillane, Rade Serbedzija and Rosamund Pike.
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G

The garden of Eden: Mena Suvari, Jack Huston, Caterina Murino and Richard E. Grant star in "The Garden of Eden," an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel (posthumously published in 1986), directed by John Irvin. Set in the Jazz Age, it's the story of a successful young American novelist, previously an aviator during WWI, who embarks on an extended honeymoon across Europe with his wife (Suvari). But when she brings in a sultry Italian girl (Murino) to spice things up with erotic games, their relationship comes under pressure.
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H

He’s just not that into you: Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s 2004 bestseller is a self-help book that was based on a popular episode of the hit series Sex and the city. It’s aimed at the urban woman who has despaired of finding Mr Right. The female co-author says that the book has been so successful that women who’ve read the book have grabbed their cell phone afterwards and deleted half the numbers! The book serves as the basis for a romantic comedy with an ensemble cast that includes Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly, Ben Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin, Kris Kristofferson and Kevin Connolly.
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The Hottest State: Ethan Hawke’s 1996 novel had very mixed reviews but the weight of his name may have given it an easier path to the screen than most first novels. It’s the story of a young actor in New York and his relationship with a struggling singer/songwriter. It’s a relationship that is pretty much doomed from the start. Hawke is directing the film and has done the adaptation as well. The two major characters are played by Mark Webber and Catalina Sandino Moreno, the young South American actress who came to fame in Maria full of grace. Others in the cast include Laura Linney, Michelle Williams, Frank Whaley and Sonia Braga and the music soundtrack will include songs by Willie Nelson and Norah Jones.
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How to lose friends and alienate people: Toby Young’s 2001 autobiography is his account of the five years he spent as an expatriate journalist in New York in the late 1990s. He had a job with Vanity Fair magazine and he was hoping to take Manhattan by storm but his “negative charisma” meant that it was Manhattan taking him instead. Robert B. Weide, who directed the cult TV series Curb your enthusiasm is behind the camera and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the dead) plays Young. Others in the cast include Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges (playing Graydon Carter, the famous editor of Vanity Fair), Gillian Anderson and Danny Huston.
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I - J

I, Claudius: Currently with a projected date of 2010, rights to Robert Graves's 1934 novel were obtained by veteran producer Scott Rudin (The Queen). Reports suggest that Leonardo DiCaprio and screenwriter William Monahan may be involved with the production. The BBC made it into a miniseries, starring Derek Jacobi and John Hurt in 1976, which we hold on video.
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In the electric mist: A detective tracking a serial killer who preys on young women finds his investigation complicated by a glamorous Hollywood starlet and a ruthless crime kingpin in the celebrated French director Bertrand Tavernier's adaptation of the 1993 James Lee Burke novel In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones (as series hero Dave Robicheaux), John Goodman, Peter Saarsgard, Ned Beatty, Mary Steenburgen and Kelly Macdonald.
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Incendiary: A woman who’s been having an illicit affair has her life torn apart when her husband and son are killed in a terrorist attack at a soccer match in the powerful 2005 novel by Chris Cleave. The novel, a first, has been adapted to the screen and directed by Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones’s diary), filmed on location in London and it features Michelle Williams, Ewen McGregor and Matthew McFadyen in the lead roles.
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The informers: Australian director Gregor Jordan is going for the ensemble style movie in the tradition of Crash and Short cuts, taking a number of people and intertwining their stories. As it’s an adaptation of a 1994 collection by Bret Easton Ellis the people are either seedy, tragic or appalling and there’s not much redemption or uplift around. It is set in Los Angeles during a week in 1983 and the large cast includes Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Brandon Routh, Ashley Olsen, Lou Taylor Pucci and Jon Foster.
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Inkheart: German writer Cornelia Funke’s 2003 novel is about a bookbinder who has refused to read books to his young daughter ever since the girl’s mother disappeared some years ago. The appearance of a mysterious stranger changes their lives and father and daughter go on the run from a bunch of dastardly villains. The author actually chose Brendan Fraser to play the leading part and the film, made in Britain with locations in Italy, has a large cast including Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis, Sienna Guillory, Jim Broadbent and Eliza Bennett
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Jolene: Dan Ireland, who directed the surprisingly successful adaptation of Elizabeth Taylor’s Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, has chosen an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s short story Jolene: a life as his next film. The story appears in Doctorow’s 2004 collection, Sweetland stories, and it follows a decade in the life of Jolene, a young woman who goes through a series of disastrous relationships and dead end jobs in her search for a better life. Jolene is played by Newcomer Jessica Chastain and the supporting cast includes Donald Sutherland as an ex-mobster in Las Vegas, Dermot Mulroney, Denise Richards, Theresa Russell, Michael Vartan and English actor Rupert Friend.
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K - L

