Category Archives: Optioned Books

War Horse – a Lassie Film (Illustrated Edition)

Why are you interested in this adaptation?

Rachel-

I want to see War Horse because I am a connoisseur of Pony-movies. Yes, I was one of those little girls obsessed with ponies. I took it a few steps further by actually riding ponies through college. Then it all got too expensive (it was always too expensive, I supplemented my habit by mucking stalls), now I just watch pony-movies alone in my living room while crying into my wine glass over my lost youth.

Beauty, The Pie, Denny (!!!) and Thowra vs The Brolga. Give me pony-movies or give me death! (Yes, even The Postman.) Continue reading

Rooney Mara, Lisbeth Salander, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Girl Who Played With Fire Sequel Moving Forward

Rooney Mara, Lisbeth Salander, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The recent book to movie adaptation, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was one of the most talked about movies over the holiday season. It is no surprise that Sony plans to make the sequel into a film as well. Continue reading

10 Highest Grossing Film Adaptations

Ok, well not all time, but these are definitely the highest grossing film adaptations and from that I gleaned this: Harry Potter dominates. I think that is the obvious conclusion that can be made from this compiled list of highest grossing film adaptations. With every book on the list only to be broken up by LOTR and Jurassic Park, Harry Potter reigns at the box office. I have to say though, Twilight is not in the top ten and we have Harry Potter to thank for that.  Continue reading

The Hunger Games Anticipation

Why are you interested in this adaptation?

Rachel-

I am interested in this adaptation because, like everyone else last year, I read the Hunger Games Trilogy over the summer. Initially, I was resistant to reading them because I felt that reading about kids murdering each other would be too stressful, but I gave in. I didn’t have to wait at all to read the complete trilogy because I began the first book only a few months before Mockingjay was published. Good thing, too–I was instantly obsessed. These books are a return to the type of science fiction I read as a child, and thus, I liked them very much. They are a return to the dystopia youth fiction, often shockingly violent and generally interested in psychology and sociology, that forces a young mind to examine its own preconceptions. Books like Ender’s Game, 1984, The Girl Who Owned a City, The Giver (which connects pretty easily to the self-sufficient, nature survival novels like Hatchet or My Side of the Mountain that were also pretty popular with my fellow elementary school attendees).  I will say that the first book is far better than its sequels. There are lots of reasons for that, but it is true. Continue reading

“Aping Plots and Themes As Best They Can” by Jeffrey Poehlmann

I just put down my copy of Pierre Boulle’s 1963 opus, Planet of the Apes, as translated by Xan Fielding. “Put down” may not be the most accurate phrasing here — I closed the app on my phone and proceeded to do some web surfing for a while. That was primarily to verify the number of  movies spun off of this relatively slender volume: seven films and two television series, at least one video game and several supporting documentaries and behind-the-scenes projects shot up on the IMDB site in short order. At first blush, these varied projects, most of which I have seen, bare little resemblance to the book used as their source material beyond the conceit that apes somehow supplant man as the dominant species of their planet. Continue reading

David Yates Listens to Your Voice in My Head…

David Yates, best known for his role as director in the Harry Potter movies, has decided to pick up a much smaller project to work on.  He will be spearheading a movie adaptation of Emma Forrest’s book, Your Voice in my Head.  Forrest has also reported that she will be providing the screenplay for the project as well!   Continue reading