The fall movie season: when the remakes and sequels of summertime step aside for highfalutin literary adaptations. With some thirteen page-to-screen turns between now and the end of the year, 2011 will pack theaters will bookworms and wannabe literary aficionados the world over. Ahead, a comprehensive list of the forthcoming adaptations, from I Don't Know How She Does It to War Horse.
[Editor's note: Not listed are the adaptations of Coriolanus, The Adventures of Tintin and A Dangerous Method, because they aren't straight book adaptations. Also unlisted is The Three Musketeers, because the Paul W.S. Anderson version doesn't seem to really adhere to the source book by Alexandre Dumas.]
I Don't Know How She Does It (Sept. 16)
Screenwriter: Aline Brosh McKenna (novel by Allison Pearson)
Movie Synopsis: Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker) tries to juggle her career as a hedge-fund manager with her family life. Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Kelsey Grammer, Olivia Munn, Seth Meyers and Christina Hendricks co-star.
Critical Response to the Book: Pearson's book drew comparisons to Bridget Jones's Diary, which is great, except for the fact that the big-screen version has shifted locales from London to New York. Per Publisher's Weekly, "It is delightfully fast moving and breathlessly readable, with dozens of laugh-aloud moments and many tenderly touching ones-and, for once in a book of this kind, there are some admirable men as well as plenty of bounders."
Fun Fact: Brosh McKenna also wrote the adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada. Unfortunately she doesn't have Meryl Streep reading her dialogue for this one.
Straw Dogs (Sept. 16)
Screenwriter: Rod Lurie (based on The Siege of Trencher's Farm by Gordon Williams)
Movie Synopsis: David Sumner (James Mardsen) moves back to his wife Amy's (Kate Bosworth) hometown in the South, only to be tormented by a group of locals (headed by Alexander Skarsgard) to increasingly violent results.
Critical Response to the Book: It's hard to find old reviews of Williams's thriller -- which was previously adapted for the screen by Sam Peckinpah and David Zelag Goodman, of course -- but The Siege of Trencher's Farm is back in print and with a snazzy Straw Dogs inspired cover.
Fun Fact: In Trencher's Farm, the Sumners -- there the Magruders -- have a daughter. Also, spoiler alert: none of the perpetrators die in Farm, and there is no rape.
Drive (Sept. 16)
Screenwriter: Hossein Amini (book by James Sallis)
Movie Synopsis: A Hollywood stunt man (Ryan Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver, gets caught up in a robbery gone wrong and must protect his next door neighbor (Carey Mulligan) and her son from hardened criminals.
Critical Response to the Book: Reviews for Drive praised its "convoluted neo-noir" narrative and "cinematic" quality. Sallis has been called "one of the best mystery writers that most readers have never heard of." Until now, that is.
Fun Fact: Sallis has been compared to Elmore Leonard, and Amini previously wrote a big-screen adaptation of Killshot. Not that anyone actually saw it.
Killer Elite
Screenwriter: Gary McKendry and Matt Sherring (based on the novel The Feather Men by Ranulph Fiennes)
Movie synopsis: A special forces operative (Jason Statham) tries to rescue his mentor (Robert De Niro) from the clutches of a mustachioed mad man (Clive Owen).
Critical Response to the Book: The usual accoutrement of adjectives reserved for airport thrillers: "Highly suspenseful! Marvelously entertaining!"
Fun Fact: If you laughed when you saw Killer Elite was "based on a true story," consider that The Feather Men was reportedly based on Ranulph Fiennes time as an alleged covert member of the SAS (Special Air Service) who uncovered a 15-year conspiracy by an arab sheik to kill the five members of a unit that murdered the sheik's sons during a mission years earlier. (Four died under somewhat normal circumstances; Fiennes claims he was the fifth.) Fiennes's book was discounted as fiction by both the SAS and the families of the dead soliders.
Moneyball (Sept. 23)
Screenwriters: Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillain (book by Michael Lewis)
Film Synopsis: Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) tries to change the game of baseball and win with a comically low budget.
Critical Response to the Book: In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin said Lewis was at the top of his game; the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Brian O'Neill wrote, "This book is as much for people who take joy in new ideas as in games. If you're one of them, do not run but walk -- remember, always take the walk -- to the bookstore and get Moneyball." Groan! But, cool.
Fun Fact: Lewis's other sports-cum-non-sports book to turn into a film was The Blind Side. No pressure, Moneyball!
Screenwriter: Bruce Robinson (novel by Hunter S. Thompson)
Film Synopsis: A young journalist (Johnny Depp) heads to Puerto Rico on an assignment and gets caught up in booze, drugs, women and a corrupt businessman (Aaron Eckhart).
