Books into film and television

Rabbit hole

An adaptation of the stage play, first produced in 2006, that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007. The play is about the accidental killing of a small child and how the pain and grief affects the parents and other members of their family. Most reviews of the play were very enthusiastic and most commented that the possibilities of such a story coming out like a self help manual or a TV movie were completely avoided. It does provide great parts for actors and it may revive Nicole Kidman’s faltering career. Aaron Eckhart plays the husband and others in the cast include Dianne Wiest, Sandra Oh, Jon Tennery and Tammy Blanchard. It is directed by John Cameron Mitchell who made the vastly different Shortbus.
Read the book ~ About the film

Rabbit proof fence

Based on the book Follow the rabbit proof fence by Doris Pilkington

Radiance

From the 1993 play Radiance by Louis Nowra

The Rag nymph

From the novel The Rag nymph by Catherine Cookson

A rage in Harlem (1991)

From the 1965 novel A rage in Harlem by Chester Himes

The Railway children

From the novel The Railway children by E. Nesbit

Rain

From the 1994 novel Rain by Kirsty Gunn

Rain fall

Actress Kyoko Hasegawa is appearing with British actor Gary Oldman in the thriller “Rain Fall,” the first of Barry Eisler’s books to be filmed. Eisler’s six books (this one was first published in 2002)  revolve around John Rain, a Japanese-American freelance assassin and former CIA operative. Rain will be played by Japanese actor Kippei Shiina while Oldman plays the head of the CIA’s Tokyo office. The film is being predominantly shot in Japanese with only 15% of the dialogue in English.
Read the book ~ About the film

The Rainmaker

From the novel The Rainmaker by John Grisham

Raintree country

From the 1948 novel Raintree country by Ross Lockridge

Raise the Titanic

From the novel Raise the Titanic by Clive Cussler

Rambling Rose

From the novel Rambling Rose by Calder Willingham

Ramona and Beezus

An adaptation of the popular series by Beverly Cleary which began back in 1955. As the many readers of this perennial series know, Ramona Quimby lives on Klickitat Street. The stories of her adventures began in Beezus and Ramona, where Beezus, who is just turning ten, finds four-year-old Ramona an exasperating little sister. Ramona and Beezus are played by Selena Gomez and Joey King with Sandra Oh, John Corbett, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Duhamel and Bridget Moynahan supporting.
Read the book ~ About the film

Random hearts

From the novel Random hearts by Warren Adler

Ransom of Red Chief

From the short story Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry

Rape: a love story

An adaptation of a 2003 novella by Joyce Carol Oates. Much of the work of this incredibly prolific writer (and yes, she does actually write them all herself!) is on the dark side but this is grimmer than most which makes this one a risky proposition for a time when escapism rings the box office bells. It’s about a mother who is the victim of a brutal gang rape, witnessed by her young daughter, and how the assailants stalk her. Maria Bello and Abigail Breslin play mother and daughter with Samuel L. Jackson as a sympathetic policeman and Harold Becker directing.
Read the book

Rascal

From the 1963 novel Rascal by Sterling North

Rat pack - a conference of cool

There is no tie-in book but we have Rat pack confidential by Shawn Levy

A Rather English marriage

From the novel A Rather English marriage by Angela Lambert

The Raven in the foregate

From the novel The Raven in the foregate by Ellis Peters

The reader

A film version of the bestselling German novel, first published in English in 1997, has been on the cards for some time. It was translated into various languages and was chosen for Oprah’s Book Club. It is set in postwar Germany where a young man’s decades-long obsession with an older woman runs headlong into a war crimes trial, where he learns a terrible truth. The film was to star Nicole Kidman but she pulled out and was replaced by Kate Winslet. Stephen Daldry, director, and David Hare, writer, who worked together on The hours are doing the same on this one and a large cast includes Ralph Fiennes, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Linda Bassett and Karoline Herfurth.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Real women

