Books on Film | Age of Ultron & Far From The Madding Crowd

     

The Age of Ultron is upon us! Avengers: Age of Ultron will be released this weekend. It's based on the 2013 limited crossover Age of Ultron. Of course, don't go expecting any of the X-Men (except Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) or Fantastic Four to show up in the movie they way they do in the book. The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and Marvel Comics are two different beasts due to rights issues. 

The artificial intelligence known as Ultron as fought for years to eradicate mankind- and now, it has all but succeeded. The few remaining heroes are battered, broken, almost beat and left considering desperate measures- some more desperate than others. but when Wolverine breaks ranks and pursues his own plan to defeat Ultron, will his drastic action cause more problems than it solves?

If you are interest in English period dramas instead of superheroes, then you may want to check out the adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel Far From The Madding Crowd which will also be released this weekend.

When the beautiful and spirited Bathsheba Everdene inherits her own farm, she attracts three very different suitors: the seemingly commonplace man-of-the-soil Gabriel Oak, the dashing young soldier Francis Troy, and the respectable, middle-aged Farmer Boldwood. Her choice, and the tragedy it provokes, lie at the center of this novel.  

Books On Film | Child 44

The film adaptation of Tom Rob Smith's first book Child 44 will be released this weekend. The movie adaptation stars Tom Hardy as the main character Leo Demidov.

In the years following World War II, Joseph Stalin establishes great power and control over the Russian people; citizens are deceitfully told that their country is free from crime and offenders. However, a serial killer targeting children is, in fact, on the loose. And now, Leo Demidov, a decorated soldier, must locate this murderer while keeping his capture a secret.

Books On Film | The Longest Ride & True Story

           

The Longest Ride, latest in a long line of adaptions of Nicholas Spark's work, will premiere this weekend. This book tells two different love stories taking place at two different times.

After being trapped in an isolated car crash, the life of an elderly widower becomes entwined with that of a young college student and the cowboy she loves.

True Story, based on the memoir True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa will also premiere this weekend in a limited release. The film will star James Franco as Christian Longo and Jonah Hills as Michael Finkel.

A young, highly intelligent man named Christian Longo, on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for killing his entire family, has recently been captured in Mexico, where he'd taken on a new identity - Michael Finkel of the New York Times." "The next day, on page A-3 of the Times, comes another bit of troubling news: a note, written by the paper's editors, explaining that Finkel has falsified parts of an investigative article and has been fired. This unlikely confluence sets the stage for a bizarre and intense relationship.

Books On Film | The Passion of The Christ

Since Easter is around the corner, here is an Easter-adjacent adaptation. The film, The Passion of The Christ, was released in 2004 and directed and co-written by Mel Gibson. It depicts a short time period in the story of Jesus' life known as the Passion*, starting with a visit to Jerusalem and ending in his crucifixion. 

The film was based mainly on Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from The Bible (Holy Scriptures of Christianity), The Tanakh (the Holy Scriptures of Judaism), and The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Chris by Anne Catherine Emmerich, a German nun who claimed to have had religious visions of the Passion. 

          

*Latin: passio means suffering.

Books On Film | The True Meaning of Smekday & Serena

     

Two book to film adaptations come out this weekend. One is an animated feature for kids and the other is a live-action movie for adults.

The first is an adaptation of Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday into the animated film Home with voice work by Rihanna and Jim Parsons.

When her mother is abducted by aliens on Christmas Eve (or "Smekday" Eve since the Boov invasion), 11 year-old Tip hops in the family car and heads south to find her and meets an alien Boov mechanic who agrees to help her and save the planet from disaster.

The second is an adaptation of Ron Rash's novel Serena into a film of the same name starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper.

This is a violent story about ambition, privilege, and ruthlessness played out in an Appalachian timber camp in North Carolina during the Depression. The novel opens with the camp's wealthy owner, George Pemberton, returning from Boston with his new bride, Serena.

Books On Film | Insurgent & The Prone Gunman

 

This weekend the film adaptation of Insurgent by Veronica Roth, the second book in the Divergent trilogy, will be released. The film adaptation of the first book, Divergent, was released last year and I fully expect the third film to be adapted next year.

As war surges in the dystopian society around her, sixteen-year-old Divergent Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

The film adaption of French crime novelist's Jean-Patrick Manchette's book The Prone Gunman, titled The Gunman and starring Sean Penn, will also be released this weekend.

Martin Terrier is a hired killer who wants out of the game so he can settle down and marry his childhood sweetheart. After all, that's why he took up this profession! But "the company" won't let him go: they have other plans. Once again, the gunman must assume the prone firing position. A tour de force, this violent tale shatters as many illusions about life and politics as it does bodies.

Books On Film | Cinderella

This weekend will see the release of the live-action version of Walt Disney's Cinderella. The classic animated Cinderella was originally released in 1950. 

With the help of her fairy godmother, a kitchen maid mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters attends the palace ball where she meets the prince of her dreams.

Books On Film | These Foolish Things

The sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), titled The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is coming out this weekend as a limited release. The original film is based on the novel There Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach (later re-released under the movie title).

