Hollywood is gobbling up movie rights to almost every best-selling Young Adult novel to hit book stands in the past few years. Can you blame them? Every studio is looking for the new Harry Potter, Twilight and now Hunger Games. Frankly, looking at what’s hot in YA is a great place to start.
As a long time reader of YA lit and huge film fan, it’s sort crazy to see both of my passions merge into this big thing. I feel like almost every other day I hear about a studio buying up the rights to a book I just read. It’s really cool, especially when I feel like it’s the right studio and team for the story. It’s also great for a site like this one because we cover both books and movies. Unlike movie sites, we’ve actually read the book that is being optioned, adapted, etc. Unlike book sites, we have an understanding of how the movie industry works and can analyze what certain developments can mean for a film or even a television show.
For a more general look at how YA adaptations work, see guest posts at School Library Journal’s Connect the Pop blog: Five Things Readers and Fans Don’t Know About YA Movies But Should Part 1 & Part 2
However, if you’re looking for something more specific, below I have listed over 50 popular YA books that have been optioned by various studios and producers. There are so many books I’m missing. Adapting novels into movies is not a new thing in Hollywood; so of course, there’s plenty to report on. I chose the ones that I’ve either read or heard about. If I’m missing a book, leave a comment! I’ll be happy to add it to the list. Ideally, I would like to update this list as time goes on.
Everything is arranged by latest developments and updates. No word on any movement for a project in a couple years isn’t promising. But that doesn’t mean you should lose hope. Read on to see the status of your favorite YA film adaptations!
Update: Since I wrote this list, some have become a done deal, meaning there’s a 99.9% chance it will hit the big screen. Congrats to the adaptations at the BOTTOM of this post for making it!
Now onto the “possible” YA adaptations….
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January 2013
Delirium by Lauren Oliver – Fox 2000 (oh hey, them again!) made a big deal with Lauren Oliver in early 2011. Not only did they buy the rights for Delirium, but they also signed a “first look” deal for all future books written by Oliver and all books published under Oliver’s company, Paper Lantern Lit. Since then, there hasn’t been any real updates on the status of Delirium until a few months ago when Oliver said in an interview that a first draft of the script was finished. Here’s what Oliver had to say about the script: ““I felt the script was remarkably faithful to the book, which is fascinating, because it managed to condense 400-ish pages into a slender, moving, and breakneck-paced script of about, I don’t know, 120 pages.” Click here to read more of her thoughts on the script. So who has written the script? I have NO idea. Remarkably, there is no mention of who was hired to adapt the screenplay anywhere.
Delirium UPDATE (1/23/13): FOX ordered a pilot for Delirium; click here to read more.
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake – This news comes right out of Sundance, where Twilight author-now-producer Stephenie Meyer is premiering Austenland. Meyer and a producing partner from company, Fickle Fish, are said to have optioned this book and are developing it into a film. We don’t know if anyone set to adapt or direct this film, but it’s an interesting and smart move on Meyer’s part. Anna Dressed in Blood is good and one of the more creepy YA picks. If done right, I honestly think it could make a great horror film.
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Pure UPDATE (12/19/2013): Pure now has a writer and director attached to the project. James Ponsoldt (Smashed) will be adapting and directing Pure. I really loved Ponsoldt’s last film, Smashed, and his latest film, The Spectacular Now, is getting a ton a great buzz from Sundance. I’m very curious to see Ponsoldt transition from indie-to-franchise and think he’ll bring something refreshing and unique to this story.
December 2012
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VA UPDATE (12/18/12): The VA Movie Facebook page updated with some promising news! It looks like VA has a script! Dan Waters (brother of Mean Girls director Mark Waters) has adapted a screenplay. Waters’ work includes the cult classic Heathers and Batman Returns. I think his Heathers credit makes him a sound pick to adapt a novel like VA, which has a sassy lead character. Producer Don Murphy has this to say about the news: “Dan has written a brilliant screenplay for VAMPIRE ACADEMY. Smart and funny, clever and really a great read – it is going to make a terrific film.” If it’s as good as Don says it is, teaming up with a studio this upcoming year should make things much easier than before.
