Written by Jon Williams
Recently it was announced that the streaming service Hulu
had picked up rights to a new six-episode adaptation of Joseph Heller’s classic
Catch-22, starring and directed by George
Clooney. First published in 1961, the novel is considered one of the most
significant and influential literary works of the 20 th century.
About a group of United States airmen during World War II and their darkly
humorous attempts to maintain their sanity (or prove their insanity), the novel
was previously adapted into a 1970 feature
film starring Alan Arkin as the main character, Yossarian, along with other
such notable names as Art Garfunkel, Martin Sheen, Bob Newhart, Jon Voight, and
Orson Welles.
Hulu, of course, has gained much acclaim lately for another
series adaptation of a classic novel. Earlier this month, The Handmaid’s Tale won a Golden Globe for Best Drama Series, and
Elisabeth Moss took home the award for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and it
fared even better at last fall’s Emmy Awards, where it won those same two
awards and six more. The show is based on Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s
dystopian 1985 novel
about a near-future society where declining birth rates have led to fertile
women being indentured to powerful men as “handmaids” for procreation. Like Catch-22, The Handmaid’s Tale was previously adapted into a movie,
released in 1990 and starring Natasha Richardson, Robert Duvall, and Faye
Dunaway. The show’s second season will debut in April.
HBO has a knack for bringing books to life—their Big
Little Lies series, based on the novel
by Liane Moriarty was a big winner in the miniseries category at this year’s
Golden Globes, not to mention the runaway success of Game
of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s Song
of Ice and Fire, among other examples. Their latest attempt will come this
spring, with Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit
451. Referring to the temperature at which paper burns, the story deals
with “firemen” who are tasked with burning any books they find, and one who
goes rogue in hopes of reviving the wisdom of the past. A 1966 adaptation
was directed by the legendary Francois Truffaut.
Since its initial publication in the late 1860s, Louisa May
Alcott’s Little
Women has always been a popular target for adaptation, with several movies
and TV miniseries to its name already. This year, those totals will both go
up by one, as the March sisters are coming to both the big and small screens.
The film version, starring Lea Thompson as Marmee, the girls’ mother, does not
have a firm release date yet. The three-part miniseries, on the other hand, is
expected to air on PBS and the BBC during the Christmas season. Starring Emily
Watson and Angela Lansbury, it will follow in a tradition of PBS/BBC period
dramas, and as such, is highly anticipated.
Last year, Moonlight
won Academy Awards for Best Motion Picture and Best Screenplay. This year, the
writer and director of that film, Barry Jenkins, is bringing to the screen James
Baldwin’s 1974 novel If Beale Street
Could Talk. It’s the gripping story of a man unjustly accused of a horrific
crime just after he and his fiancée learn she is pregnant, and their fight to
prove his innocence. Despite being more than forty years old, it’s a tale with
a great deal of resonance today. Another recent film based on a work by
Baldwin, the 2016 documentary I
Am Not Your Negro, has garnered much acclaim.
Of course, all of these adaptations are still a ways off.
Much closer on the horizon is Disney’s movie version of A Wrinkle in Time, directed by Ava DuVernay. Author Madeleine L’Engle’s
1962 novel
won the prestigious Newbery Medal for children’s literature, among other
awards, and has been a beloved classic ever since. It follows the young Meg
Murry as she searches for her father, a brilliant scientist who has discovered
a method of traveling through both space and time. The movie, which hits
theatres on March 9, is sure to reignite interest in L’Engle’s book, as well as
further titles in the series, such as A
Wind in the Door and A
Swiftly Tilting Planet.
Be sure you have these classic novels on your shelves for
patrons as their adaptations come out, as they will surely be in demand even
more than usual. Use the links above, or SmartBrowse on our website for other
adaptations, more works by the authors, and plenty of other related materials.
Also, the OLA Super Conference is
coming up very soon. If you’ll be at this year’s event, please come see us! We’ll
be at Booth #413/415 on February 1-2. We look forward to seeing you there!
Written by Jon Williams
Last week we looked at some of the great moving coming out
way in 2018, but that’s not all there is to look forward to. Here are some
other great media titles the coming year has in store for us.
