This week for Movie Monday, we have SO many WONDERFUL updates for you! Eight new adaptations, that’s right EIGHT, include: Eleanor & Park, The Here and Now, a Harry Potter Spinoff, Significance, The Outliers, Olivia Kidney, Paper Towns and UnRemembered. There’s also been some casting news for The 5th Wave and Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (whoop whoop)! And the most exciting part- new trailers! Yeahhh!!! We’ve got If I Stay, The Giver Featurette and The Maze Runner! And of course some other fun stuff in between =) Enjoy!

Eleanor & Park- This off-beat indie read has stolen spots on almost every major list for the best YA books of 2013. So it should come as no surprise that a movie deal would shortly follow. According to Entertainment Weekly, DreamWorks Studios will be giving Rainbow Rowell’s bestselling novel its cinematic treatment, citing that they were drawn to the teenage love story for the same reason as its legions of fans. “It’s not the typical story where the ugly duckling is in love with the hot guy,” says Holly Bario, DreamWorks president of production. “They’re both trying to find their way. They’re both outcasts.”

The Here and Now- Hot on the heels of the release of her latest YA novel, Ann Brashares shared via Twitter that the movie rights to The Here and Now have been scooped up by Alcon Entertainment, Alloy Entertainment, and Kira Davis’ 8:38 Productions, according to Bustle. For this project she’ll be rejoining the same producers behind the movie adaptations of her hit series, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. However, The Here and Now is nothing like Brashares sweet, coming of age tale that we saw before- this fast-paced action and sci-fi plot seems ripe for the big screen. And it’s no surprise that with the success of female-driven, YA action movies, such as Catching Fire and Divergent, producers are jumping on Brashares’s novel.

Harry Potter Spinoff- Harry Potter fans can rejoice as news that their favorite wizarding world will be back after J.K Rowling revealed that her 2001 book, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, will form part of a new epic trilogy. Fantastic Beasts was referenced in the Harry Potter Series several times, but it was Comic Relief that made the book a reality. As a gift to the BBC charity, J.K Rowling wrote the book based on magical creatures and a separate book on Quidditch called Quidditch Through The Ages, the combined sales raised over £17 million for charity. And of course the cameo rumors are flying high! Even though Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have been quoted saying they would not reprise their old roles again but that doesn’t rule out the potential for them to do cameos! Either way, the Harry Potter spin-off should definitely be a box office hit and bring fans to theaters. J.K Rowling will pen the script for what Warner Bros. CEO, Kevin Tsujihara, describes as 3 “megamovies”.

The 5th Wave- The recent 5th Wave movie casting news has been buzzing all over the web lately, with Sony Studios announcement that Chloë Grace Moretz will take the lead. The talented young starlet, who is also starring in this year’s adaptation of If I Stay, will play Cassie Sullivan in the adaptation of Rick Yancey’s hit sci-fi thriller The 5th Wave. The screenplay for the film will be written by Susannah Grant, who got an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Erin Brockovich, so it seems like the screenplay is in good hands. The film will be directed by J. Blakeson who is best known for his film The Disappearance of Alice Creed, which received a Certified Fresh rating of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes, so this film has some huge talent behind it. Chloë Grace Moretz has given many amazing performances as seen in Oscar-winning film Hugo, which won the Saturn Award (2011) for Best Performance by a Younger Actor, and a kick-ass performance in Kick-Ass.

If I Stay- Speaking of Chloe Moretz- she let us know via Instagram that they would be releasing the much anticipated trailer for If I Stay courtesy of MTV. And here we have it- fair warning, you may wanna grab some tissues!

Significance- According to Red Carpet Endings, author Shelly Crane took to her blog recently to update fans on the status of Significance, a pending TV show based off her books. Actors currently cast are Jeremy Sumpter as Caleb and Michael Welch (Marcus in Twilight). The book was originally optioned as a movie and then, after some thought, the production company decided TV made more sense. However, they are still in the very early stages with this project, so we’ll just have to wait and see. If you haven’t read the book yet (it’s a magical/ superpowers/ teen-romance tale), you should check it out because right now it’s free on Kindle!

