Books to movies

This week Publishers Weekly had 2 things on note. The first is a cutesy quiz on the history of the magazine. After getting over my initial response of utter confusion, I realized that I knew none of the answers to their questions and didn't actually care to turn the magazine upside-down to read them. Really, if Publishers Weekly wants to start acting like those other pop culture magazines, might I suggest they drop the cover price and get rid of any of the actual industry reporting they do? But I digress (into my second point). The main story of the week was a look at Fall and Winter movies based on books. While book-based movies generally suck (although not as much as video-game based movies), I've reached the point where I cheer for these movies because of the cross-over potential. I know that's bad from a cultural standpoint, but I just don't care to see or rent most mainstream movies. This year I've seen a total of 2 in the theaters- Star Wars and The 40 Year Old Virgin (yes Star Wars was the movie you couldn't remember seeing earlier this week). I've even gone as far as canceling Netflix. If I want trash I have cable TV and I've noticed no real loss of quality. (I will admit I do enjoy watching bootlegged copies of movies. Van Helsing is actually watchable when it has a laugh track. On second thought, it's still not.) Anyway, movies made from books mean 2 things. The writer is generally able to get some money from the option and from the sales of the property and bookstores might see an increase in sales for select titles. This is mostly good news for the industry (as long as it doesn't increase expected author advances or publisher adn bookstores pinning financial success on Hollywood.) Here are the 3 movies that I thought to be interesting to me (2 from the article and one from an e-mail on recent script sales).

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer I was actually surprised that they were getting this out already. I truly expected to see this movie hit theaters sometime in 2007. A bigger surprise is that Liev Schreiber is directing.
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things by JT Leroy. This has been part of the festival circuit for 2 years now and will see limited release in March 2006.
A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. Thought this was a strange pick-up. I can't wait to read the reviews.