In this latest installment of our roundup of new book-based releases, you’ll find updates on already touted future movies as well as news of recent titles that have been optioned for future projects.

Coming Soon

The following adaptations, in order of release date, will be debuting in movie theaters in the coming weeks and months.

Following the success of the Academy Award-winning animated short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, William Joyce’s picture book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs (HarperCollins, 1996), will make its way to the big screen as a longer animated film entitled Epic (PG). Directed by Chris Wedge, and featuring the voices of Josh Hutcherson (Nod), Amanda Seyfried (Mary Katherine), Colin Farrell (Ronin), Jason Sudeikis (Bomba), and Beyoncé Knowles (Queen Tara), it’s coming to theaters on May 24.

Queen of teen lit Judy Blume’s 1981 young adult classic Tiger Eyes is finally getting a  theatrical debut; the big screen and video-on-demand releases are set for June 7. Directed by Blume’s son Lawrence, the film was given the green light for a film adaptation after more than 30 years in print. It chronicles the story of Davey (played by Willa Holland) a young girl attempting to cope with the sudden death of her father. Amy Jo Johnson (Gwen Wexler) and Tatanka Means (Wolf – Martin Ortiz) also lead the cast.

Based on Tim Tharp’s 2008 National Book Award YA finalist (Knopf, 2007), The Spectacular Now is making the rounds a several independent film circuits, including the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Alexandre Aja and showcasing the rising teen stars Miles Teller (Sutter) and Shailene Woodley (Amy), it will have a limited release this summer starting August 2.

Logan Lerman returns to his demigod roots on August 7 in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, the sequel to Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief, both based on Rick Riordan’s bestselling series. Much of the cast has returned, including Brandon T. Jackson (Grover Underwood) and Alexandra Daddario  (Annabeth Chase). Some new characters to watch for are Douglas Smith as Tyson, Percy’s half-brother, and Leven Rambin as Clarisse La Rue, the daughter of Ares.

Forget about vampires and werewolves—on August 23, the Nephilim (or super-powered half-angels) will take over in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, the adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s bestselling series (S & S). Lily Collins portrays Clary Fray, a New York City teen who is thrown in the middle of a secret world of demons when her mother (Lena Headey) is attacked by one. Then she meets Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower), who is the key to understanding who (or what) she really is.

No list would be complete without including the next chapter of the “Hunger Games” phenomenon. Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss), Josh Hutcherson (Peeta), and (Liam Hemsworth) Gale reprise their roles in the action-packed Catching Fire on November 22. Joining the love triangle is a new cast of characters and the talented actors that will portray them, including Jena Malone (Johanna Mason), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Plutarch Heavensbee), and Amanda Plummer (Wiress).

In the Pipeline

Below are several book-to-movie adaptations scheduled to hit theaters next year, for which fans are already anxiously waiting.

The Maze Runner (Delacorte, 2009) by James Dashner is set for a February 14, 2014, release date; the film will be directed by Wes Bell from a screenplay by Noah Oppenheim (redrafted by Grant Myers and T.S. Nowlin), for 20th Century Fox. Leading the cast will be Dylan O’Brien; with Will Poulter (Gally) and Kaya Scodelario (Teresa) also on board to star.

Divergent (HarperCollins, 2011) by Veronica Roth will be released on March 21, 2014, directed by Neil Burger from a screenplay by Evan Daugherty. The star-studded cast began filming April 8 in Chicago, where the futuristic story is set. Getting a “Hunger Games” treatment, the up-and-coming Shailene Woodley (Tris Prior) plays the lead, and she will be surrounded by industry veterans, including Kate Winslet (Jeanine Matthews), Theo James (Four), Jai Courtney (Eric), Ashley Judd (Natalie Prior), Tony Goldwyn (Andrew Prior), Mekhi Phifer (Max), Maggie Q (Tori),  and Zoë Kravitz (Christina).

Classics, At Last

Below are a few book-to-movie adaptations that fans have been awaiting for a long, long time.

Disney’s live-action movie based on Judith Viorst’s 1972 well-known picture book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (S & S) is making tiny steps closer to the screen. Miguel Arteta is set to direct, and Lisa Cholodenko and Rob Lieber are writing the screenplay. Steve Carrell and Jennifer Garner are set to take on the roles of Alexander’s parents.

Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved A Wrinkle in Time (Farrar, 1962) is to finally be made into a feature film with a script written by Jeff Stockwell, who penned the screen adaptation of A Bridge to Terabithia for Disney in 2007. Disney currently has the rights to the book and is working on the new version with Bedrock, which had negotiated rights to the property from the L’Engle estate.

And while Jane Austen’s first published novel has been remade again and again, a new iteration might be making it to the big screen that is quite different than its predecessors. Panorama will produce, finance, and rep foreign sales for a film adaptation of the bestselling mash-up novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Quirk, 2009) by Seth Grahame-Smith. David O. Russell has written the screenplay but is not officially attached yet as director. Several producers and directors have been linked to the project in the past few years, with Natalie Portman reportedly cast in the lead. However, many of principals have left the project, and Lily Collins announced recently that she will be starring.

Building Buzz

Several more adaptations have been announced in recenty, although firm details about those projects are continuing to unfold.