From the novel Real women by Susan Oudot

Real women 2

From the novel All that I am by Susan Oudot

Real women have curves

From the play Real women have curves by Josefina Lopez

Rear window

From the short story Rear window by Cornell Woolrich. In No, but I saw the movie

Rebecca

From the novel Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Rebus: Dead souls

From the 1999 novel Dead souls by Ian Rankin

Rebus 2: The Hanging garden

From the 1998 novel The Hanging garden by Ian Rankin

Recalled to life

From the 1992 novel Recalled to life by Reginald Hill

Reckless

From the play Reckless by Craig Lucas, first produced 1988

The reckoning

An adaptation of a 1995 novel, Morality play, by Barry Unsworth set in the 14th century and about a disgraced priest who joins a travelling band of actors. Filmed in Britain and Spain, it features Willem Dafoe, Paul Bettany, Ewen Bremner, Brian Cox, Gina McKee and Vincent Cassel. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize at the time.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

The Rector’s wife

From the novel The Rector’s wife by Joanna Trollope

Red (2007)

From the 1995 novel Red by Jack Ketchum.

Red Dragon

From the 1981 novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

Red dust

Gillian Slovo’s 2000 novel is a courtroom drama set against the background of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The film version, due to be premiered at next year’s Cannes Film Festival, has been adapted by veteran television dramatist Troy Kennedy Martin. It stars Hilary Swank as a New York prosecutor who is brought back to South Africa to aid an anti-apartheid activist (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in his case. Interestingly the film generally regarded as the best so far on South Africa and apartheid, the 1988 film A world apart, is a screenplay — based on real experiences — by Shawn Slovo, Gillian’s sister.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Red lights (2004)

From the novel, first published in English in 1959 as The hitchhiker, by Georges Simenon

The Red pony

From the novel The Red pony by John Steinbeck

The Red Shoes

Based on the fairy tale The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen.

Redemption (2010)

Based on the short story in the 1996 collection Dead jazz guys and other stories by Phil Kawana.

Redwood curtain

From the play Redwood curtain by Lanford Wilson

Regeneration

From the novel Regeneration by Pat Barker

The Relic

From the novel The Relic by Douglas J. Preston

The Remains of the day

From the novel The Remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Remember

From the novel Remember by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Remembrance

From the novel Remembrance by Danielle Steel

Renaissance

Tie-in book by Andrew Graham-Dixon

Replacing Dad

From the 1993 novel Replacing Dad by Shelley Fraser Mickle

Report to the Commissioner

From the 1972 novel Report to the Commissioner by James Mills

Requiem for a dream

From the 1978 novel Requiem for a dream by Hubert Selby

Reservation Road

The 1998 novel, his second, by John Burnham Schwartz is a highly readable tale about a hit-and-run accident where a ten year old boy is killed. The novel is narrated by the father of the victim and the man who killed the boy and nothing is cut and dried in this mature and sad tale of how an act of inattention leads to a tragedy that changes the lives of a number of people. If the film version is well done it will be the kind of A-list number that gets the attention at awards time. Terry George, who made Hotel Rwanda, is directing and the two fathers are played by Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo with Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino and Elle Fanning, child star sister of the more famous Dakota Fanning.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Resurrection man

From the 1994 novel Resurrection man by Eoin McNamee

Restoration

From the 1989 novel Restoration by Rose Tremain

Return from the ashes

From the novel Return from the ashes by Hubert Monteilhet, translated 1963

Return of the musketeers

From the novel Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas

The Return of the native

From the novel The Return of the native by Thomas Hardy

Return to the blue lagoon

Based on the 1923 novel The Garden of God by H. De Vere Stacpoole

Reversible errors

Scott Turow’s 2002 novel is about a Chicago corporate lawyer who takes a case of a death row prisoner who may be innocent. The novel is a powerful picture of lives in crisis and it links into Turow’s interest in the death penalty, as covered in his book Ultimate punishment. It has been made into a television miniseries with William H. Macy as lawyer Arthur Raven, Felicity Huffman (Macy’s real life wife), Tom Selleck and Monica Potter.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Revolutionary road

