Featured: Under the Tuscan Sun | Mystic River | Runaway Jury | The Human Stain | Sylvia | In the Cut | Master and Commander | House of Sand and Fog | Girl With A Pearl Earring | The Cat in the Hat | The Statement | The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King | Cold Mountain

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Under the Tuscan Sun
Based on the book by Frances Mayes, starring Diane Lane, written and directed by Audrey Wells.
Plot A writer overcomes a midlife crisis in Tuscany.
Why Mayes thinks adapting her book was tough "My book was a memoir, so it didn't have the kind of dramatic development you need in a film. Huge hunks were left out, but they had to go."
How Mayes feels about being played by Diane Lane "It's surreal. She's just absolutely lovely, a fairytale princess, but we met a couple times and it turns out she has a house in Georgia where I grew up. We made a lot of connections, and after a while it didn't seem so strange."
Why we'll see it For the same reason Mayes loves Tuscany: the scenery.

Mystic River
Based on Dennis Lehane's novel, starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney and Laurence Fishburne, written by Brian Helgeland, directed by Clint Eastwood.
Plot Three childhood friends torn apart by an incident in their youth later find themselves on different sides of the law.
Why we'll see it Because Eastwood and Lehane sounds like a potent mix.

Runaway Jury
Based on John Grisham's novel, starring John Cusack and Rachel Weisz, written by Brian Koppelman, directed by Gary Fleder. Plot In a case involving a major gun manufacturer, one juror seems to be controlling the rest.
Notable changes The book took on Big Tobacco, not big guns.
How John Cusack feels about acting in a Grisham flick "The script is pretty strange for a Grisham thing. It's not like your idealistic young lawyer. It's about jury tampering and it's kind of ballsy."
Why we'll see it Because Grisham adaptations tend to be better than the books.

OCTOBER

The Human Stain
Based on Philip Roth's novel, starring Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris and Gary Sinise, written by Nicholas Meyer, directed by Robert Benton.
Plot Disgraced professor Coleman Silk takes up with a young, troubled woman, and Roth's alter ego Nathan Zuckerman discovers the secret of Silk's past.
Notable changes Sixtysomething Zuckerman is now fortysomething Sinise. Previous Roth adaptations Goodbye, Columbus (1969), Portnoy's Complaint (1972).
What Nicholas Meyer learned from Philip Roth "What I learned from Roth is what I learned from Babe Ruth: The name of the game is coming up to the plate. Home run kings are also strikeout kings, but they just keep swinging."
Why Meyer remained faithful to Roth in his adaptation "I once read an interview with Virgil Thomson, who was adapting Gertrude Stein for an opera. He said he loved everything she had written, so he set everything to music, including her stage directions. I felt the same way about Roth. I tried to keep everything."
How Robert Benton approached The Human Stain "There are writers you can take liberties with and others you can't. We kept the book in front of us every day. We were continually turning back to the book; it was the mine where we went to look for what we needed every day."
Why Benton agreed to make Nathan Zuckerman younger than in Roth's book "Having just done Twilight with Paul Newman and Gene Hackman, I didn't want to go back and revisit that friendship between grumpy old men. I wanted to make Nathan a somewhat younger man so I wouldn't have a sense of déjà vu about their relationship."
Why we're looking forward to it A great screenwriter and one of America's best directors adapting the novel that is arguably Roth's finest.

Sylvia
Based on poet Sylvia Plath's life, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig, written by John Brownlow, directed by Christine Jeffs.
Plot The tumultuous relationship between poets Ted Hughes and Plath, who committed suicide in 1963. Paltrow on Hughes and Plath's relationship "They were incredibly in love. I think that he loved her always. It was one of those relationships that was so full of passion."
Paltrow on why she often plays literary heroines "I love literature. I have great respect for it. I don't get a lot of time to read, but whenever I do I read as much as I can. We weren't allowed to watch very much TV when I was a child; my parents used to read to us, and reading was really encouraged in my house."
Paltrow's favorite books Jane Eyre, Crime and Punishment and "anything by J.D. Salinger."
Why we'll see it Like many a poetry fan, we have a morbid fascination with Sylvia Plath.

In the Cut
Based on Susanna Moore's novel, starring Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo and Kevin Bacon, written by Moore and Jane Campion, directed by Campion.
Plot A sexually adventurous teacher takes up with a detective and gets embroiled in a serial murder case.
Notable changes Detective is now significantly younger.
Author's cameo Moore plays a woman who scowls while rushing for a train.
Moore on adapting her novel "The book is very extreme and had to be modified. I was more radical in the things I wanted to change in order to make that transition and Jane was more true to the book."
Moore on Jane Campion "We're both strong personalities. I remember reading articles about her and thinking, 'Now that's someone I'd like to have as a friend.' The irony, of course, is that it happened."
Moore on whether the novel's shocking conclusion has been retained "It's not as different as you would think and it's not as different as it was in the first draft of the screenplay."
Why we'll see it We want to see how it ends.

NOVEMBER

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Based on Patrick O'Brian's book, starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, written by Peter Weir, John Collee and Larry Ferguson, directed by Weir.
Plot Captain Jack Aubrey, ship surgeon Stephen Maturin and the crew of the H.M.S. Surprise match wits and forces with a deadly foe.
Peter Weir on O'Brian "The twenty-volume opus of O'Brian's was our touchstone. His books reflect a lifetime of research." Why we'll see it It's the first O'Brian adaptation ever and it's long overdue.