In publishing, the big question to start the year is the
same as it has been for the past several years: will we finally see The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in George
R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series? There’s no definitive word on
that as of now (and we already know the eighth and final season of Game
of Thrones isn’t coming until 2019), so all we can do is keep our
fingers crossed. We do know, though, that Stephen
King will follow up his packed 2017 with a new novel, The
Outsider, coming in May. Other fiction titles for the year include Force
of Nature by Jane Harper and Sunburn
by Laura Lippman in February, Meg Wolitzer’s The
Female Persuasion in April, and Lauren Groff’s Florida
in June. Also, the Hogarth Shakespeare series, which sees popular contemporary
authors update classic Bard tales, will have a new addition with Jo Nesbo’s Macbeth
in April.
While her next novel isn’t coming until next year, a book of
essays (including one on our collective love for public libraries) entitled Feel
Free from Zadie Smith is part of a monumental year in non-fiction. A
couple of social movements that gained steam as 2017 progressed will continue
to demand attention and consideration. One is #MeToo and Time’s Up, highlighted
at the recent Golden Globes ceremony. Rose McGowan’s Brave
details her experience as an actress in Hollywood, while acclaimed author Roxane
Gay compiles a series of essays by a number of women in Not
That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture. A co-founder of Black Lives
Matter, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, brings her struggle to light next week in When
They Call You a Terrorist. In a related vein, a previously unpublished
work from the late Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon,
looks at slavery’s effect on one man and the enduring legacy of the
institution. But there are some books on less weighty topics as well, such as See
What Can Be Done, a collection of cultural and media criticism from
Lorrie Moore, and Creative
Quest, a guide to creativity and inspiration from Questlove.
The world of music is already abuzz with the recent
announcement of a new album forthcoming from Justin Timberlake. Man
of the Woods comes out February 2, just two days before his performance
at halftime of the Super Bowl. There’s plenty of other good music on tap,
including a new album from platinum rockers Fall Out Boy, M
A N I A, out a week from today. The anticipated Marvel movie Black Panther has an equally anticipated
soundtrack
that was curated and produced by Kendrick Lamar, who also performs on it,
available February 9, a week before the movie debuts in theatres. An album
featuring unheard recordings from the late Jimi Hendrix, Both
Sides of the Sky, comes out March 9. Because of the nature of the music
industry, nailing down future releases can be an inexact science, to say the
least, but there’s a good chance of new album releases this year from such
names as Paul
McCartney, Bruce
Springsteen, Madonna,
Tool,
Nicki
Minaj, Kanye
West, and Migos.
As we said on last week’s movie preview, this is just scratching
the surface of all the great content we can expect to see in 2018. Is there
anything in particular you and your patrons are looking forward to? Let us
know, and stay tuned to CVS Midwest Tape here on our blog as well as our Facebook and Twitter feeds for more information
on exciting new releases as they become available.
Written by Jon Williams
Happy New Year from all of us here at CVS Midwest Tape! We’ve
hit the ground running in 2018, and we’re excited to continue to bring the best
in media to you, your libraries, and your patrons. With that in mind, here’s a
look at some of the most anticipated movies to watch for the in the year to
come.
Marvel’s Cinematic Universe kicked off ten years ago with
2008’s Iron Man, and it’s still going
strong. First up, in February, is a solo adventure from Chadwick Boseman’s
Black Panther, who first appeared in Captain America: Civil War. That
leads into May’s mega superhero team-up flick, Avengers: Infinity War, which unites all Marvel’s standalone heroes
and promises to bring the Guardians
of the Galaxy into the mix as well. Then in July comes Ant-Man and the Wasp, the follow-up to 2015’s Ant-Man starring Paul Rudd. But
that’s by no means all for comic book movies. Another Marvel favorite, the
sequel to the acclaimed Deadpool is expected in June. In
November, X-Men: Dark Phoenix will
continue that franchise where Apocalypse left off. And the DC
Comics franchise continues in December with Aquaman,
the first installment since Justice League.
A big year for adaptations kicks off next month with Fifty Shades Freed, the third
installment of the trilogy adapted from E.L. James’s hugely popular book
series. A month after that, on the opposite end of the spectrum, comes a
new version of A Wrinkle in Time,
based on Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved Newbery
Medal winner. March will also see Steven Speilberg’s adaptation of Ernest
Cline’s rollicking near-future bestseller Ready Player One roll into theaters.
In October, The Girl in the Spider’s Web goes
from the page to the screen, picking up the Millennium Series where David
Lagercrantz took over following Stieg Larsson’s passing. And although not
technically an adaptation, the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,
coming in November, will expand the wizarding world set forth in J.K. Rowling’s
classic Harry Potter novels.
