YA books being made into films

You guys might be interested that Angela Thomas's upcoming YA novel (not publishing till 2017), which sold in February and is discussed in detail in its book form here, has sold and is being made into a film, and Amandla Stenberg (Rue in The Hunger Games) has ALREADY been cast in the lead role.

The_Ink_Goddess said:

You guys might be interested that Angela Thomas's upcoming YA novel (not publishing till 2017), which sold in February and is discussed in detail in its book form here, has sold and is being made into a film, and Amandla Stenberg (Rue in The Hunger Games) has ALREADY been cast in the lead role.

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Wow. That's pretty fantastic...on a number of counts.

Isn't this the first YA novel that's been optioned (and moved fast into production) long before it even came out?

I know her!!! She and I are both in the Swanky Seventeens debut group. The book sounds amazing, and yes, I think this is the earliest I've heard of a pre-published book actually having a lead actress signed up.

The_Ink_Goddess said:

Isn't this the first YA novel that's been optioned (and moved fast into production) long before it even came out?

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No, it's happened before. That said, if the production actually keeps making progress toward the screen, that's a deviation from the norm. Many of the books are optioned pre-release, but given the usual slow progress of Hollywood concepts (that aren't sequels to huge hits, that is), it's rare for one of those movies to make much progress before the book's release.

*pauses to fangirl* CLAUDIA GRAY IS IN THE THREAD!!!!

*okay is done fangirling*

Angela's book sounds really good and I am curious if the production will continually move at the speed it's currently at. Like Claudia said, a ton of books get optioned in advance and sometimes have a star attached (see: ALL THE BR1GHT PLACES) but after that, there may not be a lot of movement...

Smiley0501 said:

*pauses to fangirl* CLAUDIA GRAY IS IN THE THREAD!!!!

*okay is done fangirling*

Angela's book sounds really good and I am curious if the production will continually move at the speed it's currently at. Like Claudia said, a ton of books get optioned in advance and sometimes have a star attached (see: ALL THE BR1GHT PLACES) but after that, there may not be a lot of movement...

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++++1. Hey, Claudia…

Thanks for the reminder about All The Bright Places! I wasn't overly surprised at it being optioned pre-release, but what surprised me was having an actress attached. I'd forgotten that Places did this too, with Elle Fanning - I always thought this meant they were 'further along' than others. Does anyone know how options end up with actors attached, rather than casting them after optioning?

Neil Patrick Harris spotted as Count Olaf in Vancouver on the set of Netflix's A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS!!!!

I'm moving closer to the city in a couple weeks... maybe I can get in as an extra or something!

Time for an update!!

The trailer for Fallen is out in the wild. It looks pretty decent. A little bit of "been there, done that" IMHO but I think it will definitely appeal to lots and lots of younger girls. (A new generation who didn't live through the whole Twilight hype as it was happening.)

And apparently Maximum Ride got made into a movie? I saw the trailer and was anything but impressed. Won't be watching that one, I guess.

Throne of Glass found itself a nice TV Show deal through Hulu. I'm curious to see what will happen with that.

#Girlboss - which is technically not YA - will be turned into a show on Netflix, and I believe it'll start out with Sophia in her teenage years. So my YA heart is monitoring those developments.

In that spirit: Amandla Stenberg is also filming on Everything, Everything! I believe the first day was a couple of weeks ago now (from Nicola Yoon's twitter). Omg. I didn't know they were making a film of that. Or, well, I knew the rights had sold but assumed it would stall in development as these things generally do for at least a while. But nope! And what a good career she's making for herself out of YA book adaptations: EE, The Hate U Give, and THG are a pretty impressive lineup.

Okay, I just went and watched the FALLEN trailer... I needed a laugh! That looks... so cringeworthy and bad. I'm sorry if anyone's really looking forward to it or anything! I'll probably go see it though. I love hate-watching things.

EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING is going to be a movie?! I've really got to get on reading that book.

I'm so torn on Everything Everything. I LOVED the writing and the whimsy and the voice, but the story is basically a gender-flipped remake of Bubble Boy. Even down to the final twist *SPOILER* where it turns out the MC isn't actually sick. It reaaaally annoyed me when I got to that part, cause I was SO looking forward to seeing how the MC and the LI would come to terms with dealing with her illness. It just felt like an easy out. Although having said that, I am probably going to end up dragging Mr. Putt to go watch the movie anyway.

An EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING movie? Huh. I dunno ... so much of the charm in that book was in the writing and the doodles and whatnot. More often than not I'm disappointed with adaptations, so I guess I'll wait and see.

Meanwhile, I just stumbled upon the trailer for I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER, which actually looks like it could be decent...

Lmao I SCREAMED when Chernobyl randomly popped up... I have no idea who in the writer's room made that call but it was so beautifully ridiculous. Shadowhunters gets a bit better as it goes but every episode is really touch and go. It can feel like TMI crackfic at times... Hot Younger Hodge getting his hands cut off GOT style was also ridiculous.

I've got two more to add to the list.
Obviously we're getting really close to the release of Burton's adaption of Ransom Riggs' Miss Perefgrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Trailer here.

And then there's Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle which will hit ABC Family (*cough* Freeform) next year. Trailer here.

The_Ink_Goddess said:

In that spirit: Amandla Stenberg is also filming on Everything, Everything! I believe the first day was a couple of weeks ago now (from Nicola Yoon's twitter). Omg. I didn't know they were making a film of that. Or, well, I knew the rights had sold but assumed it would stall in development as these things generally do for at least a while. But nope! And what a good career she's making for herself out of YA book adaptations: EE, The Hate U Give, and THG are a pretty impressive lineup.

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It was just announced that she would play Ruby in The Darkest Minds. So... another big YA adaption to add to her list.

dancing-drama said:

It was just announced that she would play Ruby in The Darkest Minds. So... another big YA adaption to add to her list.

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Wait, they're making a Darkest Minds movie?



Love that series. I have clearly missed announcements about a lot of films!

After Eragon, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Hunger Games... future book/films have a lot to live up to.

Grayson Moon said:

After Eragon, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Hunger Games... future book/films have a lot to live up to.

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BTW, the Chronicles of Narnia series is being continued. The Silver Chair is in pre-production. While I LOVED the first movie and liked the second one, the third one was a bit of a let-down. I hope the fourth movie will come back stronger than Voyage. They sure had enough time to get the creative juices flowing again.