Books to Movies to Books

A new crop of films based on books -- and books based on films -- provides booksellers with plenty of opportunities for cross promotions now and in the coming months.

The memoirs of two 20-something Argentinians on a 1952 motorcycle road trip across South America have been effectively combined in the recently released Motorcycle Diaries. A fascinating film probably would have resulted even if the two, a young medical student and a biochemist, had simply been young adventurers traveling through jungle leprosariums, the ruins of Machu Picchu, and the Amazon, witnessing the abject poverty and inequities of the developing continent -- but they weren't. One was Ernesto Guevara and the other, Alberto Granado, was the chronicler of the journey that transformed Ernesto to Che Guevara, South America's indelible revolutionary figure.

Che Guevara's own account of the trip, Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey (Ocean Press), was released posthumously in 1992. Granados book, Traveling With Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, has been translated by Lucia Alvarez de Toledo and published in paperback by Newmarket Press. It includes archival photographs, a trip timeline, and a new introduction by the author.

The Motorcycle Diaries, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in February 2004, will be released nationwide on October 8, and stores with Book Sense should be on the lookout for the October Red Box, which will include point-of-purchase movie tie-in materials and information about a special sweepstakes offer from Newmarket Press. (For more information, click here.)

Ruining Christmas on December 17, according to the promoters of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, is the first installment of the screen adaptation of author Daniel Handler's popular series, a Book Sense favorite. Combining events from the first three books in the series published by HarperCollins, the film stars Jim Carrey as the dastardly Count Olaf, Merryl Streep as Aunt Josephine, and Jude Law as the voice of narrator Snicket. Comic actors Cedric the Entertainer and Catherine O'Hara also appear in the film directed by Brad Silberling. No stranger to the mix of merriment with the macabre, Silberling began his career in the 1980s directing episodes of television's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. As ads for the film state, "At last a holiday movie without all that pesky hope and joy. Don't say we didn't warn you."

The film version of Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo's 2001 Newbery Honor Book and one of The Best of Book Sense From the First Five Years, will be released on February 18, 2005. Directed by Wayne Wang, who brought Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Mona Simpson's Anywhere But Here to the screen, the film also stars musician and actor Dave Matthews, Eva Marie Saint, Jeff Daniels, and Cicely Tyson. The part of 10-year-old India 'Opal' Buloni is played 10-year-old AnnaSophia Robb, who appears in several other literature-based films this year.

Robb stars as Samantha Parkington in the American Girl Series (Pleasant Company) American Girls: Samantha, which will air on the WB network on November 23. The film, which features Mia Farrow as Grandmary, explores the life of a wealthy orphan in 1904. Robb also plays the ill-fated Violet Beauregarde to Freddie Highmore's Charlie Bucket and Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka in the upcoming film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based on Roald Dahl's classic novel of the same name. Tim Burton directs the film, which will open on July 15, 2005.

Depp, who was also featured in Chocolat, the 2000 film based on Joanne Harris's popular novel, appears with the 12-year-old Highmore in the upcoming feature Finding Neverland. The film, which its producers call a "fictional retelling" of the life of Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, opens for national commercial release on November 12, 2004. It has already been screened at several film festivals including the Venice Film Festival, at which director Marc Foster won the Laterna Magica Prize. The World Entertainment News Network (WENN) reported that members of Barrie's family are not pleased that Finding Neverland takes some liberties with the facts of the Scottish author's life. Also appearing in the film are Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, and Dustin Hoffman.

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman is once again teaming up with illustrator Dave McKean, this time for MirrorMask, a Jim Henson Company film to be released in 2005. Gaiman, who has received numerous awards for his novels, graphic novels, and short fiction, has been at the top of the Book Sense Picks with many works -- including Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls -- both illustrated by McKean and published by HarperCollins. The film is based on his original screenplay and is directed by McKean.

In conjunction with the film, the pair has signed a book deal for two projects with HarperCollins. To be published in summer 2005 by William Morrow, MirrorMask is an oversized volume containing the complete script, full-color art from the film, and storyboards all with annotations by the creators. A MirrorMask picture book, also written by Gaiman and illustrated with art from the movie, will be published by HarperCollins Children's Books soon after. The film will use a combination of live-action and computer-generated animation.

Those too small to hold down the theater seats now can look forward to February 10, 2006, when the mischievous monkey Curious George jumps to the big screen. The animated film will feature the voice of former Saturday Night Live comedian and actor Will Ferrell as the Man in the Yellow Hat. Curious George is the creation of H.A. and Margret Rey, who fled Europe during the Nazi occupation and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1941. Their seven Curious George titles have sold a combined total of 27 million copies worldwide.

Fans of groundbreaking animation and author Kate DiCamillo, can expect the film version of her third book, The Tale of Despereaux, a 2003 Book Sense Pick, to be released sometime in 2006. Director Sylvain Chomet, memorable for his 2004 Oscar-nominated, animated film, The Triplets of Belleville, has signed on to direct the Newbery Medal-winning tale.

Adding to its many titles about movies, to tie-in with this September's release of the film Vanity Fair, Newmarket Press has released the pictorial moviebook Vanity Fair: Bringing Thackeray's Timeless Novel to the Screen. Featuring interviews with director Mira Nair and with stars Reese Witherspoon, Gabriel Byrne, and others, the paperback is illustrated with movie stills, on-set photos, and drawings.

Other moviebooks available from Newmarket Press this fall are Ray: A Tribute to The Movie, The Music, and The Man, to be released in tandem with the film Ray, starring Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles and opening October 29. This is first major Ray Charles book published since his death on June 10.

Kinsey: Public and Private is the official companion book to the film Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson as the controversial sex researcher, Alfred C. Kinsey. Kinsey: Public and Private is an original, illustrated trade book with extensive accounts of the life and legacy of Kinsey. The book will be available to coincide with the film's opening in mid-November.

From the Newmarket Shooting Script Series come Sideways, based on the debut novel by Rex Pickett, published by St. Martin's; I Heart Huckabees, the recently released film written and directed by David O. Russell; The Life Aquatic written and directed by Wes Anderson; and Span'glish, written and directed by James L. Brooks. Books in Newmarket's Shooting Script Series feature the complete screenplay, commentaries, interviews, film stills, and complete cast and crew credits. --Nomi Schwartz