The Outliers- Yet another YA series joins the list of “yet-to-be-published” (written?) books getting film treatment! Lionsgate is sticking to what they do best and are preparing to push The Outliers, Kimberly McCreight’s upcoming 2015 series starter, as the next big thing. According to The Wrap Reese Witherspoon is developing the project, which is about a girl named Wylie who has always had great instincts but dismissed them as nothing more until her best friend went missing. She finds Cassie in a remote spot in the woods with a group called the Outliers, who claim to be able to harness “intuition” and turn it into a powerful psychological weapon called EQ Transference. Bewitched by the utopia they seem to have created, and thrilled to be surrounded by people like her, Wylie joins the Outliers. But within days, she finds herself running for her life. Wylie doesn’t know it, but she has the potential to become the most powerful Reader of all. There are many who would go to great lengths to destroy her, and she can’t trust anyone – least of all, the Outliers.

Olivia Kidney- According to Broadway World Moonbot Studios has announced that it will acquire film rights to Olivia Kidney, the award-winning young adult trilogy written by Ellen Potter. Moonbot plans to develop Olivia’s Alice in Wonderland-like adventures as a live action film with significant animation sequences. “At Moonbot, we’re grabbing for magic and Olivia Kidney has captivated us,” said William Joyce, Moonbot co-founder and author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. “Ellen Potter has crafted a unique and enchanting fantasy that we can’t wait to bring to life as a film”.

Paper Towns- According to Deadline, after completing its adaptation of the John Green novel The Fault In Our Stars, Fox 2000 has made a deal for the 2008 Green novel Paper Towns, and it is working on bringing back together not only the producers and the screenwriters for another go but also one of the stars. Paper Towns will be built around actor-singer Nat Wolff, who co-stars in The Fault In Our Stars and stars in the upcoming Palo Alto. Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber are going to adapt, and Temple Hill’s Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen are producing. The scribes will be exec producers along with Green. Fox will release the Josh Boone-directed The Fault In Our Stars on June 6, with Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort starring with Wolff.

The Fault in Our Stars- Speaking of TFIOS, the retail store Hot Topic is carrying an exclusive line for the upcoming film. You can pick yours up at a Hot Topic near you, or take advantage of their 25% discount ONLINE.

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children- Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, announced via his official tumblr that an open casting call has begun for the character of Jacob, the male protagonist of the novel. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will be directed by Tim Burton and is scheduled to begin filming in London, this August.

UnRemembered- According to The Hollywood Reporter, Unremembered, the first book in a YA trilogy by Jessica Brody, has been acquired by Reliance Entertainment and Kintop Pictures. The planned trilogy follows a teen who finds herself floating in the ocean, following a plane crash, with no memory of her past. Deepak Nayar and Tabrez Noorani of Tamasha Talkies, who have experience producing YA adaptions such as the Vampire Academy and the Graceling trilogy, and Soumya Sundaresh of Citrusmuse are attached to produce. Check out this exclusive interview with the author by Red Carpet Endings!

The Giver Trailer- Don’t know if you’ve had a chance to check out the trailer for The Giver yet, but it looks pretty epic! Here’s the newest release from Jeff Bridges, a black and white featurette that made loyal fans of the book very happy! (I’ll attach the theatrical trailer beneath, just in case you missed it at the Divergent release).

The Maze Runner Trailer- And in case you missed this one- it looks so so so good! I’m reading this NEXT!

 

Movie Monday- We’ve got some exciting adaptation news and updates for you this week! Two new books are making their way to the big screen; “Red Rising”, by Pierce Brown and “Noggin”, by John Corey Whaley. Lionsgate announced directors to helm their next YA project, “Nerve”, by Jeanne Ryan, while “Pride, Prejudice and Zombies” nears production. Be sure and check out the latest (and final) Divergent trailer below, which aired last week on Jimmy Kimmel!! It’s pretty amazing!