VA UPDATE (12/19/2012): Vampire Academy now has a director! Mark Waters (brother of screenwriter Dan Waters) is set to direct the film. Waters is most famous for directing movies like Mean Girls, Freaky Friday, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. I think his experience with directing teen movies, especially Mean Girls, shows that he’s a solid choice for the job. In addition to this news, producer Don Murphy says, ” Casting starts immediately.” Is VA finally hitting its speed? The next year will be sure to tell us. (Another question: why aren’t they releasing this information exclusively to a big media outlet? Everything comes directly from their fan VA page. Not saying I don’t think the information is credible, it is. Just that it would get a lot more buzz and attention if websites like Variety, Deadline or even Entertainment Weekly were to announce it.)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor – Universal acquired the worldwide rights to this story. That’s really about it. No one has been hired to do anything with it yet, or at least it hasn’t been announced. They’re probably waiting to see how successful the series becomes; the second book, Days of Blood and Starlight, comes out in November 2012. Personally, I love this story. (When I met the author last month, I couldn’t stop gushing; it was borderline embarrassing.) After Universal’s box office success with Snow White and the Huntsman, this kind of epic fantasy is likely something they are seriously considering. Honestly, they should just drop the SWATH sequel and make Daughter of Smoke and Bone happen instead, right?
Daughter UPDATE (12/18/12): Wow. I practically predicted this. Joe Roth and Palak Patel (the producers of Snow White and the Huntsman) are tapped to produce Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Clearly, this news shows that this project is a priority by getting these two very successful producers to back it. It’s fantastic news! I feel they heard my plea to forget the SWATH sequel and go ahead with Smoke and Bone. With such promising news, I can’t wait to see what else develops. It’s fair to expect some more updates and announcements regarding this adaptation in 2013, since Roth (who also produced Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and the upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful) is a producer who makes projects happen. (Literally, trying not to freak out in excitement right now.)
November 2012
Angelfall by Susan Ee – Sam Raimi and his producing partner Robert Tapert bought the rights of Angelfall and the rest of the Penryn & the End of Days series with Good Universe. I never heard of Good Universe, but I have heard of Raimi, who directed the previous Spider-Man trilogy and the upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful. (I also met him this past summer, and he’s really cool!) Right now, we only know that these group of producers like this story and are interested. It’s way too early to say if anything will come of it. I read Angelfall last month and loved it. It’s a nice, yet dreary spin on angels and dystopia. How are angels doing in movies these days? Eh.. It could be better, but I think Angelfall offers a refreshing take on angels that may intrigue audiences.
October 2012
Unraveling by Elizabeth Morris – This book has been sitting on my Kindle for months, and I still haven’t had a chance to read it. I met Norris earlier this year, and learning about her book, I was very interested by its premise. It’s kind of like a YA 24 with a female lead. Therefore, I was not surprised to learn that Unraveling was picked up by MTV to be a scripted drama. If it does make it, it will join MTV’s already successful scripted shows, Teen Wolf and Awkward. I personally don’t watch MTV often, but I would consider tuning in if MTV does get this thriller on the air. (More points to MTV if they don’t take out the thrilling elements and turn it into a melodrama.) I’m not sure the chances of making it, but from what I heard, it’s closer to “will” than “might.”
Black City by Elizabeth Richards – Screen Gems closed a deal for the feature film rights for Black City. The book has gotten a lot of early praise from bloggers to media professionals. I’ve yet to read it because as of this moment, the first book of series isn’t even out yet. It releases in November 2012. Screen Gems is showing quite a lot of enthusiasm for this project; the press release states that they’re actively looking for a screenwriter. It’s still too early to see if anything will come of it. We don’t know how the book will sell, but with all the hype and now a possible film adaptation, it probably will. It sounds like another Romeo and Juliet, set in a dark twisted world. We get a lot of that in YA, so I wonder if there’s anything about it that sets it apart from the rest.