When Dr. Ravi Kapoor's cousin sets up a retirement home in India, Ravi's father-in-law is one of its first guests, but what the renovation lacks in promised amenities and luxury, it makes up for in adventure, stunning beauty, and unexpected love.

Books On Film | Dead Stars

Author and screenwriter Bruce Wagner's novel Dead Stars is based on the screenplay he wrote for the film Map to the Stars after plans to make the film fell through. Well, now the film is back on and will be released this weekend. Dead Stars chronicles a slew of characters chasing the ever elusive fifteen minutes of fame.

Traces the experiences of very young breast cancer survivor Telma, who crosses paths with actor Michael Douglas during the latter's efforts to achieve his professional dream against a backdrop of riotous Hollywood culture.

Books On Film | The DUFF

This weekend an adaptation of teen novel The DUFF (designated ugly fat friend) will be released in theaters. The novel is about a non-nonsense girl who's enemies-with-benefits relationship turns up being more than she expected.

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper starts sleeping with Wesley Rush, a notorious womanizer who disgusts her, in order to distract her from her personal problems, and to her surprise, the two of them find they have a lot in common and are able to help each other find more productive ways to deal with their difficulties.

Books On Film | Fifty Shades of Grey & Kingsman: The Secret Service

There are two book adaptations being released this Valentine's Day weekend. 

The first, a film adaptation of the erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey, which was expanded into a trilogy, about a woman who enters into a BDSM relationship with her wealthy, handsome love interest.

When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind - until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time. 

The second, a film adaptation Mark Millar's graphic novel Kingsman: The Secret Service about a newly trained spy and his trainer discovering a conspiracy when investigating missing actors and a mass murder.

The world's greatest secret agent is on the most exciting case of his career. But will the end of the world as know it take a back seat to training his street-punk nephew to be the next James Bond?

Books On Film | The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch

The Seventh Son, which was released in theaters yesterday, is an adaptation of Revenge of the Witch, the first book in the sixteen book children's fantasy series The Last Apprentice. In Revenge of the Witch, Thomas Ward, twelve years old and newly minted as an apprentice, is tricked into releasing an evil witch and has to help fight to protect the people of his land.

Young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, starts work as an apprentice for the village spook, whose job is to protect ordinary folk from "ghouls, boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties."

Books On Film | The Paradise

This one comes from a patron at the Tracy Library. 

The Paradise, originally titled Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Paradise), by Emily Zola was published in English 1883. It tells the story of a young woman, Denise Baudu, who moves to Paris with her younger brothers to become a salesperson at a department store. The reader is given a view into the working conditions of female workers during the mid-nineteenth century as well as being treated to good dose of backstabbing and intrique.

A two season television series based on the novel was recently produced by the BBC and Masterprice (previously Masterpiece Theater). It aired in the UK and the US. If you are a fan of BBC period dramas, like Downton Abbey and Mr. Selfridge, this might be a show and book for you.

Cover courtesy of LibraryThing.

Books On Film | Hemlock Grove

The second season of the Netflix original series Hemlock Grove will premiere Friday, July 11th. The series is based on the 2012 horror-mystery novel Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevy. 

The novel takes place in the fictional town of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania where a young girl was brutally murdered on the full moon. The town rumor mill places the blame on Peter Rumanchek, a Romani teenager who recently moved to town with his mother, whom they believe to be a werewolf. As more murders pile up, Peter forms an unlikely friendship with Roman Godfrey, the only son of the powerful Godfrey family, to investigate the murders and clear his name.

Cover courtesy of LibraryThing.

Books On Film | The Leftovers

An adaptation of Tom Perrotta's The Leftovers, published in 2011, premieres tomorrow night on HBO. The author will serve as a writer and executive producer along with Damon Lindelof (co-creator of Lost) who will also act as showrunner.

The book takes place in the small town of Mapletown, New Jersey several years after the sudden, mysterious disappearance of millions of people from earth, including friends and family members of Mapletown citizens. It follows several members of the Garvey family, including Mayor Kevin Garvey whose family has fallen apart in the wake of the "Sudden Departure." His wife Laurie left to join the Guilty Remnant, a cult whose members take a vow of silence, his son Tom falls under the spell of a "prophet" named Holy Wayne, and his straight A student daughter starts rebelling.

Watch the trailer below.

Or the extended trailer (for mature audiences) on YouTube.

Cover courtesy of LibraryThing.

Books On Film | Orange Is the New Black

Orange Is the New Black is a popular Netflix original series which started it's second season earlier this month. It's based on the memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman. The book details the author's time in a minimum security women's prison after she was convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering more for a scheme she was involved in more than ten years earlier during college. Kerman, an engaged career woman, learns to navigate prison life and becomes friends with many of her fellow inmates.

Cover courtesy of LibraryThing.

Books On Film | The Snow Queen/Frozen

 

I think everyone on the planet has seen the Disney animated film Frozen by now. However, many may not know that it's an adaptation of Hans Christen Andersen's The Snow Queen (original/abridged). It's a fairy tale which centers around a young girl named Gerda who goes on a quest save her young male neighbor and friend Kai from the influences of an evil troll's mirror and the clutches of the Snow Queen.

