Two thousand and twelve is over and it’s on to the new year and while I’m busy preparing a list of 50 films I’m anticipating in 2013, I got to thinking it might be fun to also prepare a list of books, articles, plays, graphic novels, comics and more for you to read to prepare for the year’s new films and I’ve come up with a total of 35 of them (give or take, considering some are based on comic book series and/or characters from novels).
Today I am introducing Part One of the list, which includes the comic books, graphic novels, news articles and plays that were adapted into films while tomorrow I will feature over 25 books that were adapted into movies that will be hitting theaters this year.
I have written a few words on each as well as links to purchase all of the titles available as well as links to the three articles that served as the basis for films releasing this year. Essentially, I’ve provided a year’s worth of reading material that will help make you the most informed moviegoer out there should you choose to read them all.
With that said, let’s not delay any further and start digging in and take a look at the plays, comic books, graphic novels and news articles that will be brought to life on the big screen in 2013.
The Plays
August: Osage County
by Tracy Letts
Tracy Letts‘ most recent play to hit the big screen came by way of William Friedkin’s Killer Joe and now August: Osage County, his 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, will be hitting the big screen with a cast that includes Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Dermot Mulroney, Sam Shepard, Ewan McGregor and Julianne Nicholson from director John Wells (The Company Men).
An obvious Oscar contender, the film centers on the Westons. Dad’s disappeared. Mom’s (Streep) popping pills. One daughter’s (Roberts) bound for divorce. And that’s just the start.
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
Brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani have adapted Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” for Caesar Must Die, which was Italy’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2013 Oscars. The film won the Golden Bear prize at the Berlin Film Festival and features real-life inmates of Rome’s maximum security prison Rebibbia performing the play.
Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
While Joss Whedon made a name for himself with an even larger audience than the one that knew him already with The Avengers, he also shot this adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in twelve days with the likes of Fran Kranz, Alexis Denisof, Jillian Morgese, Clark Gregg and Amy Acker taking on roles as the original text served as the screenplay. So, you buy the book and you’ve purchased the screenplay.
Much Ado About Nothing played the Toronto Film Festival in 2012 and will be released by Lionsgate on June 7. You can see a few images from the black-and-white film right here.
Articles
A Butler Well Served by This Election
by Wil Haygood
Wil Haygood‘s Washington Post article on Eugene Allen has been adapted into The Butler by Lee Daniels (Precious, The Paperboy) and Danny Strong with Daniels directing the film and Forrest Whitaker in the title role. Allen served as a butler to eight Presidents in the White House for over thirty years. He started working in the White House in 1952 and was there during Brown v. Board of Education, the Little Rock school crisis, the 1963 March on Washington, the cities burning, the civil rights bills and more.
The Weinsteins have already picked up the film for distribution with a cast that also includes Oprah Winfrey as Gloria Gaines, David Oyelowo as Louis Gaines, Liam Neeson, Aml Ameen as Eugene at a young age, Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy, John Cusack as Richard Nixon, Minka Kelly as Jackie Kennedy, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Carter Wilson, Nelsan Ellis as Martin Luther King Jr., Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson, Melissa Leo as Mamie Eisenhower and Robin Williams as Dwight Eisenhower.
Read the full article here.
Tales From the Gangster Squad
by Paul Lieberman
Gangster Squad has gone through some changes as a result of the theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado during the opening night of The Dark Knight Rises and even before then I’m not sure how closely the film stuck to Paul Lieberman’s seven-part, Los Angeles Times feature “Tales From the Gangster Squad”, but I have to assume it has been edited down quite a bit so reading the full feature is likely to be incredibly entertaining and informative as it chronicles efforts by the LAPD to deal with a chaotic and corrupt Los Angeles by forming what was dubbed the Gangster Squad to keep the East Coast Mafia out of the city.
Read the full article here.
Pain & Gain
by Pete Collins
Michael Bay‘s new movie Pain & Gain features Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg as a couple of criminal bodybuilders involved in an extortion ring and a kidnapping plot and it’s based on the 1999 Pete Collins article from the Miami New Times article.
The film hits theaters on April 26 and a trailer has already been released, which I’ve included below. I’m sure Bay and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely tossed in a few extras of their own into the story so why not read the article and give the trailer a watch.
Read the full article here.