DECEMBER

House of Sand and Fog
Based on Andre Dubus III's bestselling novel, starring Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly and Frances Fisher, written and directed by Vadim Perelman.
Plot In a county auction, Colonel Behrani, a struggling Iranian immigrant, bids on a house owned by Kathy Nicolo, a self-destructive alcoholic. When Nicolo begins to struggle to reclaim her house—put up for auction due to an administrative error—the two lives seem doomed to collide.
Author's cameo Dubus plays a police officer.
Dubus on becoming a movie star "The character that I play doesn't exist in the book, but I got to sit there in a coat and a tie and a badge and a gun and give Ben Kingsley a hard eye."
Dubus on why he decided to become a movie star "The reason I weaseled my way into the movie was Deliverance [based on James Dickey's novel]. In the end Dickey plays the sheriff and he's got a little soliloquy. I remember thinking—I was about eleven at the time—boy, if I ever wrote a book that was made into a movie, I'd love to have a little cameo."
Dubus on seeing his characters come to life "Watching Ben Kingsley act, it really hit me that every word he said, I wrote. Here's this man who I saw twenty years ago in this beautiful movie Gandhi. And then here's this beautiful actor uttering every word that I wrote, inhabiting a character whom I created. It was humbling and moving. I felt undeserving of it."
Why we'll see it We loved the book; we like the cast.

Girl With a Pearl Earring
Based on Tracy Chevalier's book, starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth, written by Olivia Hetreed, directed by Peter Webber.
Plot A maid in the home of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his muse.
Chevalier on how the movie is better than her book "When I read the screenplay I was bowled over by some of the visual elements. I was even a little jealous of them. There is one moment when the main character, Griet, sits out in a little courtyard and plays with a bowl, reflecting the light off it so that the children around her run and try to catch it. I read that and thought, 'Why didn't I think of that?'"
How Chevalier feels about cuts made to her book "I suppose I'm dismayed by how much has to be cut. So many of the subplots have had to be sacrificed in service to the greater good of the main story. That's a shame but it's also understandable." Why Webber thinks the novel works on screen "Tracy's book is actually perfect for adaptation because it's fairly classic—a simple story, and I mean that in the best possible sense. I think movies have to be simple."
Why we'll see it Because everyone else in our book club is going.

The Cat in the Hat
Based on Dr. Seuss' book, starring Mike Myers and Dakota Fanning, written by Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer, directed by Bo Welch.
Plot Stuck at home, two children are alternately entertained and horrified by the titular cat and his two pals, Thing 1 and Thing 2. Mayhem ensues.
Notable changes The story now features songs.
Previous Seuss adaptations How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966, 2000), The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953), Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950).
Dakota Fanning on the film's fidelity to the book "That's one of the great things about the script. It is so true to the book. I'm in a jumper exactly like in the book and the cat has a red-and-white-striped hat, so it's pretty much the same. And then there's the goldfish, so it's pretty much exactly like the book."
Why we'll see it Because it's got to be better than that last Grinch movie.

The Statement
Based on Brian Moore's book, starring Michael Caine, written by Ronald Harwood, directed by Norman Jewison.
Plot A man on the lam for Nazi war crimes continues to elude his pursuers.
Previous Moore adaptations Black Robe (1991).
Previous Harwood adaptation Wladyslaw Szpilman's The Pianist (2002).
Why Harwood adapted Moore's novel "I'd never done a thriller before."
Why Harwood prefers faithful adaptations of novels: "I'm a very boring old fart. I try to realize these books as movies. If I wanted to do it another way, I'd write original screenplays. Otherwise, I'd be a kind of leech."
Why we'll see it Should be one of the smartest adaptations of the season.

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book, starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Liv Tyler, written by Philippa Boyens, Frances Walsh and Peter Jackson, directed by Peter Jackson.
Plot More of the same.
Previous Tolkien adaptations The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), The Hobbit (1977).
Why Peter Jackson thinks Tolkien's work endures "Tolkien wrote the book between 1937 and 1949, during a decade of incredible turmoil. Fifty years later we find ourselves in a similar position. Not much has changed, and I suspect fifty years from now not that much will be different. We are humans after all."
Why Jackson thinks Tolkien works onscreen "The books have this wonderful mixture of epic spectacles with an intimate story line. That combination worked well in the books and we're trying to replicate that in the film."
How Liv Tyler felt when Viggo Mortensen told her she had to do a whole scene speaking Elvish "I love to speak Elvish but I was just like, 'Argh.' I wanted to kill him."
Why we'll see it Because we've already seen the last two.

Cold Mountain
Based on the book by Charles Frazier, starring Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger and Jude Law, written and directed by Anthony Minghella.
Plot A wounded Confederate soldier embarks on a personal odyssey to return to his beloved Ada.
Minghella's previous adaptations The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The English Patient (1996).
Zellweger on her experience with Frazier's book "For me, it's been a five-year odyssey. I got a copy of the book and I read it and was completely mesmerized by the characters. I wanted to get the rights. They were about $10,000 and my friends and I were scooping up our pennies. We were thinking, 'Oh, this could happen.' Anyway, Newsweek wrote about the book and by the end of the week, it was a million for the rights, and that clearly wasn't going to happen."
Why we'll see it Minghella's done well with his other literary adaptations.

Also Coming:
Timeline, Michael Crichton
Big Fish, by Daniel Wallace
A Home at the End of the World, by Michael Cunningham
Bukowski: Born Into This, a documentary about the writer Charles Bukowski
The Dreamers, based on The Holy Innocents, by Gilbert Adair
Paycheck, based on a short story by Philip K. Dick
Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie
Young Black Stallion, based on books by Walter and Steven Farley