Posts Tagged ‘classics’

Saw the Movie? Read the Book!

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

These May movies are based on books:

Jurassic Park 3D (the 3D release of the 1993 box office smash hit)

is still based on the novel Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (iconic cover by the amazing Chip Kidd).

Hannah Arendt is a biographical film about the German Jewish philosopher. It isn’t based on any specific book,

but there are quite a few books about her, the times she lived in and her work, like The Portable Hannah Arendt.

Two Mothers is based on the short story The Grandmothers by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing.

The Great Gatsby is based on the classic written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  If you haven’t read it yet, do!  Glorious use of language.  :-)

The Company You Keep is based on the novel with the same title by Neil Gordon.

L’Ecume des Jours is based on the French novel with the same title by Boris Vian.

It has been translated to English with the title Froth on the Daydream.

Epic is based on the novel The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs by William Joyce

(the same man who also wrote The Rise of the Guardians books).

Midnight’s Children is based on the modern classic by Salman Rushdie (originally scheduled for March).

Saw the Movie? Read the Book!

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

These March movies started out as books:

Broken is based on Daniel Clay’s novel Broken.

Lore is adapted from The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert.

I Am Slave is based on the memoir Slave by Mende Nazer, as faithful readers of this blog surely know:-)

Hitchcock is based on Stephen Rebello’s Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho.
So, a movie based on a book based on a movie, all meta-like – Abed would approve, for sure!

Oz the Great and Powerful is, of course, based on L. Frank Baum’s children’s classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Thérèse Desqueyroux is based on the same-titled book by François Mauriac.

Jack the Giant Slayer is based on the age-old fairy tales Jack the Giant Killer and Jack and the Beanstalk.

Midnight’s Children is based on Midnight’s Children, the Booker of Bookers, by Salman Rushdie.

And finally, The Host is based on that non-Twilight book by Stephenie Meyer, The Host.

Bonus movies based on books:

Bullet to the Head is based on Alexis Nolent’s graphic novel Du plomb dans la tête, which is not yet translated into English.

&Me is based on Oscar van den Boogaard’s Dutch novel Fremdkörper, which will be re-released this month as And Me.

Saw the Movie? Read the Book!

Friday, February 8th, 2013

These February movies were adapted from books:

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding is based on the novel with same title by Julia Strachey.

Great Expectations is based, of course, on the Charles Dickens book (or should that be the more thorough version by Edmund Wells?).

The Patience Stone is based on the novel The Patience Stone, by the movie’s director Atiq Rahimi.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is not actually based on the Brothers Grimm story but seen more as a sequel to it.

The Silver Linings Playbook is based on the novel with the same title by Matthew Quick.

Beautiful Creatures is based on the young adult book (part 1 of a series) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

Saw the Movie? Read the Book!

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

These January movies were adapted from books:

Pitch Perfect is based on the non-fiction book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory by journalist Mickey Rapkin.

The Hypnotist is based on the thriller The Hypnotist by Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril, a married couple better known in the literary world as Lars Kepler.

Gangster Squad, that movie reuniting Emma Stone with Ryan Gosling, is based on true crime tome Gangster Squad by Paul Lieberman.

Les Misérables is of course based on the seminal Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.  Bring tissues.

Nijntje de film (Miffy the Movie) is, much like the very successful theater production, based on the Miffy books by Dick Bruna.

Lincoln is based in part on the award-winning Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Parker is based on Donald E. Westlake’s Flashfire (originally published under Westlake’s pseudonym Richard Stark).

Bonus:

Lay the Favorite has apparently been bumped back two month in the theaters or has made a triumphant comeback; it was featured in the November Saw the Movie? Read the Book!

ABC’s Favorite Reads of 2012, part VI

Sunday, December 23rd, 2012

Ready for a new entry in ABC’s Favorite Reads of 2012 series? There will be new titles, old titles, magazines, Dutch books, games, fiction, non fiction, anything and everything we read and liked in 2012. We are as diverse as our individual choices and that is what makes ABC unique!

Part VI features Tiemen, Joe and Our-Maarten-of-the-No-Lists. Tiemen is Amsterdam’s Science Fiction & Fantasy buyer.  Joe is the original ABC The Hague crew, and now works mainly with the Espresso Book Machine there.  Maarten, as regular Blog readers will know, is not fond of lists, but always shares them anyway.  :-)   Also, he is the buyer of the Business, History (except for North America and Europe), Intelligence, Political Science, Social Science, True Crime, Controversial Knowledge, and Magic & Occult sections in Amsterdam.

We would love to hear about your favorite reads of 2012, too. Please mail blog@abc.nl with your choices and a picture of yourself (optional). We will post your list at the beginning of the new year and send you an ABC Gift Certificate (so don’t forget to include your home address with your list!).

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