Then there are the sequels and reboots. One of the biggest
will be May’s Solo, the second
standalone Star Wars story after
2016’s Rogue One, this time detailing the
backstory of everyone’s favourite scoundrel and scruffy-looking nerfherder, Han
Solo. In June, Ocean’s 8 will bring
an all-female crew to the beloved heist
movies. Later that month, the long-awaited sequel to Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles finally arrives, and
the next Jurassic World installment will
wreak its havoc as well. The Purge
horror series gets an origin story with The
Purge: The Island, due in July. In October, Bradley Cooper and
Lady Gaga feature in a new iteration of A
Star Is Born. Michael B. Jordan returns for a second Creed
film, an offshoot of the Rocky
franchise, in November. Then, on Christmas Day comes Mary
Poppins Returns, a sequel to the 1964
Disney classic starring Emily Blunt as the titular nanny and Lin-Manuel
Miranda as her sidekick.
That’s just scratching the surface of all the big movies
coming our way in 2018. Next week we’ll take a look at what else we have to
look forward to in pop culture. In the meantime, let us know what you’re
looking forward to the most, and count on us to keep you informed on when all
these blockbusters—and everything else the new year has to offer—will be
available on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD.
Written by Jon Williams
Early yesterday morning, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
announced the bands and musicians to be inducted into its hallowed halls this
coming year. It must have been a tight race: among the acts that didn’t make it
this year are Radiohead (in their first year of eligibility), Eurythmics,
Depeche Mode, and LL Cool J. Those that did make it in, on the other hand, are
as follows:
Bon
Jovi won a fan poll on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s website, which
garnered them an extra vote toward induction. They’re the “newest” band in this
year’s class, with their self-titled
debut album releasing in 1984. They hit it big in the heyday of hair metal with
1986’s Slippery
When Wet, with hits like “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a
Prayer” propelling the album to 12x Platinum status. They’ve been going strong
ever since, adjusting their rock sound over the years and releasing a total of
thirteen studio albums to date, with the most recent being last year’s This
House Is Not for Sale. Speculation has already begun that original members
Richie Sambora and Alec John Such will reunite with the rest of the band for
the induction performance.
Dire
Straits got their start a bit earlier, but, like Bon Jovi, enjoyed their
greatest success in the 1980s. Formed by brothers Mark and David Knopfler in
1977 with a pair of friends, the band released Dire
Straits (containing their knockout first single “Sultans of Swing”) and
Communique
before the decade was out. The 1985 album Brothers
in Arms, on the strength of “Money for Nothing” and its ultra-popular
music video, became the first million-seller in the compact disc format, and
also won two Grammy Awards. They released just one album after that, 1991’s On
Every Street, although principal member Mark
Knopfler has enjoyed a very successful solo career since then.
The
Cars’ induction brings them full circle—singer Ric Ocasik and bassist
Benjamin Orr originally met in Cleveland in the 1960s. The Cars came together
in 1976, and they took off with their 1978
debut album, which included the hits “Good Times Roll,” “My Best Friend’s
Girl,” and “Just What I Needed.” They released six albums before the band’s
breakup in 1988. Founding member Orr passed away in 2000, but the remaining
members reunited for the 2011 album Move Like
This (currently unavailable on CD, but available digitally on hoopla). Like Knopfler
and Dire Straits, Ric Ocasik has also had success as a solo artist.
The
Moody Blues have their origins more than a decade before, coming together
in 1964. After one album as an R&B outfit of sorts, they hit their stride
with the landmark prog rock album Days
of Future Passed (containing their biggest hit, “Nights in White Satin”)
in 1967. Although they’ve been through a number of lineup changes, they’ve been
quite prolific, with sixteen albums to their credit. The last was 2003’s
Christmas-themed December,
perfect for this time of year, but the band has continued to tour, and to
release compilation and live albums.
Nina
Simone sadly passed away in 2003, but will play a large role in the 2018
induction nonetheless. Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, she adopted her stage name
as a small-time singer in 1954. She became a full-fledged member of the civil
rights movement with her 1964 live album Nina
Simone in Concert (available on hoopla) and
incorporated that message into her music going forward. She put out an
incredible number of albums, both studio and live, and has influenced a
generation of musicians, from the Beatles and David Bowie to Aretha Franklin and
Lena Horne to Elton John and more. Whoever performs in her stead at the
induction ceremony, it’s sure to be an incredible show.
