Books to Movies: Get Ready for the Summer Season
Making books into movies is big business, and with summer coming up the viewing public is set for a large amount of book-to-movie adaptations to hit the big screen. Some of the biggest blockbusters have been movies based on teen books, and that trend does not look to die out anytime soon. Here’s a list of some of the most anticipated book-based movies that are coming soon to a theater near you.
April 4 – Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a follow up to the first Captain America movie. In it, Captain is getting used to living in modern society. This movie will also feature Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.
May 2 – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone (a real life and in-movie couple) will feature new villains for Spider-Man to face. This time around he goes up against the trifecta of Electro, Green Goblin, and The Rhino.
May 23 – X-Men Days of Future Past will see the return of Bryan Singer at the helm of the X-Men franchise. This is a film adaptation of one of the more popular X-Men story arcs written by Chris Claremont. The storyline fluctuates between the past and present while the X-Men try to change history to prevent a cataclysmic event. This film will see the return of many past X-Men characters and will introduce American Horror Story alum, Evan Peters, as Quicksilver (the son of Magneto).
June 6 – The Fault in Our Stars, based on many librarian’s favorite author John Green’s novel of the same name, will hit theatres this summer. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort (who were just seen together as siblings in Divergent) play the romantic leads in this story about two teens who meet and fall in love at a cancer support group.
August 1 – Guardians of the Galaxy is another Marvel Universe movie coming to big screens. This is a lesser known title, but stars some big names, including Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, and Zoe Saldana. Whoovians will be thrilled to see that Amy Pond (aka Karen Gillan) is also making an appearance. This is a sci-fi space tale about an American pilot and a misfit group (which includes an anthropomorphic raccoon) who must band together and save the universe.
August 15 – The Giver will hit screens with a star-studded cast including Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Taylor Swift, and Alexander Skarsgård. This movie is based on a Newbery Award-winning novel of the same name by Lois Lowery. The trailer for this film just came out and it does look like they may have deviated from the book, especially since the actor playing Jonas (who is 12 in the book) is 25 in real life. Audiences will have to see how these changes affect the story.
August 22 – If I Stay, based on the novel of the same name, will star Chloe Grace Moretz (who played another literary character, Hit Girl, in the Kick Ass movies). Moretz will play Mia Hall whose family is in a horrific accident that leaves only Mia alive. In a coma, Mia must now make the ultimate decision to live or die.
The book-based movies don’t stop at the end of summer. Fall and winter will see the premieres of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1, The Maze Runner, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again.
To keep up with all the books being made into movies, check out The Mid-Continent Public Library’s Based on the Book website.
