This week, I got movies on my mind. Book-to-movie adaptations, that is.
This is happening:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Also known as the first book assigned for English that I read and liked. My sixth grade self was enthralled, and I remember listing is as “Favorite Book” for about a year hence.
Except, I have a confession to make. I have absolutely no memory of the plot. I remember the experience of reading it (positive), but so foggy on the details (all the fog). The trailer looks like pure magic, but doesn’t help out in the story department.
Yesterday, I got my hands on this book to do some much needed brushing up on plot. Anyone with me?
Release date: March 9, 2018
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Another book that’s on my To-Read list and my actual shelf.
Just hoping that it will do more than a feature length fan service for 80’s/90’s nostalgia. In the trailer alone, I’m seeing Tron, Iron Giant, Back to the Future, and dozens of other references. There is a plot, though, right?
Guess I’m going to have to read the book to find out. One thing is for sure, though. Even if there is no real plot, it looks like it’ll be a treat in 3D.
Release Date: March 30, 2018
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
While this is definitely not fantasy or science fiction (sorry guys, not a vampire whodunnit), I gotta mention this Christie book-to-screen adaptation. Because Agatha Christie!
Also: Just look at that mustache.
Release date: November 10, 2017
This is happening (more generally):
Maze Runner: The Death Cure by James Dashner
The trailer isn’t out yet, but is there any doubt that we’ll get the last of the trilogy out on the big screens before too long? The first two Maze Runner movies did decent in the theaters, and this latest installment will wrap up the trilogy and give us the final reveal.
Release date: 2018
J.R.R. Tolkien movie
Nicholas Hoult to play J.R.R. Tolkien. Thoughts?
Oh hey, you thought the Tolkien thing had its last gasp with the altogether too-lengthy Hobbit trilogy? Have no fear, it looks like Fox Searchlight is stepping in to give us our Middle-Earth fix (sorta) by doing a biopic that follows the author’s formative years and World War I experiences. Expect parallels. And foreshadowing. Lots of parallels and foreshadowing.
It’ll be interesting to see how this does when compared to other author-stories-inspired-by-movie-successes, such as the (upcoming) Professor Marston & the Wonder Women.
It’s also likely the only Tolkien movie we’ll get, considering that the Silmarillion is currently way off the table.
Release date: Depends on how quickly this gets off the ground.
Is this (still) happening?
Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
Come on, BBC, get your act together. I first heard this eight-part TV adaptation chatter in 2016. We need a comeback after the pretty but floppy movie version from back in 2007. So let’s do this!
Release date: 2017 is kinda running out, so maybe 2018? Show is still in pre-production, do we shouldn’t get our hopes up.
The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas
This first pinged on the canary radar almost exactly a year ago, and you’d think we’d have more details by now about Queen of Shadows.
I couldn’t deal with the book, but who knows what a show version might look like? Especially in the right hands.
Hulu’s stylish handling of the Handmaid’s Tale gives me hope.
Release date: Speculation, speculation.
The Book Canaries 
I’m really looking forward to Murder on the Orient Express. I’ve only read two Agatha Christie books (when I was in middle school…) and this was one of them! I remember loving the book! I definitely feel the need for a re-read 🙂
Agreed! It’s also on my to-read list ahead of the movie.