As these stellar musicians are enshrined into the pantheon
of rock legends, patrons are sure to crave their music, whether to relive
classic sounds they’ve loved for years or to dig into these incredible discographies
for the first time. Be sure to check out this
collection of essential albums we’ve put together, and SmartBrowse each of
them on our website to find even more.
Written by Jon Williams
Next week sees the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in theatres, the saga’s Episode VIII, and
the middle installment in the sequel trilogy that began with 2016’s The
Force Awakens. Excitement is at a fever pitch for the new movie, and
library patrons will be looking for all kinds of materials relating to a galaxy
far, far away.
Following on from The
Force Awakens, The Last Jedi returns stars Daisy
Ridley, John
Boyega, and Oscar
Isaac as heroes Rey, Finn, and Poe, as well as Mark
Hamill as Luke Skywalker and the late Carrie
Fisher in her final appearance as Leia Organa. The opposition comes in the form
of the First Order’s Supreme Leader Snoke ( Andy
Serkis), General Hux ( Domhnall
Gleeson), and Kylo Ren ( Adam
Driver). They’re joined in the cast by newcomers Laura
Dern, who plays Resistance Admiral Amilyn Holdo, and Benicio
del Toro, in the mysterious role of DJ. The
Last Jedi is written and directed by Rian Johnson, who has previously made
such acclaimed films as Brick
and Looper.
It’s clear that Lucasfilm thinks the world of Johnson’s effort; they’ve already
announced that he’ll be helming a new Star
Wars trilogy set in a heretofore unexplored time period and area of the
galaxy.
On the day the new movie is released, the
score drops as well, featuring the typically outstanding work of Academy
Award-winning film music icon John
Williams. Fans will have to wait a bit longer for Jason Fry’s novelization,
which releases in March. For those who need something sooner than that, Canto
Bight, released earlier this week, tells several tales from the
opulent, high-stakes casino city to be introduced in The Last Jedi, while Delilah S. Dawson’s Phasma
explores the backstory of Gwendoline Christie’s chrome-armored villain.
The third and concluding installment in the current trilogy
won’t come until 2019, but that doesn’t mean there’s no more Star Wars on the more immediate horizon.
Coming on the heels of last year’s Rogue
One, the second standalone film is scheduled for release on May 25,
2018. That movie will be Solo, the
origin story of everyone’s favourite smuggler, scoundrel, and nerf-herder, Han
Solo. The title character will be played by Alden
Ehrenreich, while the multitalented Donald
Glover will portray his good buddy Lando Calrissian; such names as Woody
Harrelson, Emilia
Clarke, and Thandie
Newton will round out the cast. That movie is directed by acclaimed
filmmaker Ron
Howard based on a script by Lawrence Kasdan (writer of The
Empire Strikes Back and Return of the
Jedi, as well as The Force Awakens)
and his son Jon, while the music will be provided by John
Powell.
Star Wars is
arguably the most popular movie franchise of all time, and patrons will always
be looking for the latest and greatest related titles. You can SmartBrowse on
our website for all this media and more to lead into The Last Jedi and Solo.
And if your library is a hoopla member, patrons can log in anytime to check out
movie scores as well as original eBooks and comics for enjoyment at home or on
the go.
Written by Jon Williams
The new
movie Murder on the Orient Express
delivered a strong debut last weekend, bringing in more than $28 million at the
box office. Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, the film also features an
ensemble cast consisting of Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Penelope Cruz, Daisy
Ridley, Leslie Odom, Jr., Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Josh Gad. Adapted
from the 1934
Agatha Christie novel of the same name, it’s a mystery in which detective
Hercule Poirot must deduce the identity of a murderer from among the passengers
on a train. The novel is no stranger to adaptation, having been brought to life
both on film ( 1974)
and on television ( 2010).
Christie’s
work is incredibly popular in its own right, with the late British author
holding the honour as the bestselling novelist of all time. And that’s not just
in the English-speaking world; she’s also the most translated, with her works
currently available in more than 100 languages. Her career began shortly after
World War II when The Mysterious Affair at Styles, her
first novel, as well as the first to feature the Belgian detective Poirot, was
published in 1920. She returned to Poirot with her third novel, Murder on the Links, and a series
was born. In all, she wrote 33 Poirot
novels, including Murder on the
Orient Express, as well as a number of short stories and a
play. She also created a number of other recurring detective characters,
such as Miss
Marple, an elderly protagonist whose first published appearance came in
1927. In all, she published 66 novels; Curtain (1975) and Sleeping Murder (posthumously
published in 1976), although written earlier, were the last two published,
wrapping up the careers of Poirot and Miss Marple, respectively. The last she
wrote was 1973’s Postern of Fate.
