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Movies Based on Books 
Read the Book Before You See the Movie. Which is better? You decide. Start browsing our year-by-year lists of movie adaptations of classic novels. See the menu on the right.
Upcoming Movies Based on Books
What Should I be Reading?
Each year an average of thirty novels are made into movies for the big screen. Authors watch tensely as their stories are filtered through the hands of screenwriters, directors, cinematographers, and studio chiefs. If they're lucky, these film adaptations do the original story justice. However,
it is often the case that the book is significantly better than the movie. Here, we present upcoming movie adaptions of classic novels to keep you up-to-date on what books are being adapted for the big screen. See the right column for yearly movie and a novel listings.
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| EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES (2010) (Parent Child, Medicine, Disease, Determination, Adaptation)
 
PLOT: The true story of John (Brendan Fraser) and Aileen Crowley (Keri Russell) as they abandon their current lives in a race to find a cure for Pompe disease, a rare genetic disorder killing their two youngest children. Soon the Crowley's team up with a brilliant but unconventional scientist named Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) and form a biotech company focused on developing a drug to save the lives of the Crowley children and others around the world. AUTHOR:
Geeta Anand
|  (Buy Book)
| LAST STATION, THE (2010) (Tolstoy, Death, Biography, Russia, Adaptation)
PLOT: In the last years of Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer) life, he was torn between his professed doctrine of poverty and his wealth brought on by his writing of books like War and Peace and Anna Karenina. He chose to flee from his life but was too ill to carry on, dying at the nearby Astapovo rail station a few days later. AUTHOR:
Jay Parini
|  (Buy Book)
| GREEN ZONE (2010) (War, Iraq, Military, Liberal, Adaptation)
PLOT: This is the story of Iraq's first year after Saddam Hussein was overthrown. America was responsible for the country's administration and according to liberal author Rajiv Chandrasekaran, who was The Washington Post's Baghdad bureau chief, it was America that botched the handling of the occupation. It can be added to the long list of similar Iraq War films and documentaries. AUTHOR:
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
|  (Buy Book)
| CREATION (2010) (Evolution, Charles Darwin, Father Daughter, Science, Adaptation)
PLOT: Author Randal Keynes is the great-great-grandson of scientist Charles Darwin. He has taken family documents and Darwin's findings to show how his take on evolution was influenced by his deep attachment to his wife and children, particularly his daughter Annie who died at the age of 10. His pain from the experience molded his perception that natural laws were inevitable and had nothing to do with divine intervention. AUTHOR:
Randal Keynes
|  (Buy Book)
| GHOST WRITER, THE (2010) (CIA, Thriller, Murder, Adaptation)
PLOT: Former British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) is up against a firm deadline with his publisher to submit his memoirs when his collaborator dies. In hopes of keeping the deadline, a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) is hired to finish the task. Soon after his arrival, Mr. Lang is accused of war crimes and the ghost writer begins to believe the original collaborator's death was not an accident. AUTHOR:
Robert Harris
|  (Buy Book)
| EAT, PRAY, LOVE (2010) (Travel, Divorce, Discovery, Fulfillment, Adaptation)
PLOT: In this memoir, Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts), decides that marriage and trying for children are not her true desires and decides to change the direction of her life. After going through a painful divorce, she takes off on a year long journey to discover pleasure in Italy, devotion in India and balance in Indonesia. AUTHOR:
Elizabeth Gilbert
|  (Buy Book)
| HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010) (Fantasy, Dragon, Action, Adventure, Adaptation)
PLOT: Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel), a Viking teenager, doesn’t fit in the Hairy Hooligans tribe and their historic tradition of heroic dragon slayers. After being sent on a mission to get a dragon to train, he returns with a laughable scrawny creature. The story takes a few wild turns that make this underdog the hero and leave the Vikings with a new point of view. AUTHOR:
Cressida Cowell
|  (Buy Book)
| DIARY OF A WIMPY KID (2010) (Cartoon, Student, Comedy, Adaptation)