Killing Pablo: The story of how Colombian gangster, Pablo Escobar, was assassinated and his Medellin cocaine cartel dismantled by US special forces and intelligence, the Colombian military, and a vigilante gang controlled by the Cali cartel. Current cast includes Christian Bale as Major Steve Jacoby and Javier Bardem as Pablo Escobar.
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Killshot: A married couple are in a real estate office when a pair of criminals walk in bent on extortion. The couple see too much for their own good, the local police can't do much to help them from the villains on their trail, and they are on the run. It's a typically taut Elmore Leonard tale, published 1989. Leonard is one of the contemporary crime writers who has had most of his work adapted for film and this one has promise as it is directed by English director John Madden with a cast headed by Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Mickey Rourke and Justin Timberlake.
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The lovely bones: Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel was less a bestseller than a phenomenon and this love-it-or-hate it book was always going to be a challenge for a film adaptation. As everyone knows, Peter Jackson is making the film and he, partner Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, have adapted the novel. The main character, Susie Salmon, who narrates the novel from heaven, is played by Saorsie Ronan. Her mother is played by Rachel Weisz and the father was to have been played by Ryan Gosling who was replaced just before filming began by Mark Wahlberg. Susan Sarandon plays the grandmother, Stanley Tucci is the man who has murdered Susie. Two young New Zealand actresses, Rose McIver (as Susie’s sister) and Carolyn Dando, are also in the cast. The film is being made on location in Pennsylvania and New Zealand.
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M - N

Mamma mia: British playwright Catherine Johnson wrote the book for this hugely successful stage musical which is set on an idyllic Greek island where a daughter, on the eve of her wedding, brings together three men from her mother’s past of twenty years ago to find out the identity of her father. It’s all set to the music of Abba and has been performed here, there and generally everywhere. Phyllida Lloyd, a big name in British theatre, directs and the cast includes Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Amanda Seyfried, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski and Dominic Cooper.
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Miss Pettigrew lives a day: This is a delightful novel first published in 1938 and recently republished by the enterprising British publisher, Persephone. The lady of the title is a middle aged governess who has had a drab life among employers who’ve either ignored or mistreated her. She goes to the house of one Miss Delycia LaFosse and ends up as confidante and friend to a socialite and a part of a raffish nightclubbing set. Frances McDormand is playing Miss Pettigrew with Amy Adams as Miss LaFosse and Shirley Henderson as Edythe Dubarry, the beauty parlour owner who takes Miss Pettigrew in hand. The men in the busy love life of Miss LaFosse are played by Mark Strong, Lee Pace and Ciaran Hinds.
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The Mist: Frank Darabont, who made two of the best Stephen King adaptations, The green mile and The Shawshank redemption, originally wanted to make a film version of the King short story The mist, which appeared in the 1985 collection, Skeleton crew. Now, about twenty years later, he is bringing this story to the screen. It’s more of a visceral horror yarn than the two previous King adaptations he has done as it concerns a group of small town people who take refuge in a supermarket when a thick mist engulfs the town. Unsurprisingly, the mist is the cover for some nasty evil critters out to get whoever they come across. The cast is headed by Thomas Jane, Andre Braugher, Marcia Gay Harden, Alexa Davalos and Toby Jones.
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The mysteries of Pittsburgh: Set in industrial Pittsburgh in the mid-eighties, this adaptation of Michael Chabon’s 1988 novel, his fiction debut, chronicles the last summer of Art Bechstein's (Jon Foster) youth. Art meets the witty and handsome Arthur Lecomte, who then introduces Art to the equally stunning Jane (Sienna Miller), her boyfriend, the legendary Cleveland (Peter Sarsgaard), and worldly, exotic and slightly eccentric Phlox (Mena Suvari). The film version has apparently removed the character of Arthur from the mix. In the course of one summer, this group of colourful friends dominate Art’s life as he comes to terms with life, love and his sexuality. It has taken a long time for the novel to come to the screen and his later novel, Wonder boys, beat it by years.
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Nights in Rodanthe: Three bestselling novels by Nicholas Sparks have already made it to the screen and there’s no reason why this one won’t do well with audiences who like a nice sentimental romance. This novel from 2002 is about a doctor who spends a night at a hotel in the country where he meets a woman who is contemplating divorce and… Richard Gere and Diane Lane play the romantic couple with James Franco, Scott Glenn and Christopher Meloni in the supporting cast.
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The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency: The first of the Alexander McCall Smith novels that also have this series title came out in 1998 and has been on the drawing board for some time. Anthony Minghella has filmed the novel on location in Botswana and has given the plum part of Precious Ramotswe to singer Jill Scott in her film debut. Her secretary, Grace Makutsi, is played by Anika Noni Rose (from Dreamgirls) with Lucian Msamati as Precious Ramotswe’s suitor.
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O - P