Soul Seekers series by Alyson Noel – Arnold Rifkin of Cheyenne Enterprises has optioned screen rights on Soul Seekers. The first book, Fated, is already out and the sequel is due in November 2012. I have yet to read any of Noel’s books, but I’ve seen them everywhere. This new series sounds very interesting; I dig the integration of Native American spirituality into the plot. All of Noel’s other books have been optioned by various studios and producers. Nothing has happened with those projects yet, so it’s tough to know what to expect of this.
September 2012
Embrace by Jessica Shirvington – Literally, every other industry article on YA adaptations calls them “a potential successor to Twilight.” That’s really all the insight they can give? Anyway, The CW has teamed with Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin Television to adapt the book as a drama series eyed for next season. Now… as you’ll see later on in this list, do not get your hopes up. Once it comes to setting up their new Fall season, many pilots end up on the chopping block. Apparently, The CW really wanted the TV rights to Embrace, so that’s a good sign. Bill Laurin and Glenn Davis will write Embrace. From what I found on IMDb, they wrote for a few Lifetime channel shows. Judge that however you’d like.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvator – Man, Stiefvator is good at optioning the rights for all her books. Her latest book (which as I write this isn’t even out yet), The Raven Boys, was just picked up by New Line with Akiva Goldsman to produce. Goldsman is a solid name to have backing up the project. He’s produced many movies, including the successful Paranormal Activity films. He’s also a consulting producer on Fringe, which frankly gives him the most cred to make this project come to life. Also, I can’t say that New Line has entered the YA world before this, which may make The Raven Boys a priority to them. As with all movie rights news, it’s too early to tell.
Icons by Margaret Stohl – Clearly, the new thing is to acquire books before they’re released. You’ll be seeing that a lot from now on (or until YA proves it doesn’t bank in most cases). Stohl co-wrote Beautiful Creatures,, a popular YA novel which film just wrapped and is now in post-production. Alcon Entertainment decided to also buy the rights to Stohl’s upcoming alien YA book with Erwin Stoff to produce. There’s no plans to turn it into a film yet. In this case, it depends on the success of Icons, whenever it comes out, and Beautiful Creatures‘ box office results.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – DreamWorks Studios has acquired film rights for Shadow and Bone. But what makes this extra special? David Heyman (the dude behind all the Harry Potter films) is set to produce the film. Only because Heyman is backing it doesn’t mean it’s happening anytime soon. He got a lot of press when acquiring The Night Circus a couple years ago, and there’s been no movement on that project since.
Matched by Allie Condie – Of all the YA novels, I’m sort of surprised by the movement on this project. I can’t say that I really care for the Matched series, but Disney and producer Adam Shankman (dude did Hairspray, Rock of Ages, The Last Song) definitely do! The latest is that David Slade is set to direct Matched. Slade is best known for directing the third Twilight film, Eclipse. It’s also considered the best Twilight film, but I personally believe that is because of the source material, not Slade’s directing. (If we’re handing out Twilight directing awards, that goes to Bill Condon.) Anyway, Shankman tweeted a few months ago that he was reading a draft for Matched, written by Kieran and Michelle Mulroney. They wrote Sherlock Holmes 2. Again, judge all this as you’d like.
The Planet Thieves by Dan Krokos – Warner Bros. acquired the rights to The Planet Thieves. The book won’t be released until May 2013. Obviously, the new marketing ploy at publishing houses is to sell those film rights quick and easy to get some early buzz going!
