Category Archives: Movie Adaptations

Watch The Second Trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

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A brand new trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 has released. In the trailer, President Snow is back again in another PSA style trailer promising that Panem has never been more unified. Peeta is at his side once more.

The message from Panem reads:

#OnePanem CITIZENS: Never have we been more unified as a nation… The Capitol and the districts are bound together in solidarity, striving to forge a stronger future.
Join esteemed victors Peeta Mellark and Johanna Mason in their support of President Snow’s Panem Address, “Unity,” brought to you by Capitol TV in stunning 4K.

However, is it really unity when surrounded by soldiers? Not to mention the appearance of District 13 who pirates the transmission and interrupts the broadcast? “This is a pirate transmission from District 13. The message: The Mockingjay lives.”

Part one sees Katniss in District 13 after she literally shatters the games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore) and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta and a nation moved by her courage.

The film stars Jennifer LawrenceJosh HutchersonLiam HemsworthWoody HarrelsonElizabeth BanksJulianne MooreJeffrey WrightDonald Sutherland, and Philip Seymour Hoffman

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 hits theaters on November 21. (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 will release on November 20, 2015). 

Japanese Horror Film “Audition” Getting Remade in America

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Kiri-Kiri-Kiri! Audition is getting a reboot for American audiences according to Deadline. The famous film from Takashi Miike was actually based on the 1997 novel by Ryu Murakami of the same name.

In the American retelling, an unlucky widower — named Sam Davis in this version — lives alone with his son when a filmmaker friend tricks him into meeting women under the guise of a movie audition (because nothing says long-lasting love like trickery). Through the auditions, Sam meets Evie Lawrence, a former ballerina with a mysterious dark side. And a mysterious bag.

According to Deadline, what is known about the American remake, it is very close to the Japanese original. The original film has landed on several prominent directors, authors, and actors lists of best horror films for its disturbing content and grisly portrayal the main character’s enjoyment of torture. Will there be severed limbs? We already know the weird burlap bag will be involved somehow so that is promising.

Richard Gray has adapted the script and will be directed the remake. There is no word on when the film will go into production or who the studio is eyeing for the lead roles.

Lois Lowry Comments on “The Giver” Film

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Author Lois Lowry has commented on the big screen adapted of her novel, The Giver. Even further, her comments have been featured on the film’s poster which you can see above. She has given the film just about the highest praise an author can when their work hits the big screen.

The YA novel won the 1994 Newbery Medal, and there are more than 11 million copies in print worldwide, in 21 languages.

“It’s all there. The boy. The old man. The baby. The sled. If you loved the book take my word for it — you’ll love the movie as well,” says Lowry on the poster, which features stars Brenton Thwaites and Odeya Rush.

The sci-fi story is set in a world where each member of society is given a specific role. When 16-year-old Jonas (Thwaites) is selected to be the Receiver of Memory, he begins to uncover the truth behind his seemingly perfect world’s past. The Giver stars Jeff Bridges, Thwaites, Rush and Meryl Streep.

The Giver hits theaters on August 15. It was directed by Phillip Noyce.

Sarah Polley to Adapt John Green’s “Looking for Alaska”

Book Award covers.

John Green’s book, “Looking for Alaska,” is currently in talks to be adapted into a film by Sarah Polley. Paramount Pictures would oversee the adaptation which would be produced by Mark Waters and Jessica Tuchinsky via their watermark Pictures banner.

The film rights for the book were first purchased back in 2005. At that point it even has a script that was written by Josh Schwartz but somehow it ended up being lost in the Hollywood oblivion.

But with the incredible box office success of the film adaptation of Green’s novel, The Fault in Our Stars, the studio is now interested in the project once again. Funny how that works isn’t it?

“Looking for Alaska” is inspired by Green’s personal school experiences. It follows a boy who entered boarding school where social classes engage in pranks on one another. Alaska is a female student whom all the boys find beguiling but who is also dangerously reckless.

Polley is a well-known Canadian filmmaker whose works include Away From Her and Take This Waltz. She last made Stories We Tell, the award-winning documentary about her search for the truth behind her family.

She will reportedly also write the script for Alaska.

The First Trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Revealed

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We finally have the first trailer for the upcoming third film installment in the Hunger Games franchise. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 has release a trailer in the form of a PSA from Panem and President Snow.

The PSA shows President Snow in a perfectly white background as he promises peace and unity. Though he hints that those who resist may be presents with a future that is not so peaceful. And just as he’s warning, “If you resist the system, you starve yourself. If you fight against it, it is you who will bleed,” the camera pans to reveal Peeta beside him. Blurgh.

