Books into film and television

Jack the bear

From the 1974 novel Jack the bear by Dan McCall

The Jackal

A sort of remake, disowned by the author, of The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Jackie Brown

From the novel Rum punch by Elmore Leonard

Jacqueline Bouvier Onassis

From the 2000 book Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life by Donald Spoto

Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot

From the 2000 book Jackie, Ethel, Joan: Women of Camelot by J. Randy Taraborrelli

Jake and the kid

From the 1974 novel Jake and the kid by W. O. Mitchell

James and the giant peach

From the novel James and the giant peach by Roald Dahl

Jamie’s kitchen

Tie-in book by Jamie Oliver, published 2002

The Jane Austen book club

Karen Joy Fowler’s bestselling 2004 novel is about six Californians who join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and romance happens. Robin Swicord, who previously made two other literary adaptations, Little women and Memoirs of a geisha, directs and the cast is headed by Maria Bello, Ellen Burstyn, Jimmy Smits and Emily Blunt.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Jane Eyre

From the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre

Not another adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s enduring classic. It was generally agreed that the last television adaptation with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens was one of the best so it only takes a few years and BBC Films are back on the job. This time it’s American director Cary Fukunaga and a cast that includes Australian Mia Wasikowska as Jane, German-Irish Michael Fassbender as Rochester, Jamie Bell as St. John Rivers, Imogen Poots as Blanche Ingram, Judi Dench as Mrs Fairfax and Sally Hawkins as Mrs Reed.
Read the book ~ About the film

 

Jarhead

Anthony Swofford’s bestselling 2003 book is a memoir of his time as a front-line infantry marine during the Gulf War. It’s a tough sometimes blackly funny account of just what it was like and the film version may be next year’s Black hawk down.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Jaws

From the 1974 novel Jaws by Peter Benchley

Jazz heroes

Tie-in book by John Fordham

The Jazz singer

Started life as a play in 1925 by Samson Raphaelson, became a film in the 1920s. Short story version is in the collection No, but I saw the movie

Jeffrey

From the 1993 play Jeffrey by Paul Rudnick

Jekyll and Hyde

From the novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Jeremy Clarkson’s Motorworld

Tie-in book

Jesus Christ Superstar

From the musical play Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice

Jesus’ son

From the short story collection Jesus’ son by Denis Johnson

Jewel

From the novel Jewel by Bret Lott

Jewels

From the novel Jewels by Danielle Steel

Johnny’s Girl

Based on the 1993 book Johnny’s Girl by Kim Rich

Johnny Mnemonic

From the short story Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson. In the volume Cyber-killers

Jolene

Dan Ireland, who directed the surprisingly successful adaptation of Elizabeth Taylor’s Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, has chosen an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s short story Jolene: a life as his next film. The story appears in Doctorow’s 2004 collection, Sweetland stories, and it follows a decade in the life of Jolene, a young woman who goes through a series of disastrous relationships and dead end jobs in her search for a better life. Jolene is played by Newcomer Jessica Chastain and the supporting cast includes Donald Sutherland as an ex-mobster in Las Vegas, Dermot Mulroney, Denise Richards, Theresa Russell, Michael Vartan and English actor Rupert Friend.
Read the book ~ About the film

Journey

From the novel Journey by Patricia MacLachlan

Journey to the centre of the earth

From the novel Journey to the centre of the earth by Jules Verne

Joy in the morning

From the 1963 novel Joy in the morning by Betty Smith

The Joy Luck Club

From the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Jubilee

From the novel Jubilee by Nepi Solomon

Jude

From the novel Jude the obscure by Thomas Hardy

The Judge

From the 1995 novel The Judge by Steve Martini

Judgement in stone

From the novel Judgement in stone by Ruth Rendell

Julian Po

From the 1977 novel, never translated, Smrt gospodina golaze by Branimir Scepanovic

Jumanji

From the novel Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg

The Jump

From the novel The Jump by Martina Cole

Jumper

Jamie Bell, Tom Sturridge and Teresa Palmer star in Jumper, Doug Liman’s film from Steven Gould’s 2002 YA novel about a boy from a broken home who discovers he can teleport. Sturridge takes the lead, with Bell co-starring as a fellow “jumper” who shows him the ropes and helps him on his mission to find the man he thinks killed his mother. Samuel L. Jackson costars and Teresa Palmer is the romantic interest for the hero. With a hefty budget, plenty of visual effects on board and locations in Tokyo, Rome, Toronto and New York, this is the first part of a planned trilogy.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

The Jungle Book

From the novel The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Jurassic Park

From the novel Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Juror

From the novel The Juror by George Dawes Green

Just cause

From the novel Just cause by John Katzenbach

Just like a woman

From the 1985 book Geraldine by Monica Jay

Just Like Heaven (If only it were true)

Marc Levy is a French born writer who was involved in medicine, computer graphics and interior design and construction. In his spare time he worked on a story he developed for his son and he was encouraged by a friend to send the manuscript to a publisher. In the kind of coup most writers dream of it was picked up, released with big publicity and then sold for a huge sum to Steven Spielberg’s company, Dreamworks. The novel came out in 2000 so it has been a while finally making it to the screen. It’s a romantic weepie with a high concept: a man falls for a woman whose ghost hides in his closet but whose body lies in a coma in a hospital across town. When the actual woman recovers she recalls nothing and so they must fall in love again in the real world! The film is a vehicle for Reese Witherspoon with Mark Ruffalo as the hapless man.
Read the Book ~ About the Film