Vampire Academy- As most of you know, Vampire Academy hit the theaters last weekend, with dismal box office results. Stay tuned for our take on the film, along with some yummy pictures, on Wednesday! But if you’re debating on whether or not to see it before then, we say go! Fans of the book will enjoy it and the box office isn’t really a good reflection on the movie! It’s no Hunger Games but much better than TMI and Beautiful Creatures!

 

Nerve- Lionsgate has hired Catfish duo Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman to helm the film adaptation of Jeanne Ryan’s young-adult novel “Nerve”. The book, which was published in 2012, is about a high school student named Vee, who gets involved in an intense and provocative online game of truth or dare, where watchers get to vote and comment. The story quickly escalates and becomes dangerous as her online popularity rises, and she ends up finding herself in a life or death situation. Jessica Sharzer, a writer and exec producer on American Horror Story, has written a screenplay.

Red Rising- After a huge 7 figure bidding war for the movie rights to series debut Red Rising, Universal Studios prevailed. The first book in The Red Rising Trilogy hit shelves late January, but it seems that the studio is moving full steam ahead with the project- an obvious attempt to get a piece of the Dystopian pie. The story, by newbie author Pierce Brown, is a futuristic-dystopian piece, set in a desolate world on Mars where people must survive a rigorous class system that thrives on oppression and secrecy. Earth is uninhabitable and Darrow, the main character, is a Helldiver- one of a thousand men and women who have lived for generations in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars mining a precious resource in hopes of terraforming the planet. Then Darrow learns that the whole thing is all a lie- Mars is habitable and has been inhabited for generations by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. The Golds regard Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, AKA “Reds”, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought. With the help of a mysterious group of rebels, Darrow disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. Overseeing production is Joe Roth, Palak Patel and Renee Wolfe who have already brought World War Z director, Marc Forster, on board to helm the film. Author Pierce Brown will adapt the script.

Noggin- Summit Entertainment has landed the movie rights for upcoming YA novel Noggin, by John Corey Whaley, which will hit shelves this April. According to Deadline, the story is about 16 year old Travis Coates, who agrees to be cryogenically frozen, Ted Williams style, for as long as it takes for medical science to be able to cure the disease that is killing him. He wakes up just five years later and finds his head grafted onto the body of someone else. He’s still 16, but discovers life has moved on without him. Seeing that his friends have grown up and his life love is engaged to someone else, he tries to find a way to build a new life, even if new scars are inevitable. Jamie Linden, known for scripting We Are Marshall, adapting the Nicholas Sparks novel Dear John, and made his directing debut with Ten Years, starring Channing Tatum, will both write the script and direct this project! Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen’s Temple Hill Entertainment will produce.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies- To be honest, I thought this Seth Grahame-Smith mash up was a dead project (especially after the disaster that was Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter). This adaptation has been in development limbo- first option five years ago and then passed around from one semi-interested person to the next. Then last May, when the David O. Russell-penned script (American Hustle) landed with director Burr Steers (Charlie St. Cloud), with actress Lily Collins on board to star- but given the pass, we weren’t holding our breath. Seems like we were needlessly doubtful because the project is in fact now moving full steam ahead and apparently gearing up to start production! Darko Entertainment, Natalie Portman’s Handsomecharlie Films, and producer Allison Shearmur are already on board with the project, which was originally set up at Lionsgate. The story is a retelling of Jane Austen‘s classic. It’s set in an alternate universe wherein a zombie epidemic has taken over. The heroine is Elizabeth Bennet, an independent young woman finding love and fighting the undead in the English countryside. The news, from Slashfilm, that the cast is falling into place and that they are close to starting production, is pretty vague, but at least more of a promise than we’ve had up until this point!