The Oxford Murders: This bestselling novel, first translated in 2005 from the Spanish (Crimenes imperceptibles, 2003), by Guillermo Martinez takes its readers into the higher realms of mathematics and intertwines it with a murder mystery. It has a young Argentinian maths student coming to Oxford where he meets one of his idols, a world famous mathematician. A series of murders occur, each accompanied by a cryptic message which must be deciphered by the mathematical duo before the killer strikes again. The film version, made on location in Oxford and London has Elijah Wood as the student and John Hurt as the professor. Spanish actress Leonor Watling, Anna Massey, Julie Cox and Jim Carter are also in the cast and this British/French/Spanish co-production is directed by Alex de la Iglesia, the Spanish director of a series of suspense thrillers.
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Persepolis: Majane Satrapi's graphic novels about an Iranian girl's life in 1980s, post-revolutionary Iran have been widely acclaimed. Now she has turned her stories into a movie which has already won the Jury Prize at Cannes.
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The possibility of an island: Michel Houellebecq is possibly France’s most controversial author and his determined to shock novels have had international success despite, or perhaps because of, accusations of sexism and racism being hurled at him. Two of them have already been filmed to mixed success and this one, based on the 2005 novel, first translated into English 2006, is the usual misanthropic mixture, this time featuring a truly bilious comedian and a cloning cult that resembles the real life Raelians. Houellebecq is directing and adapting the novel himself and the French cast is headed by Benoit Magimel, Patrick Bauchau and the glamorous Arielle Dombasle, famous as much for being the wife of France’s top popular philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.
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R - S

Reservation Road: The 1998 novel, his second, by John Burnham Schwartz is a highly readable tale about a hit-and-run accident where a ten year old boy is killed. The novel is narrated by the father of the victim and the man who killed the boy and nothing is cut and dried in this mature and sad tale of how an act of inattention leads to a tragedy that changes the lives of a number of people. If the film version is well done it will be the kind of A-list number that gets the attention at awards time. Terry George, who made Hotel Rwanda, is directing and the two fathers are played by Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo with Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino and Elle Fanning, child star sister of the more famous Dakota Fanning.
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The Restraint Of Beasts: The 1998 novel by Magnus Mills was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year. The novel is a very clever black comedy about two Scottish labourers who travel south to England for a job mending fences. It’s narrated by “the foreman” who is keen on efficiency but won’t get it from his employees. The film version is directed by Pawel Pawlikowski and produced by Tanya Seghatchian, the duo who made the excellent screen version of the Helen Cross novel My summer of love. The cast is headed by Rhys Ifans, Ben Whishaw, Warren Clarke and Eddie Marsan.
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Revolutionary road: Richard Yates (1926-1992) is one of those authors known as much for being a novelist’s novelist as anything else. He has had a small but growing reputation over the years and now most of his novels have come back into print. This novel, his first, came out in 1961 and was a finalist for the National Book Award that year. It’s about the sour side of the American Dream and a suburban couple living in Connecticut in the 1950s, ostensibly with the perfect life. British theatre and film director Sam Mendes has cast his wife Kate Winslet in the lead with Leonardo Di Caprio as the husband, Michael Shannon and Kathy Bates.
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The ruby in the smoke: An adaptation of the first novel, published 1985, of the Sally Lockhart quartet. Sally is a lively young Victorian girl who, armed with a pistol, a thorough grounding in the principles of military tactics and a working knowledge of Hindustani, embarks on a journey to discover the truth behind her father's death, and unravel why his colleague dies of fear after she utters the three little words: "The Seven Blessings". The character of Sally is a plum role for Billie Piper in this BBC television and Julie Walters has the scene stealing role of the villain. Others in the cast include Robert Glenister, Don Gilet, Hayley Atwell and David Harewood.
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The rum diary: Based on Hunter S. Thompson's 1998 novel The rum diaries, this is the story that is taken from the early days Thompson spent as a journalist at a newspaper in San Juan in the 1950s. The film stars Johnny Depp, Josh Hartnett, Benicio Del Toro and Nick Nolte.
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The secret of Moonacre: A classic children’s novel from 1946, Elizabeth Goudge’s The little white horse, was first filmed for television as a 1967 series but this is its first outing on the big screen. Gabor Csupo, who has previously produced children’s fare in the Rugrats and Wild Thornberrys series but also directed the recent successful film of Bridge to Terabithia, is directing this adaptation of the story about an orphan girl who travels to Moonacre Manor in the West Country where she discovers she is the last Moon princess and is charged with rescuing her kingdom from ruin. Maria is played by Dakota Blue Richards and the supporting cast includes Nathascha McElhone, Ioan Gruffudd, Juliet Stevenson and Tim Curry.
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Silk: This is the story, adapted from a novel by Italian writer Alessandro Baricco, published 1996 and translated into English 1997, of Herve Joncour, a 19th Century French silkworm merchant who travels to Japan who travels to Japan in search of uncontaminated eggs after an epidemic affects the usual supplies from Africa and the Middle East. He’s happily married but on his first trip he meets a beautiful young concubine who is the mistress of a Japanese trader. Michael Pitt plays the main character and his wife is played by Keira Knightley with Alfred Molina and Koji Yakusho supporting. Francois Girard directs this lush production, described as a dark romantic drama, filmed in Italy and Japan.
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Snow Angels: An adaptation of Stewart O'Nan's first novel, published 1994. The narrator of the novel has been haunted by the murder of a former babysitter which happened when he was in high school. The novel examines what led up to the death. Sam Rockwell, Amanda Peet and Emily Mortimer play the leads.
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Suburban girl (was The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing): The story of Melissa Bank’s bestselling 1999 novel involves a young New York book editor who defines her success according to the type of man she can get. This 'every woman' meets a rich, powerful older man and thinks her troubles are over when really they have just begun. One of the more popular earlier chicklit novels (arguably, this one is borderline chicklit), it has taken a while to get to the screen, Filming in New York, it is adapted and directed by Marc Klein (who made the romantic comedy, Serendipity) and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alec Baldwin and Maggie Grace.
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T