PLOT: Diary of a Wimpy Kid chronicles a year of of wisecracking junior high school student Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) adventures, as told through the young man's diary and hand-drawn cartoons. AUTHOR:
Jeff Kinney
|  (Buy Book)
| CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, THE (2010) (Narnia, Fantasy, Adventure, Adaptation)
PLOT: Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) are spending a holiday with their mean spirited cousin Eustace. They are unexpectedly drawn into Narnia when a painting of a ship on the wall of Lucy's room comes to life and the three children fall into the ocean to be rescued by the Dawn Treader. AUTHOR:
C. S. Lewis
|  (Buy Book)
| ECLIPSE (2010) (Twilight, Love, Vampires, Werewolves, Adaptation)
PLOT: In the third installment of the Twilight book series, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) have been reunited but their forbidden relationship is threatened to be torn apart again with an evil vampire still seeking her revenge. Bella is forced to choose between her true love for Edward or her friendship with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) as the struggle between vampires and werewolves continues. But there is still another choice for Bella to make, mortality or immortality? AUTHOR:
Stephenie Meyer
|  (Buy Book)
| PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF (2010) (Greek Mythology, Adventure, Gods, Adaptation)
PLOT: In book one of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, the gods of Mount Olympus and various monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson's Greek mythology texts and into his life. Unfortunately for Percy, he is the prime suspect for Zeus's stolen lightning bolt. He and his friends go on a cross country adventure to catch the real lightning thief, save Percy's mother and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves. AUTHOR:
Rick Riordan
|  (Buy Book)
| YOUTH IN REVOLT (2010) (Adolescence, Divorce, Rebellion, Adaptation)
PLOT: With his parents divorcing, 14 year old Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is feeling rebellious and chronicles it all in his journal. He sets his sights on losing his viriginity to his dream girl, Sheeni Saunders. AUTHOR:
C. D. Payne
|  (Buy Book)
| LAST SONG, THE (2010) (Love, Father Daughter, Beach, Music, Adaptation)
PLOT: This Nicholas Spark's story follows, seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller (Miley Cyrus) whose life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to North Carolina. Three years later, she is still angry and distant with her parents, especially her father (Greg Kinnear). Her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she and her younger brother spent the summer with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art for a local church. AUTHOR:
Nicholas Sparks
|  (Buy Book)
| ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010) (Children's Book, Fantasy, Disney, Adaptation)
PLOT: In this adapation by Tim Burton, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to the whimsical world she encountered as a young girl reuniting her with her childhood friends including The White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), The Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and all your other favorites. AUTHOR:
Lewis Carroll
|  (Buy Book)
| ADJUSTMENT BUREAU, THE (2010) (Science Fiction, Romance, Adaptation)
PLOT: "The Adjustment Bureau" follows an affair between a politician (Matt Damon) and a ballerina (Emily Blunt) that is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart. This film is loosely based on Philip Dick's science fiction short story "Adjustment Team" about a salesman who discovers that the world is controlled by outside guardians. AUTHOR:
Philip Dick
|  (Buy Book)
| DEAR JOHN (2010) (Army, College, Tragedy, Love, Illness, Adaptation)
PLOT: John Tyree (Channing Tatum) meets UNC student Savannah Lynn Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) while he is home on leave from the army. They share two fleeting summer weeks together before he returns to active duty. John can't wait to come home for good, but then September 11th happens and he reenlists. Will Savannah wait for John, or will the tragedy lead to a change in her relationship with her close friend Tim (Henry Thomas), who pines for her? The movie is based on the Nicholas Sparks novel. AUTHOR:
Nicholas Sparks
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Classic Movies Based on Books
Past Film Adaptations of Classic Novels
Books Just Added - Our archive of movie adaptations is always growing. Here,
we present memorable movies from the past that have recently been added to our database of movies based on novels. Whether you are familiar with the film version or not, experience the story
in it's most classic form, and then enjoy the filmmaker's vision of the author's work.
