Tag: Book adaptations

Book to series adaptation: ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles

The series adaptation of ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ will be available on Showtime/Paramount +. Photo: Amazon

Amor Towles is an American novelist who graduated from Yale College and received an M.A. from Stanford University. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers “Rules of Civility,” “A Gentleman in Moscow,” and “The Lincoln Highway,” as well as the short story collection “Table for Two.” His books have collectively sold more than six million copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages. His 2016 novel “A Gentleman in Moscow” was adapted into an 8 episode series and will be available on Showtime/Paramount + starting on March 31, 2024. It stars Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov. (Amazon, 2024)

“A Gentleman in Moscow” is a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel.

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

Television adaptation: Will Trent series by Karin Slaughter

The television adaptation of Will Trent will premiere on ABC on Tuesday, January 3, 2023. Photo: Google

Karin Slaughter is a crime writer and author of 21 novels which have sold more than 40 million copies and have been published in 120 countries. Her first novel “Blindsighted” made the Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Award shortlist for ‘Best Thriller Debut’ of 2001. She is best known for stand alone novels but also for the Grant County and Will Trent (Atlanta) series of books. The Will Trent series takes place in Atlanta, Georgia and features Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Will Trent, his partner Faith Mitchell, and Angie Polaski. The series has been adapted into a television series starring Ramón Rodriguez as Will Trent, Erika Christensen as Angie Polaski, and Iantha Richardson as Faith Mitchell. Will Trent will premiere on ABC on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 10/9c. (Google, 2023)

As a child, Trent was abandoned and was forced to endure a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. Now that he is in a position to make a difference, Trent is determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was. His personal motivation and background contribute to Will Trent having the highest clearance rate in the GBI.

Photo: Amazon
https://youtu.be/9VSSwTZqnmI

Television adaptation: ‘The Peripheral’ by William Gibson

The series adaptation of ‘The Peripheral’ will be available on Amazon Prime Video starting October 21, 2022. Photo: Amazon

William Gibson is credited with having coined the term “cyberspace” and having envisioned both the Internet and virtual reality before either existed. His first novel, “Neuromancer,” won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of “Count Zero,” “Burning Chrome,” “Mona Lisa Overdrive,” “Virtual Light,” “Idoru,” “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” “Pattern Recognition,” “Spook Country,” “Zero History,” “Distrust That Particular Flavor,” “The Peripheral,” and “Agency.” “The Peripheral,” a fast-paced sci-fi thriller that takes a terrifying look into the future, has been adapted into a series and will air on Amazon Prime Video beginning on October 21, 2022. The first season consists of eight episodes and stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Gary Carr, and Jack Reynor. (Amazon, 2022)

“The Peripheral” – Flynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she is trying to avoid. Her brother Burton lives on money from the Veterans Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines’ elite Haptic Recon unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at the local 3D printshop. She made more as a combat scout in an online game, playing for a rich man, but she has had to let the shooter games go.

Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the haves, and there are a few have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a society where reaching into the past is just another hobby. 

Burton’s been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot weirder. He has got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game is not a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad. Flynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf’s, for all its decadence and power, will learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass.

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Television adaptation: ‘The Family’ by Jeff Sharlet

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The Family is now streaming on Netflix. Photo: google

Jeff Sharlet is an American journalist, author and contributing editor for Harper’s, Virginia Quarterly Review and Rolling Stone. His work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Esquire and The Washington Post and he has written the books “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” “C Street” and “Sweet Heaven When I Die.” “The Family” investigates the political power of The Family or The Fellowship, a secretive fundamentalist Christian association led by Douglas Coe. It was developed into a documentary web television miniseries that premiered on Netflix on August 9.

According to Amazon, in “The Family,” the group insists that they are just a group of friends, yet they funnel millions of dollars through tax-free corporations. They claim to disdain politics, but congressmen of both parties describe them as the most influential religious organization in Washington. They say they are not Christians, but simply believers. Behind the scenes at every National Prayer Breakfast since 1953 has been the Family, an elite network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful. Their goal is “Jesus plus nothing.” Their method is backroom diplomacy. “The Family” is the startling story of how their faith, part free-market fundamentalism, part imperial ambition, has come to be interwoven with the affairs of nations around the world.