August 2012
July 2012
Legend by Marie Lu – Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen (Twilight producers) will produce Legend with CBS Films (aka the studio that brought us Beastly). Andrew Barrer and Gabe Ferrari will write the script; 50/50 director Jonathan Levine is attached to direct. Levine just finished directing YA crossover Warm Bodies, a real good zombie book by Isaac Marion. At San Diego Comic-Con, Lu said that the script was written and already passed along to CBS Films. Godfrey, who is literally having a hay day with YA, also confirmed that the movie is moving along “swimmingly.”
The Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare– The film rights are optioned by the same studio that is making The Mortal Instruments. Clare talked about what it would take to make The Infernal Devices. She sums it up nicely: “it’s optioned for film by the same people who optioned The Mortal Instruments. Again, ideally, they’d love to make them into movies. Steampunk/historical movies are very expensive to make, so they’d need a big studio commitment, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t get one. They are, however, concentrating on making TMI right now, so I wouldn’t expect news about the ID film project for a while.” Basically, if The Mortal Instruments is a box-office success, it’s happening. Modest box-office result? Forget about it.
June 2012
Gone by Michael Grant – The latest news on Gone comes from the author in this video. He explains how he’s trying to get Gone to be adapted either for film or TV. Apparently, talks with Sony and Lionsgate didn’t go well. It’s hard to get a studio to promise to make an adaptation. (Such a fickle industry!) Also, it sadly is an indicator that the content in Gone isn’t what producers want right now. Anyway, Grant does a great job explaining the movie status, so I’ll let him do it for me!
May 2012
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak – The Book Thief has become one of those staple YA books that people make you feel bad for not reading yet. (Okay, OKAY, I will read it. Someday.) Fox 2000 nabbed the rights sometime last year and early this year hired Brian Percival (Downton Abbey) to direct. The script has been written by Michael Petroni (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). The latest news to come from it was a casting call announcement in May. Since then, no word on casting news or any movement on the project. Fox 2000 has a lot of YA adaptations on its hands and has yet to go through with one of them. Honestly, from what I hear (and being a Downton fan), this is one they should follow through with. Only time will tell though.
The 39 Clues series by Various Authors– This one caught Steven Spielberg’s eye back in 2008, when he optioned The 39 Clues series. Spielberg hired Jeff Nathanson to adapt the screenplay. He’s written movies like Rush Hour and Catch Me If You Can. (Sidenote: Nathanson is currently working on a Minni Vannilli biopic. WTF?) Fast forward four years, and we finally see movement on this project again. This past May, Shawn Levy signed on to direct The 39 Clues for DreamWorks. Levy has directed Night at the Museum and most recently, Real Steel. He is clearly the right guy to handle a family-friendly action-adventure like 39 Clues. I hope he does it. His schedule seems very full, as he’s attached to so many projects. Let’s hope this one doesn’t slip through his fingers.
April 2012
Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness – Charlie Kaufman (Yes, that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind & Being John Malkovich Charlie Kaufman) is adapting the screenplay for the first book of the trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go. Just thought I’d say that from the get-go. I love Kaufman’s work, and the fact that he’s interested in YA dystopia is awesome. I haven’t read Chaos Walking, but it sounds very good. Lionsgate owns the film rights, and after the success of The Hunger Games, I’m sure they’re very curious to see how Chaos Walking does. I think they’re going to wait to see how popular the books get and how great of a script Kaufman turns in.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver – Fox 2000 (oh hey, them again!) made a big deal with Lauren Oliver in early 2011. Not only did they buy the rights for Delirium, but they also signed a “first look” deal for all future books written by Oliver and all books published under Oliver’s company, Paper Lantern Lit. Since then, there hasn’t been any real updates on the status of Delirium until a few months ago when Oliver said in an interview that a first draft of the script was finished. Here’s what Oliver had to say about the script: ““I felt the script was remarkably faithful to the book, which is fascinating, because it managed to condense 400-ish pages into a slender, moving, and breakneck-paced script of about, I don’t know, 120 pages.” Click here to read more of her thoughts on the script. So who has written the script? I have NO idea. Remarkably, there is no mention of who was hired to adapt the screenplay anywhere.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – This IS a movie! Yay! It’s currently in post-production and was originally set to release in March 2013. However, Summit pushed it back to November 2013 to capitalize off the inevitable success of Hunger Games sequel: Catching Fire. There’s many longtime fans anticipating this movie, myself included. It has a pretty great cast. Asa Butterfield (Hugo) plays Ender, alongside Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin and more. Gavin Hood wrote and directed film. His recent work includes X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Oii…) and the TV show Breakout Kings.
