Hollywood has always raided literature for its ideas - some of the most successful films of all time are based on books, from
The Shawshank Redemption to
The Princess Bride to
The Help. Could anyone not laugh when Miss Hilly ate that chocolate pie?
In turn, when film versions come out, requests for the book skyrocket. Anyone who's ever been number 1784 in line for
The Hunger Games can attest to this. This, then, is advance warning for those lucky enough to read this blog. In no particular order, here's what you can look forward to at the movies over the next year. Need I mention
The Hobbit?
Get your requests in now, before the lines get too long!
Les Miserables
In my humble opinion, the best musical of all time, and a pretty good book as well. The new film version (based on the stage show) is out for Christmas. Former Kiwi Russell Crowe is the relentless Inspector Javert, Hugh Jackman is the hero Jean Valjean, and poor, broken Fantine is played by a skeletal Anne Hathaway. Advance previews look - and sound - fantastic. Read what it's all about now, before the barricades go up.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Still playing the schoolgirl, Emma Watson is the love interest of shy freshman Charlie (Logan Lerman, who also plays Percy Jackson in a forthcoming screen adaptation). Along the way, Charlie endures the suicide of his best friend, some tough family secrets, and being shown the realities of life by two seniors who take him under their wing. It's a coming of age story that is already a hit with teens, and will be even bigger after this. There's a New Zealand connection here too - Melanie Lynskey plays Charlie's Aunt Helen.
The Spook's Apprentice
This is a genuinely grisly, well-written series for kids with tough stomachs. It is being very loosely adapted in America as
The Seventh Son, with an international cast. I really do hope the Americans get this one right, as it was a very British-flavoured series, and the original kids were thirteen. Being 31, I'd have said Ben Barnes was a bit old for the title character, but he's still worth a look. I mean, the film is...Out in October 2013.
Anna Karenina
Another literary classic back on the big screen. If you haven't read this yet, now is the time. Set in late-19th-century Russia high-society, the aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the affluent Count Vronsky, played - I'll have to see this to believe it - by the young Aaron Taylor-Johnson, of
Kick-Ass fame. Anna is played by Keira Knightley, and Kelly Macdonald, Jude Law and Matthew Macfadyen have supporting roles.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Read (or re-read, or in fact, watch)
The Wizard of Oz to get yourself on the yellow brick road to
Oz: The Great and Powerful. This new movie, due in March 2013, is a prequel to the famous story, showing how Oz first came to the land that bears his name. It has a starry cast: James Franco, Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams, and the colours look lovely too.
Cross
Upcoming film
Alex Cross is very loosely based on
Cross by James Patterson. Tyler Perry plays detective - yep - Alex Cross, who is on the hunt for a serial killer who murdered a family member. See if you can spot which elements are from the book. Due here in November.
Safe Haven
Yet another Nicholas Sparks romantic weepie, like
The Lucky One, Dear John, Message in a Bottle, The Notebook...Yes, pretty much everything the man has written appears on screen. Beautiful but private Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: with Alex, a widowed store owner with two young children; and with her plainspoken neighbour, Jo. But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts her . . .Out for Valentine's Day in the US, starring Cobie Smulders and Josh Duhamel.
Cloud Atlas
A rather indefinable - some said unfilmable - movie starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant, and directed by the Wachowski siblings. Various lives are intertwined and reincarnated, influencing each other, including a reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a young Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation; a genetically engineered "dinery server" on death row - one a killer who becomes a hero, one a man played by a woman. One act of kindness can ripple through time to cause a revolution. If that sounds like your bag, grab the book. It's had rave reviews.
The Life of Pi
One of the most anticipated films of the year, based on one of the most read books of the last decade. A tiger, a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra and a boy are afloat on a raft in the middle of the ocean. The tiger turns to the hyena and says...Just kidding. You'll have to read it to find out what really happens. Due November.
One Shot
Enough with the Tom Cruise jokes. Let's see if he can really play the part of action man Jack Reacher. Guess we'll find out in short order...The movie
Jack Reacher is based on the ninth book in the series,
One Shot, in which five people are mysteriously killed by a sniper. But what's the motive? Hits New Zealand on January 3.
Mr Pip
No confirmed release date on this adaptation of Kiwi author Jones's book, but soon...Hugh Laurie is Mr Watts, the school teacher in Bougainville, where rebels are trying to close the copper mine poisoning their island, and to drive the redskin army from Papua New Guinea into the sea. Thirteen year old Matilda is infatuated with 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens, which Watts is reading to his students. She writes 'Pip' in the sand and decorates it with shells. The redskins see it, and decide they must track Pip down. Who is this rebel leader? The search will have devastating consequences for Matilda, Mr Watts and the entire village.
