In this weeks Movie Monday- Three new movies head to the big screen- Fae, by Colet and Jasmine Abedi, The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and Endgame by James Frey. Vampire Academy and The Seventh Son get new release dates while Allegiant’s release date is confirmed. The Silver Chair will be the next film in the Narnia franchise. Plus, DVD release dates for The Book Thief and Enders Game and more. For a full list of 60+ YA books heading to Hollywood, check out our post here!
Fae Trilogy: British director Ridley Scott has optioned the film rights to Fae, a YA trilogy written by sisters Colet and Jasmine Abedi (AKA- C.J Abedi). The first book, which was released July 2013, has apparently had some brag-worthy digital success as well as loads of social media support. The story follows Caroline Ellis, who, on her sixteenth birthday, sets into motion a series of events that have been fated for centuries; a battle between the Dark and Light Fae. Scott and Giannina Facio will produce the film, which is meant to be a hit among fans of the Twilight Saga. The 2nd book is complete and will be released this May.
Endgame: The newest YA book to be added to the list of upcoming adaptations is James Frey’s latest teen novel Endgame, which ended up landing him a 2 million dollar book-film deal with Fox and sister company Harper Collins. Frey is perhaps best known for his partially fabricated memoir A Million Little Pieces, as well as his other YA book that was adapted into the film I Am Number Four (part of the Lorien Legacies Series). In this monstrous deal (some might even say over-eager), Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton will write a dystopian, Hunger Games-esque, trilogy, first of which is to be published on October 7, 2014. Foreign publishers are already lined up as well for a simultaneous release around the world in over 30 languages. As for the movie deal, the first will be based on “Endgame: The Calling”, the first book in the series, with Twilight Saga producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill producing and Frey penning the script. Google has also mysteriously been involved in this deal- their Niantic Labs will publish six Endgame novels for the Google Play store, with the game launching on Android and iOS devices late next year. This is a massive deal for James Frey and a little shocking I might add- if memory serves, I am Number Four wasn’t a box office smash (hence the absent sequel). And I don’t think I’m the only one confused about this deal- social media has been lit up with negative responses to the knock-off similarities between Frey’s series and Hunger Games. Check out the story synopsis here.
The Red Queen: And here we have yet another YA series to get scooped up before the book is even released. The Red Queen, by 22 year-old debut author Victoria Aveyard, is the first book in an upcoming trilogy that has been sold in 16 languages, but won’t be released until sometime in 2015. Universal has so much faith in the series that they went ahead and optioned the film rights and have Breaking Bad writer Gennifer Hutchinson on board to pen the script. The series was pitched as Graceling meets The Selection, as well as Divergent meets Game of Thrones. It takes place in a fantasy world where all citizens are divided by the color of blood. The story follows a 17 year old girl who must pretend to be a long lost princess, in order to save her family and perhaps save the world. I am intrigued.
The Seventh Son: Sad news for fans of Joseph Delaney’s bestselling MG novels (The Last Apprentice Series)! For the 3rd time now, the movie release date has been changed! The movie, starring Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Ben Barnes was originally slated for February 2013, then pushed back to October 2013, then again to January of this year and now they’ve announced that it won’t be released until February, 2015! That’s a 2 year span of date changes, which is so strange seeing as they’ve already finished filming the movie. The decision has something to do with the movie being handed over from Warner Bros. to Universal and then the Universal- Legendary merger. If you want to go ahead and get excited, check out the official theatrical trailer here (I’m not going to lie, it looks AWESOME!!)!
The Chronicles of Narnia: Speculation about the Narnia franchise has been all over the place for some time now- some people thought it was finished (the film rights have bounced from studio to studio) and those who had not lost faith were certain that the next film was going to be The Magician’s Nephew (because they had basically said as much). Have no fear- official word is in and they are moving ahead with the fourth film in the franchise, which will be The Silver Chair! Screenplay writer David Magee, who has an Academy Award nomination for his work on Life of Pie, will pen the script.
Divergent- The countdown begins; Divergent, perhaps the most anticipated YA movie of the year, is just around the corner! That might be why all three titles recently took the top three spots on USA Today’s bestseller list, or maybe it’s just because they’re that good. If you haven’t read them yet, you should! We won’t bore you with more photos and movie stills (they’re on every fan and social media site out there these days- but if somehow you’ve managed to miss all the hype, just click any of the links here). Rather, we just wanted to let you know that the latest news: Allegiant (the 3rd and final book in the series) has gotten it’s official release date; March 18th, 2016. This confirms Lionsgate’s confidence in the franchise and has many people wondering why they aren’t going with the trend of breaking the final book into two films. Some believe it’s just a prudent move on Lionsgate’s part, opting to wait and see just how successful Divergent is before committing to a final, fourth installment. Yet there are plenty of others out there that are predicting the movie’s failure- and last month’s announcement that director Neil Burger won’t be returning for the second film brings it’s own share of doubts. But while Burger won’t be directing Insurgent, due to production schedule conflicts, he will serve as an executive producer for the big-budget sequel. The budget for Divergent still hasn’t been confirmed, but best guesses put it in the 80 million dollar range.
Vampire Academy- The release date for Vampire Academy has been moved up! Originally slated for Valentine’s Day weekend, the movie will now hit theaters February 7th and two new promo clips have been released! Universal also revealed that the official soundtrack, which includes music from artists like Katy Perry, Goldfrapp, Sky Ferreira and more, will hit stores February 11th (lets see if they don’t move that date up as well). Tons of hype behind this YA bestselling adaption have flooded the internet, including these two new movie stills and this one, with tons of fang. If you haven’t seen the theatrical trailer yet, check it out here. You might be surprised! There’s loads of people out there that think this is the movie that will make vampires cool again. What do you think?
Maze Runner- The first movie stills are coming in! And we’re getting so excited! Check out these surprises and behind the scene thoughts from author James Dashner.
The Book Thief- Ohhh, sadly most of us missed this one due to its limited theatrical release [and have been drooling ever since, over the rock star reviews of Sophie Nélisse’s performance]. So good news for us! As soon as March gets here, we can all watch it! The official DVD release date is March 11th, and if you’re like me and haven’t seen this yet, I’d say it’s probably worth renting! Sure, it’s not meant to be as good as the book (are they ever?!) but I’m excited to see this young actress shine!
If I Stay- Chloe Grace Moretz, at only 16 years old, will earn 7 figures for her role in If I Stay! Whoa, jealous much?! A whopping half a million dollars! The film should hit theaters this August- Here’s to seeing if she’ll stand up to that price tag… (I personally LOVED her in Kick Ass).
Ender’s Game- The movie, which hit theaters last November, only did mediocre in the box office, earning a mere $112 million from a budget of $110 million. Of course this hasn’t stopped the buzz about whether there will be a sequel (which Legendary hasn’t greenlit yet), or potentially a TV series. The latest word is that, more than likely, if there ever was a follow up, it would be an original story and not based on the 2nd book in Orson Scott Card’s series. Why you ask? Director Gavin Hood suggests it’s because Speaker of the Dead takes place 30 years after the first book and Ender would be a grown man. It might make more sense to add some steps in between. The DVD is scheduled to be released February 11th!
Also, check out these trailers to some of the most anticipated films of this year!
Gosh that poster of Seventh Son looks like as if he is in his thirties while he should be barely a teenager…. *sigh* But very excited about Narnia!!
Haha, you know how I feel about that- and then think, he will be 2 years older when they actually release the movie…. so *if* there’s a 2nd movie he really will be in his 30′s. Why?!?
Targeting a large variety if audience by having an older main character I guess…? Such a shame for all the fans of the book!