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa – Around the time the first book in the Blood of Eden series was released, Palomar Pictures optioned the rights to the series. No doubt Palomar is looking to make a deal with a bigger studio to help finance this project. I really like The Immortal Rules. It’s a mix of both vampires and dystopia, and that may be its biggest selling point.
March 2012
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver – Another one of Oliver’s books. Undoubtedly these rights belong to our dear friends at Fox 2000. This happened in 2010 when Maria Maggenti (Monte Carlo) was hired to adapt the screenplay. However, this past March, Gina Prince-Bythewood was in negotiations to direct, and at that time was doing a rewrite of Maggenti’s script. Since then, we haven’t heard anything new. Prince-Blythewood is a fine choice for a story like Before I Fall. She’s directed movies like The Secret Life of Bees and Love & Basketball.
February 2012
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – In 2011, David Heyman (Harry Potter producer) nabbed the rights to The Night Circus with Summit Entertainment. A year later, they hired Moira Buffini to pen the script. Buffini wrote the latest Jane Eyre adaptation and the upcoming vampire film, Byzantium. The combination of those two credits makes her a perfect fit for the epic and whimsical Night Circus, which was one of the best books I read last year. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any news in months. With Heyman picking up projects left and right, I fear that The Night Circus might be shelved. It wouldn’t be a cheap project. It’s a period drama, and those usually need a higher budget. But it’s truly a magical story, and I would absolutely love to see it on the big screen. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater – Unique Features, along with Warner Bros. optioned the rights to the Shiver trilogy. They brought on board Nick Pustay (Ramona and Beezus) to write the script. In 2010 and 2011, we learned that the script has been written, and an Oscar nominated director was attached. However, we have yet to find out which Oscar nominated director that is or if he/she is even still attached to this project. The latest comes from a tweet from Nick Pustay, where he confirms that the script is finished and the team of producers were now pursuing a financial deal. If they did make a deal, we would have heard about it already.
January 2012
December 2011
Wither by Lauren DeStefano – Prospect Park and Violet House productions bought the rights to the first book of the Chemical Gardens trilogy. The producers are Jeff Kwatinetz and Rob Carliner of Prospect Park banner and, interestingly, Aly and AJ Michalka of Violet House. (The real news here is that Aly and AJ have a production company; say whaaaaaat?) Anyway, just like most adaptations so far, no serious plans have been announced about Wither yet. I did read the first book and thought that it could’ve been a lot more interesting than it actually was. It’s kind of like if you mixed Big Love with Downton Abbey in a sci-fi dystopia with star-crossed lovers as the leads. These two production companies are small ones, so they’ll probably need to do some sort of financial deal with a major studio.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr – Wicked Lovely has had some ups-and-downs. Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Picture Show partnered with Universal to bring the book to the big screen. You will see this happen a lot: smaller production companies working with major studios to help finance a project. So, this was the case with Wicked Lovely. They got a screenwriter, Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands), and a director Mary Harron (American Psycho). It was looking pretty good… until Universal dropped it in August 2011, along with many other titles (A movie based on a Ouija board was one of them. Thank goodness.). The latest update comes from the author’s site which says that the people at Wild West are still giving it a go. I’m sure they spent the last year trying to team with another major studio, obviously to no avail. Will it happen? At this point, it doesn’t look likely. It’s hard to do a movie primarily about faeries. Everyone loves Tinkerbell, but there’s a reason all of the movies centered around her go directly to video. Selling faeries to an audience outside of young girls isn’t easy. Actually, even getting people to read about faeries is hard. I don’t even like stories about fae. I read one book, and it just didn’t work for me.