Divergent- The world premier of the new and final trailer was revealed last week on Jimmy Kimmel! FINALLY!! This trailer should clear things up for those who haven’t read the book! I’ve heard lots of complaints from people who haven’t read Divergent, groaning “what this movie all about? And why should I care”? I’ve even been with friends watching the trailer in theaters whose eyes just glaze over. I sorta got it, if I hadn’t read the books, I’m not sure if I’d get what the movie was supposed to be about from the trailers I’ve seen so far— but no more! Now everyone else can get excited about this movie with us!! I think this trailer is fab and I can’t wait wait wait for March 21st!! (Click refresh if the videos don’t appear at first).

But First they ziplined in-

And they rest of that interview for your enjoyment-

Insurgent- With all of the excitement of the “Divergent” premier, just around the corner, movie makers are gearing up for the next installment of what they’re hoping will be the next big franchise! Lionsgate announced production on Insurgent will begin this May. They also announced that oscar winning screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman is coming on board to rewrite/work on the script, initially written by Brian Duffield. They have yet to name the director for the film, after announcing in December that Neil Burger had scheduling conflicts and would be moving to the role of producer. “Insurgent” is scheduled to come out on March 20, 2015, and “Allegiant” on March 18, 2016. Following the successes of Summit’s five “Twilight” films and Lionsgate’s first two “Hunger Games” pics, the now joint studios seem to have nailed a strategy to lead in the young-adult genre.

The Giver- Check out this article by the Christian Science Monitor, where they discuss how the movie will be different from the book!

The Maze Runner- Check out these new movie stills! And these as well! Are you getting excited!?

Movie Monday- In this weeks Movie Monday we’ve got the official theatrical trailer for The Fault in Our Stars! We’ve also got the music video of the -currently only released- first song for the Divergent soundtrack, as well as a clip of Ellie Goulding talking about her role in the movie and music. We’ve also got news about when the Catching Fire DVD will hit shelves and some news about the Daughter of Smoke and Bone adaptation. As always, for a full list of 60+ YA books heading to Hollywood, check out our post here!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone- Laini Taylor’s hit series is making some headway towards the big screen. Most recently naming director Michael Gracey to helm the film- Here’s a little summary: National Book Award finalist (2009), author Laini Taylor hit a home run with her debut book- which found its way, a mere 3 months after its release, to both Amazon’s Top 10 list of Editor Picks and Publishers Weekly Best Books for 2011. This trilogy is full of excitement, magic and all-things-supernatural! It’s about an art student in Prague, with electric blue hair, who hangs out with half-human, half-animal creatures and ends up finding herself at the center of an otherworldly, supernatural war. Movie-makers just couldn’t wait to get their hands on this one and Universal Pictures wound up landing the worldwide rights. They have Joe Roth and Palak Patel (Snow White and the Huntsman) producing the film and Stuart Beattie (G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra) to pen the adaptation. In December, 2013, Michael Gracey, a former animator turned commercials director, closed a deal to direct the film. This is great news! After a studio names a director, things usually start moving pretty quick in a forward motion!

The Fault in Our Stars- Arriving in theaters on June 6, “The Fault in Our Stars”, based on John Green’s bestselling novel, stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as Hazel Lancaster and Augustus Waters. The two fall in love after meeting at a support group for teens with cancer. This is going to be a tearjerker y’all!

Here’s a shorter Teaser Trailer-

Divergent- The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for Divergent is expected to be released on March 11 and will feature a new song from Ellie Goulding titled “Beating Heart” as well as “Find You” by Zedd which features Matthew Koma and Miriam Bryant.

Check out “Find You” by Zedd-

In addition, Goulding contributed vocals to the Divergent film score. More artists on the Divergent soundtrack will be announced soon.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire- DVD Release date has been announced! Catching Fire will be available on March, 7th, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon (that’s what I did last year and it wonderfully showed up on my TV’s Amazon Prime app- such a happy surprise since I had sorta forgotten that I had already ordered it lol)!

For this week’s Movie Monday we’re adding a few new adaptations to our list of 60+ YA Adaptations on the way including: The Bone Season, The Finisher and Encyclopedia Brown. We’ve also got updates about The Lost Years of Merlin Movie and Fallen. Finally, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift join The Giver. Enjoy!

