Seeing recent movie advertisements for bestsellers such as The Help, due out next week, and Sarah’s Key and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, both currently showing, made me realize that 2011 has been a big year for books made into movies. The runaway best seller Water For Elephants debuted on the screen in April starring big name actors Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson and the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released in July. Lesser known books that were turned into movies so far in 2011 include Desert Flower, which tells the story of Somali model Waris Dirie, who escaped her rural village after being sold into marriage at the age of 13, and the 2001 thriller The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn which was re-released in 2011 as Limitless to coincide with the film adaptation. I am especially looking forward to some quirkier movie adaptations including We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals that Changed Their Lives Forever by Benjamin Mee coming in December and The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik due out in October. There are also very highly anticipated adaptations in the coming months including the final Twilight book, Breaking Dawn, and the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I have created a list of books into movies for 2011/early 2012, but I’m sure I have missed some. Feel free to comment and tell us what other books have already been or are going to be turned into movies. Also, did you love a book more than its movie adaptation, if so, let us know.
Rika G.
