September New and Notable
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008“Fall Film Fare!”
Movie “tie-ins” are coming to the theater and bookstores in many offerings this fall. Here are just a few, with thanks from Publishers Weekly!!
THE DUCHESS, by Amanda Foreman
Provides a dramatic portrait of the colorful life of eighteenth-century British aristocrat Lady Georgiana Spencer, her roles as a society and political hostess, and her disastrous and profligate private life. Originally published as Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire. Reprint. (A Paramount/Vantage film, directed by Saul Dibb, written by Jeffrey Hatcher & Anders Thomas Jensen, releasing September 2008, starring Kiera Knightley & Ralph Fiennes)
Release date: Sept.19, starring Keira Knightley Raplph Fiennes, Hayley Atwell. Foreman’s book won the 1998 Whitbread Prize for Biography and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
IGOR, by Catherine Hapka
Although a resident of Malaria where all the scientists strive to make the most evil invention for the Evil Science Fair, Igor’s plans go awry when his creation turns out to be a lovable monster with a wild passion for the arts!
Release date: Sept.19, with voices of John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater, John Cleese, Jay Leno and Molly Shannon.
MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA, by James McBride
In a historical novel based on a real-life massacre at St. Anna Di Stazzema, a small village in Tuscany, during World War II, four African- American soldiers from the 92nd Division, a band of partisans, and a young Italian boy come together to experience a miracle. By the author of The Color of Water.
Release date: Sept. 26, starring Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Lax Alonso. McBride’s debut novel follows his acclaimed memoir, The Color of Water. Set in 1944 Italy, Miracle centers on four black U.S. soldiers who get trapped in a Tuscan village during WWII.
CHOKE, by Chuck Palahniuk
Medical school dropout Victor Mancini comes up with a complicated but ingenious scam to pay for his mother’s elder care–pretend to be choking in a restaurant and con the individuals who “save” him into giving him money– while he cruises sex addiction groups for action, and visits his sick mother, whose Alzheimer’s disease hides the bizarre truth about his parentage.
Release date: Sept. 26, starring Anjelica Huston, Sam Rockwell, Kelly Macdonald. The movie opened to great reviews at Sundance in January, where it won the Special Jury Prize.
NIGHTS IN RODNATHE, by Nicholas Sparks
Forty-five-year-old divorcée Adrienne Willis is forced to reconsider her entire life when her husband leaves her for a younger woman, as she confronts the difficulties of raising her teenage children and caring for her ailing father, until a trip to Rodanthe in North Carolina’s outer banks leads to an encounter with successful surgeon Paul Flanner.
Release date: Sept. 26, starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane, James Franco. Nights marks the fourth filmization of a Sparks novel. Nights has quite the numbers…460,000 trade paper; 1.3 million mass market.
APPALOOSA, by Robert B. Parker
Arriving in a small nineteenth-century western town only to discover that its sheriff has been killed and its residents placed at the mercy of renegade rancher Randall Bregg, itinerant lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch find themselves facing an unusually challenging adversary who works by playing psychological games. By the author of Double Play.
Release date: Oct. 3, starring Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger, Jeremy Irons. Triple-threat Harris directed, wrote the screenplay and acts in this western that’s studded with big names.
THE EXPRESS: THE ERNIE DAVIS STORY, by Robert C. Gallagher
Offers a close-up portrait of Ernie Davis, the legendary football star who broke Jim Brown’s rushing records and who became the first black athlete to win the Heisman Trophy, detailing his remarkable high school and college athletic career, as well as his remarkable courage in battling the leukemia that would take his life.
Release date: Oct. 3, starring Dennis Quaid, Charles Dutton, Clancy Brown.
HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE, by Toby Young
A journalist who has been fired from a succession of prestigious newspapers and magazines recounts five years of his life during which he was cast out of numerous jobs, social hangouts, and organizations in his quest to find himself.
Release date: Oct. 3, starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges
NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST, by Rachel Chon and David Levithan
High school student Nick O’Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.
Release Date: Oct. 3, starring Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Alexis Dziena Looks to be a big fall date movie!
BODY OF LIES, by David Ignatius
Emerging from a tour of duty in Iraq with a badly injured leg, CIA soldier Roger Ferris takes on a mission to infiltrate the network of a master terrorist and bases his plan on a British intelligence operation from World War II before finding himself caught in a dangerous web and depending on a dubiously trustworthy intelligence head.
Release date: Oct. 10, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Carice van Houten. Publishers Weekly’s review…”one of the best post 9/11 thrillers yet” hit the nail on the head: “should possibly attract Hollywood interest.”
THE CITY OF EMBER, by Jeanne DuPrau
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina finds part of an ancient message that she is sure holds a secret to save her underground city from ruin, but Lina and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever. An ALA Notable Book.