Part one sees Katniss in District 13 after she literally shatters the games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore) and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta and a nation moved by her courage.

The film stars Jennifer LawrenceJosh HutchersonLiam HemsworthWoody HarrelsonElizabeth BanksJulianne MooreJeffrey WrightDonald Sutherland, and Philip Seymour Hoffman

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 hits theaters on November 21. (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 will release on November 20, 2015). 

You can watch the trailer below.

CBS Films Acquires Film Rights to Trilogy of Atlantis Novels

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The trilogy of “Atlantis” novels by author A.G. Riddle have been optioned for film by CBS Films. The first book in the series is titled “The Atlantis Gene” was self-published in March of 2013.

The novel follows a brilliant geneticist and an international counterterrorism agent who must team up to thwart a global pandemic and solve the greatest mystery of all time: the truth behind the origins of humanity.

The third installment of the series was recently published on May 15, 2014.

The author, A.G. Riddle, is a native of North Carolina, a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and previously spent a decade starting and running internet-centric companies. Riddle was recently ranked #2 in Science Fiction Book authors (including print) on Amazon, behind George R.R. Martin.

There is no word on whether the trilogy will become a film franchise but it is likely. The studio has also not announce when the project will begin production.

Official Trailer for James Franco’s Child of God

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The first official trailer for Child of God has been released via Yahoo! Movies. The film adaptation was helmed by actor James Franco and is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Franco also produces, stars and co-wrote the screenplay with Vince Jolivette.

Child of God stars Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parrack, Fallon Goodson, Scott Haze, Jeremy Ambler and Jolivett.

The film is about a dispossessed, violent man whose life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, Ballard descends literally and figuratively to the level of a cave dweller as he falls deeper into crime and degradation. 

It hits theaters in a limited release on August 1. You can watch the trailer below:

Ready Player One Movie Finally Moving Forward With Zak Penn

ready-player-one We have been waiting more than four years for the film adaptation of the novel “Ready Player One” to begin production. FINALLY, Warner Bros. and De Line Pictures have begun to move forward according to a report at The Wrap. According to the story, they have hired Zak Penn to adapt the novel written by Ernie Cline. The novel is officially described as follows:

In the near future, outcast teenager Wade Watts escapes from his bleak surroundings by logging in to the OASIS, a globally networked virtual utopia where users can lead idyllic alternate lives. When the eccentric billionaire who created the OASIS dies, he offers up his vast fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Along with gamers from around the world, Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes and other ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first.

Donald De Line and Dan Farah are set to produce. The adaptation was announced before the novel was even released on shelves.  There is currently no officially word from the studio about a production date or an anticipated release date. No actors are attached at the moment either.

Warner Bros. Adapting The Monstrumologist for Film

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“The Monstrumologist,” the first novel in a four-part series, written by Rick Yancey has been optioned for film by Warner Bros. Pictures according to a report from Variety. The studio has even hired Jessica Postigo to adapt the first book into a what may become a film franchise.

The novel was first published in 2009 and if officially described as follows:

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for nearly ninety years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphan and assistant to a doctor with a most unusual specialty: monster hunting. In the short time he has lived with the doctor, Will has grown accustomed to his late night callers and dangerous business. But when one visitor comes with the body of a young girl and the monster that was feeding on her, Will’s world is about to change forever. The doctor has discovered a baby Anthropophagi–a headless monster that feeds through the mouthfuls of teeth in its chest–and it signals a growing number of Anthropophagi. Now, Will and the doctor must face the horror threatenning to overtake and consume our world before it is too late.

In the series, the book was followed by “The Curse of Wendigo,” “The Isle of Blood” and “The Final Descent.”

There is no word yet on a projected release date for the project or when the studio plans to begin production.

Aaron Sorkin to Adapt “Flash Boys”

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The best selling book from Michael Lewis, “Flash Boys,” is currently in negotiations to be adapted by Aaron Sorkin. This would be the second project that Sorkin would adapt by the writer as he previously co-wrote the screenplay for Moneyball. 

Sony acquired the nonfiction book back in April and is attempting to get Sorkin to lead the project.

“Flash Boys” follows the practice of high-frequency trading on Wall Street and how it became a way to rig the system. Lewis’ book revolves around a group of men on Wall Street including Sergey Aleynikov, a one-time programmer for Goldman Sachs, and Brad Katsuyama, the founder of IEX, the Investor’s Exchange

The film adaptation is being produced by Scott Rudin and Eli Bush. Rudin and Sorkin are frequent collaborators, having worked together on Social Network and the HBO series The Newsroom.

Lewis’ book was published March 31 and became an immediate best-seller.