October 2011
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand – Carol Mendelsohn (CSI) bought a slew of rights to set up at different networks. One of them was Unearthly for The CW. Nothing happened though. It never got the greenlight to be filmed as a pilot. As the author states on her website, “we’re sort of back to square one, film-wise.” I love the Unearthly series, which is surprising because stories about angels aren’t usually my forte. However, Unearthly surprised me. To be honest, a show on The CW is the right call for it. The way the story is spread out over time makes it very TV-friendly. Therefore, I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t work out.
August 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
Shatter Me by Tarereh Mafi – I reported about this in early 2012, after I had read Shatter Me. 20th Century Fox, or the Fox-based Chernin Entertainment, have acquired the rights to this novel many months before it was published. As expected, no other developments has happened since then. I liked – but didn’t love – Shatter Me. The series has potential. It’s definitely different than other YA when it comes to the style of the first person narrative, which I find hard to imagine seeing on screen. (Not to say, it’s impossible to adapt well.)
Through To You by Emily Hainsworth – The team behind Like Crazy, the long-distance romantic drama that was a hit at Sundance 2011, was in negotiations to take on the Paramount-acquired Through To You. Also teamed with production company, Montecito Picture Co. (Up in the Air), their plan was to have Drake Doremus direct, Jonathan Schwartz to also produce, and Ben York Jones to adapt the screenplay. No word if the negotiations came or fell through. Hopefully, they worked out because I think the Like Crazy team would be a perfect fit for this adaptation. It deals with romance and alternate universes; from Like Crazy, you know these guys will add an interesting dose of realism to this sci-fi world.
February 2011
January 2011
Firelight by Sophie Jordan – Mandalay Pictures bought the film rights for Firelight back in September 2010. A few months later, Nick Pustay (He sounds familiar…) was hired to adapt the screenplay. It’s almost two years later, and nothing new has happened. I sort of find that surprising with the success of Game of Thrones. Lots of people love dragons, and a story about two teens that are descendants of dragons sounds awesome.
December 2010
If I Stay by Gayle Foreman – At one time, If I Stay was a pretty hot property, and it looked like it was going to be a movie. But that was before we knew all better. Summit Entertainment nabbed the rights to If I Stay in 2009. Catherine Hardwicke (You know where this is going now…) was attached to direct the film, Shauna Cross (She sounds familiar too, huh?) was hired to adapt the screenplay. Dakota Fanning was also attached to star in the film. However, both Hardwicke and Fanning dropped the project. Cross did write a script, which Foreman says is amazing. The most recent news comes from a blog post, where Foreman goes over what has happened with the movie so far. She still retains hope that it will become a movie one day. I think it’s fair to still have hope for this project, and I hope Summit decides to make something of it eventually.
October 2010
Tempest by Julie Cross – Another New York City-set novel, Tempest is another great read. It’s a time-travel story that is engagingly written. I suppose Summit agreed since they bought the rights in Fall 2010. Sonny Mallhi (The Strangers) will produce with Brendan Deneen (Outlander) and Roy Lee (The Strangers) executive producing. AS USUAL, no further plans have been made yet. With all the mystery, intrigue, and back-and-forth with the time travel, I actually think that Tempest can work very well as a TV show. Keep that in mind, Summit.