Critical Response to the Book: Written in 1960 but not released until 1998, The Rum Diary was somewhat dismissed by critics. The New York Times Book Review wrote that it had "none of the maniacal wit and deranged exuberance that roared through the Fear and Loathing books," while EW noted that it wasn't a must-read for drive-by Thompson fans. Even a positive review on Salon.com had qualifications: "The Rum Diary has little of the manic tension or wordplay that pervades much of Thompson's reporting. Instead, it's a languid, lovingly executed book that reveals its emotional depths slowly, at the same pace that Kemp himself discovers the things he fears and loathes about San Juan. Unfortunately, by the time the book reaches its climax at a massive street festival in St. Thomas, there's nothing particularly compelling about Thompson's narrative of the frazzled and alcoholic events that ensue."
Fun Fact: Bruce Robinson's last film was Jennifer 8 in 1992.
My Week With Marilyn (Nov. 4)
Screenwriter: Adrian Hodges (based on My Week with Marilyn and The Prince, The Showgirl and Me by Colin Clark)
Film Synopsis: Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) chronicles life on the set of The Prince and The Showgirl, the 1956 film which starred Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) and Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams).
Critical Response to the Book: Critics hailed Clark's titular memoir as filled with "immediacy and charm" and "touching," while The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was called hilarious.
Fun Fact: The Prince, the Showgirl and Me was turned into a 2004 television documentary in England; Clark passed away in 2002.
Screenwriter: Melissa Rosenberg (novel by Stephenie Meyer)
Film Synopsis: Edward and Bella get married, have crazy butter-colored sex and wind up expecting parents. Jacob does stuff too.
Critical Response to the Book: Fans and critics alike were mix with the end result of Breaking Dawn, some calling it "sexist and tacky" with others saying the final Twilight book was "wild and satisfying."
Fun Fact: Breaking Dawn sold six million copies when it was released in 2008, which still placed it behind both Twilight and New Moon in book sales for that year.
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Dec. 2)
Screenwriters: Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear (novel by Lionel Shriver)
Film Synopsis: After Kevin (Ezra Miller) goes on a school-shooting spree, his mother Eva tries to deal with the grief and guilt by writing to her estranged husband (John C. Reilly).
Critical Response to the Book: Per Publishers Weekly, Shriver's book is the "most triumphantly accomplished by far" in the sub-genre of post-Columbine fiction. That's great, but you probably don't want to read this one as a bedtime story.
Fun Fact: The last film Ramsay wrote and directed was Morvern Callar in 2002.
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy (Dec. 9)
Screenwriters: Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan (novel by John Le Carre)
Film Synopsis: During the Cold War, a semi-retired intelligence officer (Gary Oldman) is forced to uncover a Soviet mole within the Circus.
Critical Response to the Book: Off the charts. As TIME magazine wrote, Le Carre is "the premier spy novelist of his time. Perhaps of all time." Also, your dad is probably a huge fan of this one too.
Sad Fact: Screenwriter Bridget O'Connor died in 2010 from complications due to cancer.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Dec. 23)
Screenwriter: Steve Zaillain (novel by Steig Larsson)
Film Synopsis: A journalist (Daniel Craig) and computer hacker (Rooney Mara) team-up to find a woman who has been missing for 40 years.
Critical Response to the Book: Mixed. The New York Times criticized its boring midsection and silly denouement, though the Washington Post called it remarkable.
Disturbing Fact: The original Swedish title of the book was Men Who Hate Women.
Screenwriter: Aline Brosh McKenna and Cameron Crowe (memoir by Benjamin Mee)
Film Synopsis: Following the death of his wife, a man (Matt Damon) moves his family to the Southern California countryside and starts to rebuild an old zoo. Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Elle Fanning and Patrick Fugit co-star.
Critical Response to the Book: Publishers Weekly found Mee's memoir meandering and unfulfilling, while the Christian Science Monitor wrote that Zoo gets bogged down in too many details.
Fun Fact: And there's that news van again. Aline Brosh McKenna -- who also wrote I Don't Know How She Does It -- is a co-screenwriter on Zoo. This is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your love for Devil Wears Prada.
War Horse (Dec. 28)
Screenwriters: Lee Hall and Richard Curtis (novel by Michael Morpurgo)
Film Synopsis: About a young boy (Jeremy Irvine) who enlists in World War I to save his horse.
Critical Response to the Book: Generally positive, especially for younger readers. Also: "Horse lovers will be on the edge of their seats from the beginning to the end," wrote Children's Literature. Woo!
Fun Fact: Morpurgo's novel has already been produced as a Tony Award-winning play.