With such
incredible popularity, it’s no surprise that Christie’s novels, stories, and
characters are ripe for adaptation. Murder
on the Orient Express is only the latest in a long line that dates back to
1928. Given her penchant for recurring characters, some of the most
well-received adaptations have been into television series. From 1984 through
1992, actress Joan Hickson brought Miss
Marple to life for the BBC; in an ITV
series that spanned from 2004 through 2013, she was portrayed by Geraldine
McEwan and Julia McKenzie. ITV also had great success with its Poirot TV series which featured David
Suchet in the title role. Other adaptations include Ten Little Indians (from And Then There Were None), Death on the Nile, and The Mirror Crack’d.
She’s known
for her mystery writing, but there was a bit of mystery in Christie’s life as
well. In 1926, during a difficult time in her first marriage, she disappeared
for ten days. When she was found, she claimed to have no memory of the
intervening time. This incident was explored in Carole Owen’s 1996 book The Lost Days of Agatha Christie. It
was also the subject of the 1978 film Agatha starring Vanessa Redgrave and
Dustin Hoffman, and portrayed in a fantastical light in the Doctor Who episode “The Unicorn and
the Wasp.”
This is just
a taste of all the incredible Agatha Christie content we have to offer. Visit
our website to pre-order the new version of Murder
on the Orient Express on DVD and Blu-ray, and while you’re there, browse
around to find all this and more to complete your Christie collection and keep
your mystery-loving patrons coming back for more.
Written by Jon Williams
Cars 3 is
out this week on DVD,
Blu-ray,
and 4K
UHD. No doubt your young patrons have already cultivated quite a hold list
for the latest installment in the adventures of Lightning McQueen. The series
began in 2006 with Cars,
which introduced Owen Wilson as the voice of the race car who learns about
friendship during an unintended pit stop. The movie also featured voice work
from Bonnie Hunt and Larry the Cable Guy, not to mention Paul Newman (in his final
role), George Carlin, and, of course, John Ratzenberger. Cars
2 followed in 2011, and in 2013 the series spun off into Planes
(which got its own sequel, Planes:
Fire & Rescue, in 2014).
Cars 3
is just the latest in a long line of high-quality, very popular animated films
from Disney-Pixar. Pixar began as a division of Lucasfilm before breaking off
into its own company in 1986, with Steve Jobs as chairman. In 1991, the company
agreed to produce three feature-length animated movies for Disney. That
resulted in the first fully computer-animated film, 1995’s classic Toy
Story, and the rest is history. They finished out the 1990s with A Bug’s
Life (1998) and Toy
Story 2 (1999).
Pixar had a contentious relationship with Disney
during the first half of the 2000s, but you wouldn’t know it from the quality
of their output. They began the decade in 2001 with Monsters,
Inc., starring Billy Crystal and John Goodman. That was followed in
2003 by Finding
Nemo, an underwater adventure that is currently Pixar’s
highest-grossing non-sequel with over $380 million at the box office in North America,
good for #30 of all time. Then in 2004 came The
Incredibles, about a family who (some more reluctantly than others)
must use their superpowers to save each other and their city.
In 2006, Disney cemented their partnership with
Pixar by purchasing the company. The first Cars
movie was the first released after the sale, although it was developed and made
independently. Going forward together, the two companies finished out the 2000s
with Ratatouille
(about a rat who learns how to be a chef), WALL-E
(about a robot who finds love), and Up
(about a man who attaches balloons to his house to go on a wonderful adventure).
Up to that point, Pixar had traditionally not
produced sequels, with Toy Story 2
being the lone exception. That changed in 2010 with a third installment, Toy
Story 3, and then Cars 2 the
year after. They’ve since followed up both Monsters,
Inc. (with Monsters
University in 2013) and Finding
Nemo (with 2016’s Finding
Dory, the #9 highest-grossing film of all time with over $486 million).
They’ve also continued to make quality original films, with Brave
in 2012 and both Inside
Out and The
Good Dinosaur in 2015.
Pixar makes wonderful, timeless movies that will
continue to be popular with young patrons, and that their parents will enjoy
just as well. With Cars 3 now
available, and with their next movie, Coco,
releasing in theatres on November 22, now is a great time to make sure your
Pixar collection is complete.
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