Television adaptation: ‘NOS4A2’ by Joe Hill

nos4a2Joe Hill is an American author and comic book writer whose work includes the novels “Heart-Shaped Box,” “Horns,” “NOS4A2” and “The Fireman.” He has also written the short story collections “20th Century Ghosts” and “Strange Weather” as well as the comic book series Locke & Key, the latter which won the British Fantasy Awards in 2009 and 2012 and an Eisner Award in 2012. NOS4A2 focuses on a woman trying to save her son from a vicious, supernatural killer who has set his eyes on him. The television adaptation, consisting of ten episodes, will air on AMC starting on Sunday June 2 and stars Zachary Quinto as Charlie Manx and Ashleigh Cummings as Vic McQueen.

“NOS4A2” follows Victoria “Vic” McQueen, a young working-class artist who has a secret gift for finding things, like a misplace bracelet, a missing photograph or answers to unanswerable questions. She also discovers that she has a supernatural ability to track the seemingly immortal Charlie Manx. Manx feeds off the souls of children, then deposits what remains of them into Christmasland, a twisted Christmas Village of Manx’s imagination where everyday is Christmas Day and unhappiness is against the law. He drives a 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2 which allows him to slip out of the everyday world and into the terrifying Christmasland. When Vic was young, she was the only girl to escape Manx’s evil grasp and now all grown up, she just wants to forget. But Manx has never forgotten Vic and now she must defeat Manx and rescue his victims, one being her own son, without losing her mind or falling victim to him herself.

Television adaptation: ‘Anne of Green Gables’ by L.M. Montgomery

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The television adaptation of ‘Anne of Green Gables’ by L.M. Montgomery will be available on Netflix on Friday May 12, 2017. Photo: Barnes & Noble

“Anne of Green Gables” is a 1908 novel by Canadian author L.M. Montgomery and is widely considered a children’s novel even though it is written for all ages. It is the author’s most popular work but she also wrote short stories, poems and essays. After the success of the first book, she wrote a series of sequels with Anne as the main character. They center around the adventures of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan girl who is mistakenly sent to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. The original novel has sold more than 50 million copies, has been translated into twenty languages and is taught to students around the world. There have been many film and television adaptations in the past and the most recent one aired on CBC in Canada and will be available to stream on Netflix on Friday May 12, 2017. It stars Amybeth McNulty as Anne Shirley, Geraldine James as Marilla Cuthbert and R.H. Thomson as Matthew Cuthbert.

According to Amazon, “Anne of Green Gables” tells the story of a young orphan named Anne from a fictional community in Nova Scotia who is sent to live with a middle-aged brother and sister.  They initially wanted a boy to help around the farm in the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island. Anne is highly imaginative, eager to please and has a flair for the dramatic. She is also very vain and hates her red hair and thin frame and at first Marilla wants to send her back but ends up changing her mind when Matthew intervenes. Eventually she adapts to her new life in the close-knit farming village and the country school where she makes new friends while excelling in her studies.

Television adaptation: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood

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Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist and environmental activist. Even though she has published several poetry books she is best known for her 1985 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” It is a dystopian novel set in a near-future New England in a totalitarian theocracy which has overthrown the United States government. Winner of the 1985 Governor General’s Award, it was also nominated for the Nebula Award, the Booker Prize and the Prometheus Award. Previous adaptations include the cinema, television, radio, opera and stage. Now it has been adapted into a television series on Hulu and will premiere on Wednesday April 29, 2017. It stars Elizabeth Moss as Offred the Handmaid and Samira Wiley as Moira, Offred’s college friend.

According to Amazon, “The Handmaid’s Tale” is set in the near future and describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the Republic of Gilead. The government is now a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by going back to the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. Those in charge now make the rules according to the book of Genesis with bizarre consequences for its citizens. Environmental contamination had led to infertility so now young fertile women are assigned to the homes of the rich where they are supposed to have children for those men and their wives. It is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids, who remembers happier times when she was married with a daughter and her own name. Considered a satire, it can also be viewed as a dire warning.