TVRead the book - then see the film

Calling all film buffs! Do you want to read a book before you see the film rather than the other way around? If so, we've gathered together most of the movies coming up that are based on books so that you can get in first.

Each title is linked to our catalogue and to the internet movie database so that you can see what's happening with the upcoming movie.

As cool as I am
Pete Fromm’s 2003 YA novel follows a teenage girl in a Montana town as she goes from 14 to 16 while her parents, married young and wanting to recapture their youth, make coming of age more difficult than it should be. Sarah Bolger plays Lucy, the central character with James Marsden and Claire Danes as her parents, Jon Tenney, Peter Fonda, Jeremy Sisto and an appearance by Alannis Morisette as herself.
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Beastly
The 2007 Young Adult novel by Alex Flinn is a modern spin on the Beauty and the Beast tale, locating it in Manhattan and centering on an arrogant school student who is transformed into a monster and can only regain his human form by falling in love. The movie, targeted straight at that goldmine audience of preteen and early teen girls, features Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen, Neil Patrick Harris and Peter Krause.
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Camilla Dickinson
Madeleine L’Engle’s children’s novel from 1951 is coming to the screen in a film by first time director Camilla Moore. The title character, a young girl, is played by Adelaide Clemens and the story concerns her reactions to the divorce of her parents (Samantha Mathis and Cary Elwes) and how she strikes up a friendship with the rebellious elder brother of her best friend (Gregg Sulkin).
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coverThe Great Ghost Rescue
This is an adaptation of a 1975 children’s novel by Eva Ibbotson about Humphrey the Horrible, an amiable ghost with a far from amiable family. The spectral family then travel across England looking for a new home when their castle is up for redevelopment as a holiday resort. They end up meeting a boy who is unafraid of ghosts and helps them start a ghost sanctuary. French director Yann Samuell has a cast that includes Kevin McKidd, Jason Isaacs, Steven Mackintosh, Emma Fielding and Georgia Groome.
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coverThe hobbit
What can you say about Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the Tolkien classic except that every rabidly loyal Tolkien lover will be scrutinising it for any deviations from the book. Already there is Frodo, who doesn’t actually appear in the novel, coming into this as a sort of bridge into the prequel. Elijah Wood plays Frodo and Orlando Bloom plays Legolas who is also brought into this. All the usuals including Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are signed up with Saoirse Ronan, Hugo Weaving,  James Nesbitt, Christopher Lee, Aidan Turner, Bret McKenzie, Jed Brophy, Lee Pace, Dean O’Gorman and Mark Hadlow on board with more names yet to be announced. The film will be released in two parts.
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Huge
Sasha Paley’s 2007 YA novel is about a group of teenagers at a summer fat camp to which they’ve been shipped off to lose weight. Despite this subject having been turned into so many voyeuristic reality TV shows, the subject is still fresh enough to have been turned into a T.V. series that has had good reviews. The main role is taken by Nikki Blomsky (from Hairspray) with her bunkmate played by Hayley Hasselhoff, daughter of…
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coverHunger games
Less a movie than a potential franchise, this will be a valiant attempt to take on the Twilight market of teenage girls who are known to be lucrative repeat viewers. The Suzanne Collins novel which came out in 2008 has been a huge seller and introduced sixteen year old Katniss who lives in a post apocalypse world and gets involved in the games of the title. Katniss is played by Jennifer Lawrence who made her name in Winter’s bone and the supporting cast includes Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks and Liam Hemsworth (one of the many graduates of the Aussie soap Home and away). Gary Ross, who made Pleasantville and Sea biscuit directs.
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The Lorax
The Dr Seuss classic, first published in 1971, was a clever environmental picture book in which the villainous character of the Once-Ler chops down trees despite the warnings of The Lorax who speaks for the trees and knows not to fool with Mother Nature. The cartoon version has Danny De Vito voicing the title character, Ed Helms doing the Once-ler and the voices of, among others, Betty White, Zac Efron and Taylor Swift.
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CoverThe Moth diaries
This 2002 YA debut novel predates the present slavering enthusiasm for vampires as it’s about a girl at an exclusive school (there don’t seem to be any others in books and movies) who begins to suspect her roommate is a vampire. Model/occasional actress Lily Cole is the vampire and Sarah Bolger the other girl with Scott Speedman co-starring.
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Paddington BearPaddington Bear
A film based on Michael Bond's books about a Peruvian Bear living with a family in London, will combine live action and computer-generated imagery. It will be produced by David Heyman, who has been involved in all five of the Harry Potter films for Warner Bros. Christchurch City Libraries have a number of Paddington Bear books and audio books and related items including a book by Stephen Fry, Rescuing the Spectacled Bear (A Peruvian Diary).
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Someday this pain will be useful to you
Peter Cameron’s 2007 YA novel is about a New York teenager who has to cope with his dysfunctional family during the last summer before he heads off to university. Italian director Roberto Faenza’s English speaking debut has an interesting cast led by Toby Regbo as the main character, Lucy Liu, Ellen Burstyn, Stephen Lang, Marcia Gay Harden and Peter Gallagher.
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coverTiger eyes
Judy Blume’s 1981 YA novel is about a teenage girl whose father is killed in a hold-up. The family go to stay with relatives in New Mexico where the girl meets a mysterious boy named Wolf who is able to help her work through her grief. The novel was adapted by Blume herself with her son Lawrence. The latter directs and the lead couple are played by Willa Holland and Tatanka Means.
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Treasure Island
Yet another in the endless number of versions of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. This one is for television and has been made on location in Ireland and Puerto Rico. Young Jim Hawkins is played by Toby Regbo with Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver. Rupert Penry-Jones plays Squire Trelawney, Donald Sutherland is Captain Flint and Ben Gunn, the former crewman who’d been marooned on the island, is played by Elijah Wood and Philip Glenister is playing Captain Smollet. And Shirley Henderson is Meg Hawkins.
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coverWalter the farting dog
Walter, the dog with flatulence, has been immortalised in the bestselling children’s series, seven novels from 2001 to 2007 plus one in Latin, by William Kotzwinkle. It might seem like a match in heaven to have the Farrelly Brothers, who made bad taste fashionable in all those comedies from There’s something about Mary, behind the film version. To make all this rectal gas more acceptable, the squeaky clean Jonas Brothers are playing musicians whose parents are asked to care for the dog by an aunt just before she passes away.
Read the book ~ About the film