A "New" to Me Idea

Blog Update

So I had an idea for a series of blog posts: Book to Movie Adaptation of the Month.

Essentially I will pick a book with a movie adaptation, watch the movie, then read the book and do a compare and contrast review mid-month. This wont necessarily be a new release of that month, I will be looking into a range of adaptations of current releases as well as releases of old.

The only issue that comes from this is that I cannot watch a movie adaptation of a book I've already read. I just can't, I get so frustrated and irritated essentially I get an image of what characters should look and sound like and more so than not the movies upset me, because I'm not the director. I'm not the casting director. I have no control of who they cast as the characters I've grown attached to. And I'm sure that everyone sees something a little different when they imagine characters, and these directors imagine something different, it's wrong, but it's what they see. This mostly applies to (curently):

Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

and

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I read these in my middle school/high school years, and a year or two after I read them the movies came out.

I hear they're good, but not necessarily from people that have read the book... Not that I don't think that it wouldn't be good. It's just I know I wont enjoy them. I'd spend the whole time critiquing the movie and that's not fun for anyone.

Hypocritically I wont be doing Superhero movies, or movies based off comic books. I am a comic book reader (I haven't picked one up in a while) but comparing and contrasting several comics to one movie could in a sense be a simple thing to do, but, I mean, why? It's easy, for me, to forgive director's casting calls for comics, it's easy to forgive plot changes, and that's mostly in part of DC and it's multi-universe. Every new artist that comes aboard DC and starts drawing one of it's many characters, with a new writer ready to put the next spin on a character's background, theme, look is a new universe. And so, I feel, is animated adaptations, as well as movies.

I also wont be doing series, so Harry Potter is out.

But ultimately I've realized I've been reading quite a bit of books I've seen the movie adaptations to, or I really want to read them.

I'm essentially going to start fresh, so any books I have read and movies I have seen I'll re-read and re-watch and review them fresh in my mind.

I probably wont be posting an Adaptation of the Month this month, July, unless I'm able to snag a movie here in a couple of weeks. Although there are a handful I could put those "re"'s to, I'm not going to pick them up right away but will have a set plan to do so in the future.

But I can tell you that the two I'm currently looking at are:

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Published September 2007 by W.W. Norton Company

 This book is set in World War II, following Jan and Antonina Zabinski. This couple owns a Zoo in Poland, and when Germany invades, Stuka bombers destroy the city and the zoo along with it. With a lot of their animals dead, the Zabinski's start smuggling Jews into the empty cages and their large villa, where they hide during the day and dine and communicate at night. Jan is part of the Polish Resistance, hiding ammo and explosives in an empty elephant enclosure while Antonina keeps her unusual household afloat caring not only for her Human guests but her animals as well.

I saw the movie preview when my boyfriend and I went to go see another movie in theaters.... think maybe A Monster Calls...maybe? And I remember seeing that it was based off a book and went "I need to read that!" in which my boyfriend promptly told me "Not til we see the movie otherwise I'll never be able to see it." fair point.

Out April 7, 2017

The movie is directed by Niki Caro who has also directed Whale Rider and is set to direct Mulan.

The screenwriter was: Angela Workman

And stars: Jessica Chastain, who's been in Crimson Peak (Lucille Sharpe) and The Martian (Melissa Lewis) and much more. As well as Johan Heldenbergh a actor and writer from Belgium known for The Broken Circle Breakdown and Moscow, Belgium.

I have a feeling I will cry during the movie, most WWII movies do. I'm hoping to find it on Netflix but if need be I'll buy it. 

The other adaptation I was looking into was:

Horns by Joe Hill

Published March, 2009 by William Morrow

This book follows Ignatius Perrish (Ig) who spends the one year anniversary of his girlfriend's death drunk and doing terrible things. When he wakes up the next morning with a terrible hangover and a pair of horns growing out of his temples. 

Thinking they're the hallucinating product of a mental break down, Ig has spent the last year in a lonely, silent purgatory after his late girlfriend was found raped and murdered. But these horns are as real as they get. Ig was the only suspect in his girlfriend's murder, he was never charged or tried, but never cleared. The public opinion is that his privileged and well connected background led to everything being swept under the rug. Now with no one at his side, not even God, Ig uses the Devil inside to find out the truth behind his beloved's murder.

Out October 2014

This movie is directed by Alexandre Aja known for The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha 3D

The Screenwriter was: Keith Bunin

And stars: Daniel Radcliffe which, if you didn't know, is known as Harry in the Harry Potter Series and Max Minghella who recently played in The Handmaiden's Tale television series (Nick Blaine)

I've seen the movie before and thought it was interesting and pretty entertaining. So in theory I could start reading Horns now and hope to find the movie with in the month, but I'd like to just have both either physically of digitally (like Netflix) with in my grasp.

So those are the two that are on my radar right now. So keep a watch here with in the next 30 days to see which one I did and which adaptation I plan on doing next.

Until next time!

Litta