Books you should read before you watch the movie

BOOK lovers are a protective bunch — always ready to leap to the defence of their favourite title when it makes the transition from book shelf to screen. Here are the books you have to read before seeing the films.

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BOOK lovers are a protective bunch — always ready to leap to the defence of their favourite title when it makes the transition from book shelf to screen.

Mortal Engines producers, for example, have been forced to explain why heroine Hester Shaw has lost much of her facial scarring in the journey from Philip Reeve’s dystopian novel to the much anticipated big-budget big-screen adventure which opens in Australia on December 6.

And author Lee Childs recently told Insider he is working on a new limited television series starring his much-loved Jack Reacher character but would be on the look out for new star given fans’ unhappiness that vertically-challenged actor Tom Cruise, who starred as the title character in two movies, did not meet the hulking physical proportions of the returned soldier turned private investigator described in his books.

Here are the books you need to read before seeing them on the big or small screen:

MORTAL ENGINES

Hera Hilmar in Mortal Engines.

Ravaged by a devastating war that up-ended the world’s geographic make-up, cities are now roaming the planet on wheels with giant engine rooms. Larger machines swallow those who have the misfortune to be hunted down in a desperate fight for superiority. The book focuses on the adventures of teens Tom and Hester as they struggle to survive this harsh dystopian world.

LONDON FIELDS

Martin Amis’ noir murder-mystery London Fields was a hit in 1989 and now, almost 30 years later it’s reaching a new audience. Amber Heard stars as Nicola Six, a clairvoyant femme fatale who foresees her murder. Also starring Cara Delevingne, Lily Cole and Billy Bob Thornton, director Matthew Cullen and Heard had a long legal battle with the rights holders over the final version, which just opened in the US to poor reviews.

Amis himself commented: “I never thought it would be a popular film.”

THE NIGHTINGALE

This best-selling 2015 novel by American author Kristin Hannah charts the lives of two sisters in France during World War II and the different routes they took to survive. The sentimental read spent 20 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and has been picked up by Michelle MacLaren, who has directed Breaking Bad, Game Of Thrones and The Walking Dead. It’s currently in pre-production.

VANITY FAIR

Olivia Cooke and Tom Bateman in Vanity Fair.

The television miniseries Vanity Fair just wrapped on BBC First on Foxtel and is still available on demand. Starring Olivia Cooke as Becky Sharp, one of literature’s best female characters, it’s a fun new adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s fiction. It also stars Martin Clunes, Michael Palin, Johnny Flynn and Tom Bateman. If you like a bit of period drama, you can’t do better than the original, which was printed as a monthly serial from 1847, a wildly popular soap opera of its day.

BIG LITTLE LIES

The hit HBO series starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Zoe Kravitz, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley returns to Foxtel early in 2019, but before it became a hit television series it was a 2014 best-selling book by Australian author Liane Moriarty. This seemingly-light novel covers the serious issue of domestic violence with sharp insight. Moriarty’s novels, The Husband’s Secret, has also been optioned for a movie, starring Blake Lively.

HOUSE OF CARDS

Before the Kevin Spacey/Robin Wright Netflix version and the BBC series that spawned it, there was the book. House Of Cards by Michael Dobbs was published in 1989 and is widely regarded as one of the best political thrillers written. He followed it up with two sequels, To Play The King and The Final Cut. All were adapted by the BBC — following the wonderful 1990 version of House Of Cards starring Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart.

THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL

Florence Pugh in The Little Drumer Girl.

It’s television’s next big thing, now airing on BBC First. Based on John Le Carre’s 1983 spy novel, the story follows Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spymaster who, along with Charlie, an English actor/double-agent, is after Palestinian terrorist Khalil, who is bombing Jewish targets in Europe. The series stars Alexander Skarsgard and Florence Pugh.

AND FIVE BOOKS WE’D LIKE TO SEE ON SCREEN …

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

This exquisite book by Anthony Doerr won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize. About a German soldier and a blind girl in Nazi-occupied Saint-Malo in World War II, it would make an epic, romantic movie. The film rights were bought, but nothing is scheduled.

THE POWER

Naomi Alderman’s sci-fi story where women suddenly develop the ability to shoot electrical jolts out of their fingers and become the dominant sex won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and was named as one of former US president Barack Obama’s favourite books of 2017. It’s crying out to make it on screen, so it’s good news
that television rights have been bought.

HILD

The fabulous Hild, based on the real-life medieval character Hilda of Whitby, by British-American author Nicola Griffith was published in 2013, but demands a big-screen adaptation today.

A kind of Wolf Hall meets Game Of Thrones meets Elizabeth, she’s
the leading lady we
want to see.

THE IMMORTALISTS

It’s the summer of 1969 and a fortune-teller reveals to
the four Gold children the
date they will die. Chloe Benjamin’s novel, published this year, is like a Greek tragedy as it follows the preordained paths of the siblings. Just as it was
un-put-down-able, it would
be impossible to stop watching. Television rights have been bought.

THE SECRET HISTORY

The Goldfinch might be happening but it’s a travesty Donna Tartt’s original masterpiece The Secret History has never made it to the big screen. It was optioned when the book came out in 1992 and Gwyneth Paltrow also attempted to get the project started. It is reported Tartt now refuses to sell the rights.

Originally published as Books you should read before you watch the movie