Richard Yates (1926-1992) is one of those authors known as much for being a novelist’s novelist as anything else. He has had a small but growing reputation over the years and now most of his novels have come back into print. This novel, his first, came out in 1961 and was a finalist for the National Book Award that year. It’s about the sour side of the American Dream and a suburban couple living in Connecticut in the 1950s, ostensibly with the perfect life. British theatre and film director Sam Mendes has cast his wife Kate Winslet in the lead with Leonardo Di Caprio as the husband, Michael Shannon and Kathy Bates.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Rich in love

From the 1987 novel Rich in love by Josephine Humphreys

Richard III

From the play Richard III by William Shakespeare

Rick Stein’s Seafood Odyssey

Tie-in book by Rick Stein

Riding in cars with boys

From the 1990 book Riding in cars with boys by Beverly Donofrio

Riding the bullet

This story by Stephen King first came out as an e-book in 2000 and it was later included in King’s short story collection Everything’s eventual in 2002. It’s the story of a university student who is hitchhiking home to visit his mother in hospital. Being a Stephen King story his trip home is not uneventful and scriptwriter/director Mick Garris has opened out the original 41 page story, reset it back in the 1960s and added a few extra horrors for the hero en route to his mother. The cast includes Jonathan Jackson, David Arquette, Barbara Hershey and Cliff Robertson.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Riding the bus with my sister

Rachel Simons’s 2001 book is a touching and funny memoir. The author writes of her sense of coming to terms with life and career as well as her feelings towards her intellectually handicapped sister. She finds her sister’s ability to find companionship with the bus drivers and the passengers enables her to change her own life for the better. The film version is a Hallmark cable TV movie but may be released in theatres. It is directed by Anjelica Huston with Andie MacDowell as the author and Rosie O'Donnell as her sister.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Rififi

From the 1953 Du Rififi chez les hommes by Auguste Le Breton

The Ring

From the novel The Ring by Danielle Steel

Rio Conchos

From the 1958 novel Guns of Rio Conchos by Clair Huffaker

Rio Grande

From the short story Mission with no record by James Warner Bellah

Ripley’s game

From the 1974 novel Ripley’s game by Patricia Highsmith

Rising sun

From the novel Rising sun by Michael Crichton

River of Adventure

From the novel River of Adventure by Enid Blyton

A River runs through it

From the novel A River runs through it by Normal MacLean

The road

Cormac McCarthy has been doing well lately with the very successful film version of No country for old men and a low budget version of his early novel Outer dark on the way. The 2006 novel The road became the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner and a bestseller and this was all before Miss O. Winfrey waved her magic wand at the book and sent it even higher in the charts. Pretty good for a dystopian tale. It’s set in a post apocalyptic utterly ravaged and lawless future America where a father has to take his son to safety. Australian director John Hillcoat is behind this one and Kodi Smit-McPhee, the young Aussie actor from Romulus my father is the son. The father and mother are played by Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron with a large supporting cast that includes Guy Pearce and Robert Duvall.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

The road from Coorain (2002)

From the 1989 book The road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway

Road to Avonlea

Based on the novels The Chronicles of Avonlea and the story girl by L. M. Montgomery

Road to Denver

Based on the short story The Man from Denver by Bill Gulick

Road rage

From the novel Road rage by Ruth Rendell

The Road to Mecca

From the play The Road to Mecca by Athol Fugard. Abridged version in The Best plays of 1987/1988

The Road to perdition

Based on the graphic novel The Road to perdition by Max Allan Collins

The robber bride (TV-2007)

From the 1993 novel The Robber bride by Margaret Atwood.