The tale of Despereaux: Kate DiCamillo’s 2003 novel, was a Newbery Award winner. This delightful fairy tale – about a very clever mouse, an awkward servant girl and a devious rat, is yet another children’s title becoming a big animated feature. Mike Johnson, who c-directed The corpse bride, directs and the voices are done by Matthew Broderick, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Kline, Dustin Hoffman, Sigourney Weaver, Tracey Ullman, William H. Macy and Emma Watson.
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Tenderness: Russell Crowe is starring in this adaptation of the 1997 YA novel by Robert Cormier, playing a policeman who tries to unravel the complicated past of a teenager (played by Jon Foster) who may have murdered his family and who has a dangerous relationship with a runaway girl (played by Sophie Traub). Laura Dern also stars and the film is directed by John Polson, an Australian now based in the U.S.
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Then she found me: Elinor Lipman’s first novel, published back in 1990, is another book that has taken some time to get to the screen. Helen Hunt has been working on adapting the script (a role she took on herself) for the past eight years. In the film, she plays a schoolteacher whose birth mother (Bette Midler) pops into her life at the worst possible time. Matthew Broderick will play Hunt’s husband, while Colin Firth takes on the role of a man she meets through one of her students.
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Therese Raquin: There've been earlier versions of Emile Zola's classic novel, first published in English in 1881, about a passionate woman and the love affair that ruins her. In this version Therese is played by German actress Franka Potente, her lover Laurent by Joseph Fiennes, the husband they murder by Ewen Bremner. The supporting cast is headed by Glenn Close.
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The Thief Lord: The bestselling German novel — first translated into English in 2002 — is a children's book about a gang of orphans hired to steal the missing component of a magic carousel capable of changing adults into children and vice versa. Filming in Germany, the cast of English actors includes Jim Carter, Janet McTeer, Alexei Sayle, Vanessa Redgrave and Margaret Tyzack in the adult parts.
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21: Ben Mezrich’s 2002 bestseller, Bringing down the house tells the story of how a notorious gang of MIT blackjack savants devised and received backing for a system for winning at the world's most sophisticated casinos, a project that earned them more than three million dollars. Robert Luketic, the Australian who has made big ticket comedies such as Legally blonde and Monster-in-law, is making the film version with a cast headed by Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Jim Sturgess and Aaron Yoo. The title is a term for blackjack and it was changed from the original title of the bestselling book because of a reasonably recent Queen Latifah comedy of that title.
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W

Where the wild things are: The Maurice Sendak picture book classic from 1963 about Max, the little boy who creates his own world of a forest inhabited by the wild things of the title, has been adapted for the screen by novelist Dave Eggers. The film, directed by Spike Jonze, is a mixture of live action, CGI and animatronics and was partly made in Australia. The cast includes Max Records (as Max), Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Michelle Williams – some in the flesh, some voicing characters.
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The women: Claire Boothe Luce’s play was first produced in 1936 and has been an enduring hit with actresses because it gives its all women cast good lines and endless bitchery so it is a play that encourages over the top diva style acting. It was first made into a movie in 1939 with Rosalind Russell and Joan Crawford, remade for television in 1955 with Mary Astor and Paulette Goddard, called The opposite sex in 1956 with Joan Collins and June Allyson, filmed as Women in New York by dour German director Rainer Maria Fassbinder in 1977 and now it is being brought to the screen by Diane English who comes from American television comedy, most notably Murphy Brown. The cast includes Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing and Candice Bergen.
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