The Bookshelf

One of my favorite book series is the Stephanie Plum bounty hunter series by Janet Evanovich.  I had always thought that this series would make a great movie, so I was excited to read that they have started casting for the movie version of One for the Money, the first book in the series.  I am not sure what to think, however, about the lead actress they cast as Stephanie- Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy.  Her work on Grey’s Anatomy proves that she can do drama and her work in films such as 27 Dresses and Knocked Up proved she can do comedy, so I will have to see how she handles the part of the wacky Stephanie Plum.  What do you think of this casting choice?

The Academy Award nominees were announced this week and I was struck by the fact that save one, Milk, all those vying for Best Picture were based on books or plays.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on a short story/novella by F. Scott Fitzgerald,

Frost/Nixon is based on a play written by Peter Morgan who also wrote the screenplay for the movie.

The Reader is based on a popular novel by Bernard Schlink

Slumdog Millionaire is based on the recent novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup

Novels and short stories are the backbone of films. Some moviegoers always read the book or play before seeing the film, others stream into the library looking for the book of a film they recently enjoyed…they seem to want to extend the experience or add to it.

The popular suspense and horror author Stephen King recently had his latest short story collection turned into an original web video series in conjunction with Marvel Comics. The prolific experimenter is himself considering making a You Tube video for his upcoming novel.  While acknowleding that such endeavors are fun, King said, ” But with all these multimedia things, the story is the story still, the book is the book, and that’s the source material. As J.R.R. Tolkien might say.’That’s the one ring.’ It rules the other one.”

So before or after viewing these Oscar nominees, come in and get the book.

And for more ideas check out some of our movie lists of films based on books such as :

Movies Based on Twentieth Century Fiction Books

or

Movies Based on Historical Novels

These and other wonderful movie lists can be found under “movie lists” on the Movies & Music page.