Robbery under arms

From the novel Robbery under arms by Rolf Boldrewood

The Robe

From the novel The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas

Robin Cook’s Terminal

From the 1993 novel Robin Cook’s Terminal by Robin Cook

Robin Cook’s Virus

From the novel Outbreak by Robin Cook

The Rock Hudson Story

From the 1987 book My husband Rock Hudson by Phyllis Gates

Rocket to the moon

From the novel From the earth to the moon by Jules Verne

The Rocketeer

From the 1985 graphic novel The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens

The Rocky Horror picture show

From the musical play The Rocky Horror picture show by Richard O'Brien

Romeo and Juliet

From the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Romulus my father.

Raimond Gaita’s award winning 1998 biography tells the story of Romulus, his beautiful wife, Christina, and their struggle in the face of great adversity to bring up their son, Raimond. A touching story, Australian actor and director Richard Roxburgh has been working for some years to bring it to the screen. Playwright and poet Nick Drake has adapted the book and the cast is headed by Eric Bana as Romulus and German actress Franka Potente as his wife. Kodi Smith-McPhee plays Raimond and the supporting cast is led by New Zealand actor Marton Csokas.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Roommates

From the book Roommates by Max Apple

Rope

From the play Rope by Patrick Hamilton, first produced 1929

Rose Marie

From the musical play Rose Marie by Rudolf Friml

The Rotters’ Club

Jonathan Coe’s 2001 novel is about a group of teenagers in Birmingham in the 1970s and it offers nostalgia seekers a perfect opportunity to indulge in the flavour of the decade. Veteran comedy writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have adapted the book to a three-part BBC television series.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

Rough Magic

From the novel Miss Shumway waves a wand by James Hadley Chase

The Round Tower

From the 1968 novel The Round Tower by Catherine Cookson

Rowing through

From the 1985 book The Amateurs by David Halberstam

Ruby

Based on the play Love Field by Stephen Davis

The ruby in the smoke (2009 - TV)

An adaptation of the first novel, published 1985, of the Sally Lockhart quartet. Sally is a lively young Victorian girl who, armed with a pistol, a thorough grounding in the principles of military tactics and a working knowledge of Hindustani, embarks on a journey to discover the truth behind her father’s death, and unravel why his colleague dies of fear after she utters the three little words: The Seven Blessings. The character of Sally is a plum role for Billie Piper in this BBC television and Julie Walters has the scene stealing role of the villain. Others in the cast include Robert Glenister, Don Gilet, Hayley Atwell and David Harewood.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

The Ruby ring

From the 1994 novel The Secret of the ruby ring by Yvonne MacGrory

Rudy’s wars

From the 2001 book Rudy by Wayne Barrett

The ruins

Scott Smith’s 2006 novel is a violent action thriller with a strong horror component about a bunch of tourists in Mexico who run into trouble with some sinister locals and even more sinister vegetation. Former fashion photographer Carter Smith directs a film that enthusiastically promises a lot of blood and gore and stars Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Jonathan Tucker and Laura Ramsey.
Read the Book ~ About the Film

The Rules of attraction

From the 1987 novel The Rules of attraction by Bret Easton Ellis

Rumble Fish

From the novel Rumble Fish by S. E. Hinton

The Run of the country

From the novel The Run of the country by Shane Connaughton

The runaway jury

From the 1996 novel The runaway jury by John Grisham

The Running man

From the novel The Running man by Richard Bachman

Running with scissors

The 2002 memoir by Augusten Burroughs was a bestseller in the current wave of autobiographies of terrible childhoods. It is about being brought up with a drunken father and a wildly unstable mother. Mother gives up her son to adoption by her therapist and that lady has a pretty colourful family herself so his childhood is a long way from conventional. Difficult women means juicy parts for name actresses and Annette Bening plays the mother of Joseph Cross, playing Augusten. Gwyneth Paltrow is the therapist, Alec Baldwin is Augusten’s father and the large cast also includes Joseph Fiennes, Brian Cox, Jill Clayburgh, Evan Rachel Wood and Vanessa Redgrave.
Read the Book ~ About the Film