Adaptation

In the wake of Hunger Games success, Lionsgate Entertainment acquired the film rights to the young-adult fantasy series, Patrick Ness‘ Chaos Walking trilogy. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman will adapt the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go.

Here’s more from Deadline: ”The Carnegie Medal winning book is set in a dystopian future with humans colonizing a distant earth-like planet. When an infection called the Noise suddenly makes all thought audible, privacy vanishes, chaos ensues, and a corrupt autocrat threatens to take control of the human settlements and wage war with the indigenous alien race.”

Kaufman won the 2004 Oscar in the Best Original Screenplay category for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He also wrote the scripts for the adaptation of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Adaptation (based The Orchid Thief).

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HBO has released its first trailer for Hemingway & Gelhorn, a film starring Clive Owen as Ernest Hemingway and Nicole Kidman as the journalist Martha Gellhorn.

The film captures the relationship between great novelist and a great war correspondent.

Here’s more from The Olive Press: “Their five-year marriage first saw them travel to Spain to record some of the most famous reports on the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. Gellhorn was the only woman ever to ask Hemingway for a divorce and she inspired him to write his most famous novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

HBO has ordered a third season of its adaptation of Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Above, we’ve embedded a trailer for the second season.

The cable network broke the news on Twitter: “Game of Thrones has been renewed for a third season. RT and spread the word to #GoTFans across the realm.”

Last year, the New Yorker published a profile of fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin. Here’s an excerpt from the online abstract: “An entire community of apostates—a shadow fandom—is now devoted to taunting Martin, his associates, and readers who insist that he has been hard at work on the series and has the right to take as much time as he needs. The online attacks on Martin suggest that some readers have a new idea about what an author owes them. They see themselves as customers, not devotees, and they expect prompt, consistent service.”

Scholastic has printed more than 36.5 million copies of books in The Hunger Games trilogy in the United States alone. This includes more than 17.5 million copies of The Hunger Games, more than ten million copies of Catching Fire and more than nine million copies of Mockingjay.

The publisher shared the news as the movie version of the Suzanne Collins book made records at the box office. Collins herself praised the films, saying via Facebook, “I feel like the book and the film are individual yet complementary pieces that enhance one another.”

The film, which stars Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, and Lenny Kravitz, brought in $155 million in ticket sales opening weekend, which according to The Washington Post, makes it No. 3 on the list of best opening weekend ticket sales (behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Dark Knight). The film’s soundtrack has also topped the Billboard charts.

Erotica author E L James has sold the film rights to the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy to Universal Pictures. Focus Features will partner with the studio to market and distribut the the film.

Fifty Shades of Grey began as Twilight fan fiction but became an unexpected hit with readers around the country. Follow the links below to follow the book’s journey from fanfiction.net to a major film deal.

Only one question remains: how will they adapt the X-rated book? Focus Features CEO James Schamus had this statement in the release: “At its core, this is a romance of the most emotionally resonant, but delicate, order — and we look forward to working with our colleagues at Universal to transform E L James’ vision into a great film.”

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A new trailer has been released for the adaptation of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, a big screen adaptation of a mash-up novel by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Produced by the great Tim Burton, the film comes out in June–what do you think? Here is a concise plot summary: “Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, discovers vampires are planning to take over the United States. He makes it his mission to eliminate them.”

Way back in 2010, we interviewed Grahame-Smith about his Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter novel, exploring how the bestselling monster mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies had changed his life. Click here to listen to the interview.

Summit Entertainment has released the first teaser trailer for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. We’ve embedded the trailer above–what do you think?

The 15-second clip has drawn more than 116,800 “likes” on Facebook. The film comes out in November, and the full trailer will be available on the movie’s Facebook page on March 26th.

Stephenie Meyer‘s novel Breaking Dawn features an elaborate plot inspired by two William Shakespeare plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice.

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Promoting The Hunger Games adaptation, actors Jennifer Lawrence and  Josh Hutcherson (pictured) visited New York City’s Barnes & Noble Union Square.

Fans camped out 24-hours before the event, vying for special bracelets that allowed them to get autographs from the stars.

The Hunger Games movie has already sold more than one million pre-sale tickets. According to Deadline, the movie could bring in as much as $125 million at the box office during its opening weekend.

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Transformers director Michael Bay is producing an upcoming live-action adaptation of the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, but he angered fans when he noted changes in the Turtles’ mythology: “These turtles are from an alien race, and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely loveable.”

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the Turtles in a black and white comic in 1984 (original concept sketch pictured, via), telling the story of turtles mutated into action heroes by radioactive sewer sludge. Removing these mutant origins, Bay’s new take generated a wave of online criticism.

Bay responded in a forum post on his personal site: “Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world.”

Lionsgate has released another clip from The Hunger Games film adaptation. The clip (embedded above) features Caesar Flickerman (played by Stanley Tucci) and Peeta Mellark (played by Josh Hutcherson).  Most of the original dialogue from the book made it to this scene.

In an interview with MTV, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence noted: “During filming, I really liked everything what I was seeing. I liked everything that Gary was doing. Then I saw it, and it was all there. It’s always hard for me watching because I think I am a horrible troll and I’ll never work again. Overall, I think everybody else in the movie is fantastic, and I think the film itself is really good.”

The film has also spawned two video games, and author Suzanne Collins consulted on both projects. The Hunger Games Adventures will be available on Facebook; you can sign up to try out the beta version. Hunger Games: Girl on Fire will be available as an iOS (Apple tablet products) game app.

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