June 2010
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – Green announced in one of his Vlogbrothers videos that small production company, East of Doheny, optioned the rights to Katherines in December 2007. Green was also asked to adapt the screenplay. I’ve never heard of East of Doheny, and their website is now defunct. The most recent news comes from Green’s website, where he explains what happened with the movie: “An Abundance of Katherines was optioned by a small production company that in the end couldn’t get a movie together; we’re now working with a different production company with the hopes of setting it up somewhere, but that’s a long way off.” Meaning = it’s not priority right now. I can see why movie studios aren’t exactly embracing Katherines. While I think it’s a great book, the characters and/or story won’t appeal to a general audience. However, I still hope to see it on screen one day. If The Fault in Our Stars does happen and is successful, no doubt producers will be taking a better look at Green’s other novels.
April 2010
December 2009
Fallen by Lauren Kate – If you google what’s up with the movie status for Fallen, it can be quite confusing. The only real news is that Disney optioned the first book of the series. The Australian publisher says a movie is coming out this year or next. That is not true at all. The rights are just sitting on the shelf at Disney, waiting for angels to be the next big thing. I wasn’t crazy about Fallen, so I’m not surprised that nothing has happened with it yet. I feel like it would work better as a TV show.
July 2009
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray – The last on the list (as of this moment)! A Great and Terrible Beauty has had many ups-and-downs. This is unfortunate because it’s one of my favorite books ever. In 2006, Icon acquired the rights for AGATB, and Charles Sturridge (father of Tom Sturridge a.k.a. RPattz’s bestie and Sienna Miller’s baby daddy) was the one to set that up at Icon. He wanted to write and direct the adaptation. Sturridge starting working on a script, but then that Writer’s Strike happened, which stalled many projects, AGATB included. Time passed; Sturridge started to work on a different project. Finally, Icon relinquished the rights, and we’re right back to square one. It’s not fair to think that AGATB won’t ever happen, but right now, I say it’s unlikely. Obviously, Bray is focused on writing her new series and adapting The Diviners. Plus, as you know, period movies are more costly. So a fantasy, period pic would be extra costly. Here’s to hoping that down the road, A Great and Terrible Beauty will have its day in Hollywood.
Congrats to these adaptations! They’re about to hit the big screen (if they haven’t already!):
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl -This WILL be a movie! Beautiful Creatures is now in post-production. Richard LaGravenese wrote and directed the film. I loved his script for Water for Elephants, despite how it was executed during filmmaking. I have positive feelings about this movie, especially because the cast includes Emma Thompson, Viola Davis and Jeremy Irons. Alcon and Warner Bros. will have it ready to hit theaters February 13, 2013. Right on time for Valentine’s Day. Oh, and the teaser just premiered! I both love and hate this teaser. As someone who has read the book, I love it. It looks to be a great re-imagining of the story. It definitely has a cool mixture of southern gothic and whimsy going on. But for anyone who has not read the books, they would have NO clue what this movie is about! It’s just an incoherent mess of clips put together. I know these books are bestsellers, but WB needs to sell this to more than just the book fans. UPDATE 11/21: The international trailer is now out! Unlike the first trailer, it makes better sense, but it does give a lot of the story away. Watch it below:
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare – This will definitely be a movie. It’s currently filming in Toronto, Canada. After a few ups-and-downs last year, the movie finally gained momentum this year with a new director (Harald Zwart) and a bunch of new cast members to join Lily Collins, who plays the lead character, Clary Fray. Click here to see the cast on set and in character. Expect the movie to arrive in theaters August 23, 2013. Here’s to hoping that there’s no hiccups during production or post-production that may delay a release! UPDATE 11/21: The first trailer for City of Bones debuted last week and it totally impressed fans! Watch it below:
WHEW! You have NO idea how long this took me to write. But I’d say it’s worth it. As time goes on, I’ll update the list with the latest developments and new adaptations. If you’ve been keeping count… Fox (counting both 20th Century and Fox 2000) has acquired the most YA adaptations with 11. Warner Bros. is next with 6. Summit has 5; Paramount 4; Disney 3, Universal and DreamWorks each have 2. The number of projects Catherine Hardwicke has dropped? 3.
Sound off your thoughts on some of these adaptations or books that I may have missed!
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