Release date: Oct. 10, starring Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Saoirse Ronan. Director Gil Kenan (Monster House) helms this steam-punk adaptation of the first book in DuPrau’s series. Tom Hanks is on board as a producer.
FLASH OF GENIUS, by John Seabrook
Seabrook’s book explores the moment when inspiration strikes in an otherwise average life, and what happens when that idea takes on a life of its own.
Release date: Oct. 17, starring Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney, Greg Kinnear
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, by Sue Monk Kidd
After her “stand-in mother,” a bold black woman named Rosaleen, insults the three biggest racists in town, Lily Owens, whose life has been defined by the tragic death of her mother, joins Rosaleen on a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they are taken in by three black, bee-keeping sisters who show them the true meaning of love and family.
Release date: Oct. 17, starring Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson. Kidd’s long-running bestseller has been picked up for school course adaptations and numerous community reads throughout the country.
DISNEY HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR, by N.B. Grace
The third installment in Disney’s block-buster franchise hits the big screen for the first time. High School Musical 2 (2007) had 17.2 million viewers in the U.S., which set a cable TV record.
Release date: Oct. 24, starring Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale.
MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA: THE JUNIOR NOVEL, by J.E. Bright
This film’s predecessor about a rowdy group of animals’ escape from the Central Park Zoo grossed close to $200 million.
Release date: Nov. 7, starring voices of Ben Stiller, Sacha Baron Cohen, David Schwimmer.
THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy
In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity.
Release date: Nov. 7, starring Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce. McCarthy’s last movie, No Country for Old Men, won last year’s Best Picture Oscar….also a Pulitzer Prize winner.
THE SOLOIST, by Steve Lopez
An intimate portrait of gifted violinist Nathaniel Ayers traces his promising education at Juilliard, his struggles with schizophrenia, and the factors that led
to his homelessness in Los Angeles, circumstances that prompted their friendship and the author’s efforts to improve the musician’s life in spite of numerous setbacks.
Release date: Nov. 21, starring Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener. Publisher’s Weekly gave the “inspiring story of heartbreak and hope” a starred review.
TWILIGHT, by Stephenie Meyer
When seventeen-year-old Bella Swan leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human. An ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults.
Release date: Nov. 21, starring Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner. Tie-ins, carried by all bookstores: Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion (300,000 paper); The Twilight Saga: The Official Guide, by Stephanie Meyer (Dec.; 500,000 hardcover.)
Anticipation for this film may equal or surpass that of Meyer’s recent novel, Breaking Dawn’ the release date was bumped up by a few weeks, welcome news for fans, be they “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob.”
GOMORRA, by Roberto Saviano
A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples’ Organized Crime System.
Release date: December, starring Salvatore Cantalupo, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale. Move over, Don Corleone. Saviano’s novel, a bestseller in Italy, traces the decline of Naples under the Camorra, a crime network that makes the mafia look like a social club. Earlier this year the movie won the Grand Prix at Cannes.
THE READER, by Bernard Schlink
At the age of fifteen, Michael Berg falls in love with a woman who disappears, and while observing a trial as a law student years later, he is shocked to discover the same woman as the defendant in a horrible crime.
Release date: Dec. 12, starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Alexandra Maria Lara. The novel was an Oprah Book Club pick.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Presents the title story about the curious case of a baby, born in 1860, who begins life as an old man and who proceeds to age backward, accompanied by eighteen other stories set against the backdrop of Jazz Age America.
Release date: Dec. 19, voices of Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton. Tie-in from Scribner: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Story to Screenplay; includes the F. Scott Fitzgerald story, screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, and screenplay by Eric Roth.
THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX, by Kate DiCamillo
An illustrated fairy tale tells the adventures of Despereaux Tilling the mouse and his two associates, Roscuro the rat and Miggery Sow, who happen upon a journey together to a castle where their destiny awaits. An ALA Notable Children’s Book & Newbery Medal Winner. Jr Lib Guild. Teacher’s Guide available.
Release date: Dec. 19, voices of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Sigourney Weaver.
MARLEY AND ME, by John Grogan
Follows the life story of an exuberant golden Labrador who gets into perpetual trouble and experiences a range of inspiring adventures, from comforting his human companions in the aftermath of a devastating miscarriage, to shutting down an entire beach, to guarding a seventeen-year- old neighbor in the aftermath of a stabbing attack.
Release date: Dec. 25, starring Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Alan Arkin
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, by Richard Yates
The devastating effects of work, adultery, rebellion, and selfdeception slowly destroy the once successful marriage of Frank and April Wheeler, a suburban American couple.
Release date: Dec. 26, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates. Everyman’s Library will publish a Yates omnibus (Road, Easter Parade, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness) to coincide with the movie.)