Bone Season: The Bone Season, by Samantha Shannon (a 21-year-old student currently pursuing a degree in English literature at Oxford University) is the first volume in a seven-book series. It has already been sold in 18 countries, and the film rights have been snapped up by The Imaginarium Studios, led by Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings) and Jonathan Cavendish (producer of Bridget Jones’ Diary). In terms of the book, this recent debut has been crowned as this fall’s candidate for Most Likely to Succeed [as the next Hunger Games], and topping almost everybody’s top book pick list. I’s been pegged as a dark, dystopic, featuring a teenage girl standing in opposition to a corrupt dictatorship. Here’s the synopsis: 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. She works as an envoy between secret cells: she drops in and out of people’s minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant, and in her world — the world of Scion — she commits high treason simply by breathing. It is raining the day her life changes forever. Attacked, kidnapped and transported to Oxford, a city that has been kept secret for two hundred years, she meets Warden, a Rephaite with dark honey skin and heavy-lidded yellow eyes. He is the single most beautiful and frightening thing she has ever laid eyes on — and he will become her keeper.

Encyclopedia Brown: With a wave of nostalgia, this past June, Warner Bros. finalized its acquisition of the movie rights to an adaptation of the cherished children’s book series, Encyclopedia Brown. Written by Donald J. Sobol, “Encyclopedia Brown” tells the story of an intelligent young man named Leroy Brown who acts as a detective, solving cases in his small town. The first book in the series, “Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective,” was released in 1963, with Sobol penning close to 30 “Encyclopedia Brown” books over the next five decades. Little is known about the adaptation so far except that producers Roy Lee and Howard David Deutsch are now searching for writers to turn author Donald J. Sobol’s books into a film and hopefully a franchise.

The Lost Years of Merlin: A few years ago Warner Bros. acquired the rights to T.A. Barron’s novel and they just recently renewed and added two scribes to adapt the story! In the wake of the Harry Potter Franchise, Warner Bros seems eager to find the next big thing to appeal to the younger audience, and this might just be the prize. Game of Thrones scribe, Dave Hill, alongside David Farr from Hanna, will adapt this epic five book series, which was first released in 1996 and is based on the infamous wizard. However in this original story we follow Merlin’s journey as a young boy, washed on up the shores of Wales, with no memory and no home, as he grows into a young man learning to use his powers to become the defender of the natural world and mentor to King Arthur. To learn more about this story and the process of turning it into a film, check out this author interview that Hypaple conducted with T.A Barron!

The Giver: We’ve got a release date for The Giver!! According to The Hollywood Reporter, on August 15, 2014 this wonderful dytopian novel, based on Lois Lowry’s international bestseller, will make its way to theaters. They also added a-listers Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift to the cast this week. Swift will play the Chief Elder, who is responsible for assigning tasks to the young, while Holmes will play the mother of Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), the young boy at the center of the utopian tale. They join the all-star cast that includes, Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaites, will tell the story of a society in which there is no conflict, racism or sickness. With a budget of about $25 million, the film is being produced by Nikki Silver of TonikProductions along with Neil Koenigsberg and Bridges. Vadim Perelman wrote the adapted script; Michael Mitnick penned the latest draft. Filming just recently began in South Africa.

The Finisher: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony has optioned the rights to David Baldacci’s upcoming fantasy novel, The Finisher. The story follows a 14-year-old girl who lives in a village called Wormwood, which is surrounded by a forest that is full of monsters. Matt Tolmach is producing the project and Scholastic, who is publishing Baldacci’s first stand-alone children’s book, won’t release it until March 2014.

Fallen: The newest cast member announced! According to Examiner, Harrison Gilbertson has joined the cast of the movie adaptation of Lauren Kate’s best-selling YA novel Fallen. Kate recently announced that Gilbertson would be playing Cam in the movie. He joins previously announced cast members Addison Timlin as Luce and Jeremy Irvine as Daniel. Filming on the movie is expected to begin this month and the story follows teenage fallen angels who are duking out an age-old battle between good and evil.