Book To Screen Adaptations coming soon!

There are many ways to begin 2024. One of the many ways is reading great books and watching their tv & movie adaptations. Have you read any of these books? If not, and if you have the time maybe you should start reading them now!

A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towels is about Russian Count, Alexander Rostov, who is spending a life sentence in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow after avoiding execution by the Bolshivik revolutionaries. During his exile in the hotel the count reflects on his life, makes new friends, and becomes a guardian to a little girl. He makes the best of his circumstances. Ewan McGregor and his wife Mary Elizabeth Winstead will both play the Count and his love interest Anna Urbanova which will be interesting. The television miniseries will be on Showtime/Paramount +. The show was delayed filming due to the writers strike but if they resumed production maybe the show will come later this year early next year. I loved the book, and I can’t wait to see Amor Towels brilliant novel being brought to life.

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover will hit theaters on February 9^th 2024. Lily Bloom moves to a new city, falls in love, and opens her own flower shop. Lily falls in love with a doctor named Ryle. Things eventually go sour when he starts abusing her and it mirrors the abuse Lily saw her mother go through. Lily’s first love Atlas comes back in the picture and complicates things more. I know many people either love or hate Colleen Hoover and honestly, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Though I read Hoover’s book Verity first, it was It Ends With Us that made me a fan of Hoovers work. Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni & Brandon Sklenar will portray Lily, Ryle & Atlas. If It Ends With Us does well at the movies, I hope Hollywood does the sequel It Starts With Us.

 Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein made its debut on April 7^th, 2022, and after finding out it’s based on a memoir I had to put the book on hold at the library and I immediately read it. After waiting almost 2 years (I honestly was wondering if it would come back when my hair started to turn grey) my friends and I in the Tokyo Vice Club found out the show’s second season will return on February 8^th this year! I can make it I can wait a month more. The trailer recently came out and it was action packed and very exciting! We find out that Sato is still alive. I can’t wait to see whether this season will cover Lucy Blackman’s case. I also want to know if Miyamoto, played by Hideaki Ito is dead or alive. Tozowa said the words, Miyamoto is somewhere where his conscience will no longer bother him or be a liability to me. That sentence could mean Tozowa is holding Miyamoto somewhere or that he’s dead. But how do we know he’s telling the truth? Theres a rule in movies & television that if there isn’t a dead body, there is still hope that a character is alive even if another character might say said character is gone. I also think either the yakuza writer or Miyamoto left Jake the tape of Polina on Yoshino. The yakuza writer & Miyamoto were the only ones to know what was going on Yoshino. There was no way Sato left Jake the tape since he was too busy getting stabbed. Ansel Elgort will return as Jake Adelstein, Ken Watanabe will also return to play Katagiri as well as Rachel Keller & Rinko Kikuchi as Samantha & Emi. Newcomers such as Takayuki Suzuki, Soji Arai & Aoi Takeya are newcomers to the show. Fans of Soji Arai will recognize him from the popular book to television series Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Ken Watanabe was the Chairman in the book to film adaptation of Memoirs Of A Geisha.

Shogun by James Clavell is set in 17^th century Japan & has three main characters English Sailor John Blackthorne who rises to become a samurai, Lord Toranaga who faces off against political enemies at every turn & Lady Mariko who is more skilled than you think and must prove her worth with her unfavorable family history. While I haven’t read the book, I am curious and I saw the trailer that will premiere on FX, Hulu & Disney Plus. There was also a version of the show in the 1980s. I love period shows and movies in different parts of the world. I also read somewhere that this show will cover persecution against Christians, particularly Catholic Christians in Japan during this period. The show will premiere on February 27^th! Cosmo Jarvis, Hiroyuki Sanada & Anna Sawai will star in the show.

The Tigers Apprentice by Laurence Yep is about a young boy whose life changes when he meets a talking tiger, Mr. Hu and discovers he has magical powers. According to the article from Vulture, In this world where animals can take human form, the young boy joins up with a gang of creatures as they face off against an evil force trying to obtain an ancient talisman that the guardians protect.  If your kids are fans of fantasy stories, especially ones like Percy Jackson or something like it, then maybe they will like this book and the television adaptation to it. While I haven’t read it, I am curious about reading it now and watching it. The show debuts on Paramount Plus on February 2^nd. Michelle Yeoh, Leah Lewis & Henry Golding will star in this adaptation. A fun note is Laurence Yep wrote several popular books, one of them being Lady Ch’iao Kuo which is part of The Royal Diaries Series.