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| CHRISTMAS HOPE, THE (2009) (Christmas, Fate, Hope, Parent Child, Adaptation)
PLOT: After suffering a personal tragedy, Patricia Addison (Madeleine Stowe), throws herself into finding homes for needy children. Despite Patty and Mark's (James Remar) rocky marriage, they decide to take in Emily, a child who has just lost her single mother in a car accident. As they begin to bond, it is revealed that their teenage son, Sean, had died in a car accident two years earlier. At the same time, in the same town, Dr. Nathan Andrews (Ian Ziering), struggles to find the parents of a young man who died in his ER. In a twist of fate, all is almost lost when Emily runs away. Ultimately they all come together, to heal and find the true meaning of faith. AUTHOR:
Donna VanLiere
|  (Buy Book)
| FLASHFORWARD (2009) (Free Will, Future, Science Fiction, Fate, Adaptation)
PLOT: Some irresponsible physicists conduct an unimaginably high-energy experiment that accidentally induces a global consciousness shift. Everyone on Earth is "flashed forward" into seeing several minutes of their own future. After people wake and begin to realize that they experienced a real vision of the future, they make decisions based solely on them. What would you do if you thought you knew you future was bleak? Would you try to change the future? Can you change the future? AUTHOR:
Robert Sawyer
|  (Buy Book)
| PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE, THE (2009) (Betrayal, Aging, Self Discovery, Adaptation)
PLOT: Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) is the devoted wife of a publisher 30 years her senior, the proud mother of two grown children and a trusted friend. But as Pippa dutifully follows her husband to a new life in a retirement community, her idyllic world and the persona she has built over the course of her marriage will be put to the test. Pippa must confront both her volatile past and present including a cheating husband to find her true sense of self. AUTHOR:
Rebecca Miller
|  (Buy Book)
| ME AND ORSON WELLES (2009) (Theatre, Love, Man Woman, Adaptation)
PLOT: Set in 1937, the story centers on high school student Richard Samuels (Zac Efron) who, while strolling the streets of New York, happens upon the Mercury Theatre and is noticed by its founder, Orson Welles. Richard lands a part in "Julius Caesar", the production that catapulted Welles to the top, and spends the next week learning about life and love with an older woman (Claire Danes). AUTHOR:
Robert Kaplow
|  (Buy Book)
| BOX, THE (2009) (Money, Greed, Death, Morals, Adaptation)
PLOT: What if someone gave you a box containing a button that, if pushed, would bring you lots of money but simultaneously take the life of someone you don't know? In the short story "Button, Button", this is the moral dilemma Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden) face. They soon discover that the consequences of this decision are beyond their control and extend far beyond their own fortune and fate. AUTHOR:
Richard Matheson
|  (Buy Book)
| BLIND SIDE, THE (2009) (Football, School, Struggle, Sports, Adaptation)
PLOT: Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is a poor, undereducated African-American teenager in Memphis, whose father was murdered and whose mother was a crack addict. He is shuffled through the public school system, despite his low grade point average and absenteeism. His living situation is noticed by the wealthy white Tuohy family. Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw) take him in and he succeeds both athletically and academically, becoming one of the top high school football prospects in the country. AUTHOR:
Michael Lewis
|  (Buy Book)
| BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN (2009) (Man Woman, Interviews, Adaptation)
PLOT: Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson) conducts a series of interviews with men in an effort to uncover the secret thoughts that drive their behavior for her anthropological dissertation. As she records the astonishing and often repulsive experiences of various subjects, Sara discovers much more about men and herself than she bargained for. AUTHOR:
David Foster Wallace
|  (Buy Book)
| TAKING WOODSTOCK (2009) (Woodstock, Hippies, Peace, Music, Concerts, Adaptation)
PLOT: The true story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the historical Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. With the bank about to foreclose on the family's dilapidated Catskills motel, The El Monaco, Elliot tries to reel in business from an upcoming local hippie music festival. Ultimately, half a million people are on their way to his neighbors farm in White Lake, NY, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience. AUTHOR:
Elliot Tiber
|  (Buy Book)
| CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT (2009) (Vampires, Fantasy, Sideshow, Adaptation)
PLOT: The Vampire’s Assistant, based on the popular Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan, is a fantasy-adventure about a teenager (Chris Massoglia) who unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires. Pulled into a fantastic life of misunderstood sideshow freaks and grotesque creatures of the night, one teen will vanish from the safety of a boring existence and fulfill his destiny in a place drawn from nightmares. AUTHOR:
Darren Shan
|  (Buy Book)
| INFORMANT!, THE (2009) (True Story, Whistleblower, Corporation, Conspiracy, Spy, Adaptation)
PLOT: A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company’s price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion. But before all that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent. Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn’t been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre’s ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real. AUTHOR:
Kurt Eichenwald
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A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.
~Martin Farquhar Tupper
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