The film adaptation centers around a young woman named Anna who goes on a quest to find and repair her relationship with her estranged sister Elsa who has trapped their kingdom in an eternal winter. It's a musical, as everyone who has heard "Let It Go" knows, which features several fun supporting characters including a talking snowman named Olaf.

If by some chance you haven't seen the movie, you can borrow it from the library and also check out the original tale, the abridged picture book, and/or one of junior easy reader novels inspired by the film.

Covers courtesy of LibraryThing.

Books On Film | Heaven Is For Real

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo is a Christian non-fiction book that describes the near-death experience of Pastor Burpo's four year old son Colton. Colton's description of what he experienced while unconscious during surgery leads the Burpo to believe that his son visited heaven.

In April 2014, the book was adapted into a film with the help of author and evangelist T.D. Jakes.

Cover courtesy of LibraryThing.

Books On Film | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Here's one last adaptation for the classic science fiction lovers.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick was published in 1968. The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic earth, most of which has been destroyed by nuclear war. Animals are prized because of their rarity and androids are used as slave workers on the planetary outposts where most humans live. 

Indistinguishable from humans on the outside, many androids try to escape to earth and pass as human. The novel follows a day in the life of Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter, on the hunt for escaped androids who are distinguished from humans using a polygraph-like empathy test called the Voigt-Kampf.

Ridley Scott adapted the novel into a feature film called Blade Runner in 1982. The film follows the premise of the books and keeps a lot of characters and elements in place, but diverges from the source material quite a bit. So, don't watch the film expecting. However, it's considered a scifi cult classic and was responsible for bringing Philip K. Dick's work to the attention of film studios.

Covers courtesy of LibraryThing.

Books On Film | WonderCon 2014 Edition

WonderCon is a primarily a comic book and collectibles convention, but also includes games, books, and media. Attendees are able to attend moderated panels with industry professionals who come to discuss their upcoming projects as well as show sneak peaks. Several upcoming films promoted at WonderCon were adapted from books/comics and several were adapted into books/comics.

 

Movies

The cast and director of The Maze Runner, schedule to be released September 2014, were present as part of the 20th Century Fox panel. The film is an adaption of James Dashner's teen novel of the same name. To see more about this book, check out one of my previous posts on upcoming 2014 YA adaptations.

The writer/producer of X-Men: Days of Future Past, schedule to be released next month, was also part of the Fox panel and there to discuss the film adaption of the 1980's Days of Future Past storyline. In the comic, Kitty Pryde transfers her mind into that on her younger self in order try to prevent occurrences in the past that lead to mutants being interned in the future. The movie adaption is obviously making one huge departure by sending Wolverine in to the past and it's yet to be seen what other changes have been made.

 

The writer of science fiction thriller Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise and scheduled to be released X,  was present discuss the his adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's 'light novel' All You Need Is Kill. The novel is set in a future earth at war with mysterious aliens called Mimics. A new military recruit with no experience ends up stuck in a time loop after being killed on his first day.

Animated Movies

There's a children's film festival and anime festival that goes on as part of WonderCon, however I did not attend either because there are too many activities and not enough time.

 

However, I did watch the Warner's Brother animated film, Son of Batman, which is schedule to be released on DVD/Blu-ray next month, which was screened in it's entirety. The film is an adaptation of the comic book Batman and Son. The comic is about Damian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne and Tahlia al Ghul, who meets for the first time.

 

The voice actors and writer of How to Train Your Dragon 2 were also present for the XX panel to talk about the second film adaptation of the How To Train Your Dragon series. To learn more about these books please visit my previous post on the series.

Television Shows

Warner Brothers screened several episodes of their The CW shows, including this weeks episode of The 100. The 100 is an adaptation of a book of the same name by author Kass Morgan. The novel is about one hundred juvenile delinquents who are sent out by their space dwelling society to recolonize earth.

 

Falling Skies, TNT's science fiction television show produced by Steven Spielberg has been adapted into a comic of the same name by Dark Horse Comics. The series is about the survivors of an alien invaded earth and the comics take place between the seasons of the show.

Books & Comics

Since WonderCon is a comic convention there were, of course, many, many comic panels, including a special Batman 75th Anniversary panel in a new Batman Beyond short was shown. Batman Beyond is a bit unique in the Batman-verse. It started as an animated series and was later adapted into a comic unlike the original Batman comics and it's spin-offs. 

 

There were also panels for aspiring novel, comic book, and television writers on the writing process, publishing, and more. Sadly, I missed the 'What's Hot in Young Adult Fiction' panel which featured several young adult authors discussing trends in YA fiction. However, I was able to catch a panel with paranormal romance novelist and Marvel comic author Marjorie Liu who discussed her career change from lawyer to writer, explained the difference between comic and novel writing, and gave tips for aspiring writers.

 

Liu is known largely for her Dirk & Steele and Hunter Kiss series as well as her run on Astonishing X-Men, X-23, and Black Widow comics.

Covers courtesy of LibraryThing.