John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton, 2012) will be produced by Fox 2000 and directed by Josh Boone from a screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. It will star Shailene Woodley (Hazel), yet the role of Augustus “Gus” Waters has not yet been cast. Currently it’s one of the most sought after roles in Hollywood, with many young male actors vying and testing for the part. Some of those actors in the running are Brenton Thwaites, Nat Wolff, Nick Robinson, Noah Silver, and Ansel Elgort. Rumored to be in the running: Logan Lerman and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Stay tuned!

Made official only yesterday, Lionsgate has hired Jack Thorne to adapt R.J. Palacio’s bestselling and award-winning Wonder (Knopf, 2012). David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are producing for Mandeville Films.

Stephanie Sanditz is writing the screenplay for a film adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s “The Infernal Devices” (S & S)  for Constantin Film.

Piers Ashworth is writing the screenplay based on Kristin Cashore’s Graceling (Harcourt, 2008) for Reliance Entertainment & Kintop Pictures. The film version will be produced by Deepak Nayar, Tabrez Noorani and Leigh Ann Burton.

Director Mikael Håfström has signed on to direct an adaptation of Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams’s Tunnels (Scholastic/Chicken House, 2007) for Relativity Media. The screenplay is being written by Andrew Lobel, Joel Bergvall, and Simon Sandquist.

Producer David Heyman is eyeing an adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone (Holt, 2012).

CBS Films is pursuing film versions of Marie Lu’s Legend and Prodigy (Putnam), with Jonathan Levine attached as director.

Stuart Beattie is writing a screenplay of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Little, Brown, 2011) for producers Joe Roth and Palek Patel at Universal Pictures.

Michael Scott is writing the screenplay to adapt his own book The Alchemyst (Random, 2008) for producers Mario Andreacchio, Konstantin Thoeren, Stefan Brunner, and Scott and Barry Krost at AMPCO Films. Eric Bress was previously attached as director, but has reportedly dropped out of the project.

Annie Sage’s Septimus Heap: Magyk (HarperCollins, 2004) is getting a screenplay written by Peter Craig for producers Karen Rosenfelt and Angie Sage at Warner Bros. David Frankel is set to direct.

Director Rob Letterman has signed on for an adaptation of R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps (Scholastic) from producer Neal H. Moritz, for Sony Pictures and Scholastic Entertainment.

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman will take on Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking: The Knife of Never Letting Go (Candlewick, 2008) for Doug Davison at Lionsgate.

Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron (Dial, 2010) has been newly optioned by AMBER Entertainments, replacing its previous agreement with Fox that had Taylor Lautner attached to star.

Producers Tobey Maguire and Graham King are looking to bring Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave (Putnam, 2013) to the screen through GK Films.

Producers David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith are bringing Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races (Scholastic, 2011) to the big screen with Warner Bros.

Director Tim Burton will be adapting Ransom Riggs’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Quirk, 2011) from a screenplay by Jane Goldman.

Warner Brothers, Heyday Films, and Benderspink will be collaborating on Dan Krokos’s The Planet Thieves (Tor, 2013). Producers Pouya Shahbazian and David Heyman are reportedly attached.

Meanwhile, on the Small Screen

Film producers aren’t the only ones mining the bookshelf for great ideas. Production is already underway for such popular series as Lauren Oliver’s Delirium (HarperCollins) and The Selection (HarperCollins, 2012) by Kiera Cass. The re-vamped pilot of Cass’s work is cross between The Bachelorette and the “Hunger Games” series; the now older cast stars Yael Grobglas (America Singer), Michael Malarkey (Prince Maxon), Celia Massingham (Celeste), and Lucien Laviscount (Aspen Leger). The CW drama is being written by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, and directed by Alex Graves.

Shonda Rhimes, creator of ABC television shows Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal, is producing a version of Debra Driza’s sci-fi thriller MILA 2.0 (HarperCollins, 2013). Dave DiGilio will write the drama project, with Betsy Beers also producing.

FilmColony has acquired Lizabeth Zindel’s Girl of the Moment (Viking, 2007), hoping to adapt the YA novel as a half-hour comedy series. Development executive Melanie Donkers will produce, with Richard N. Gladstein and Zindel signed on as writers.

As-Yet Unpublished

Several film adaptations are reportedly in the works for as-yet unpublished works.

Acquired in a major literary auction, Cristin Terrill’s debut novel All Our Yesterdays, set to be published by Disney-Hyperion this September, has already been optioned by Global Produce and Gold Circle Entertainment. Brian Miller has been tapped to adapt Terrill’s novel for film. The book is “set in the near-future when a young woman must travel back in time to kill her first love before he destroys her present-day world,” according to the publisher.

Columbia Pictures has preemptively acquired the rights to Arwen Elys Dayton’s YA novel Seeker (Delacorte, 2015), with the Mark Gordon Company attached to produce the film adaptation. Producers include Hannah Minghella and Michele Wolkoff, with Rachel O’Connor and Eric Fineman. The futuristic trilogy will focus on Quin Kincaid “who has been put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker.’ Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new found knowledge and training to become an assassin,” according to the publisher.

Slated for publication in 2014 by Penguin, the first title in Sally Green’s new series of books will be adapted for the screen by producer Karen Rosenfelt for Fox. Half Bad launches the series about two factions of witches that are locked in an eternal battle between evil and good.

Some of these kids have the weight of the world on their shoulders: Rochelle could be the first African-American female master in the history of chess; Alexis could be the first member of his family to go to college; and, at 11 years old, Justus is already a chess wunderkind—and that’s just a few of the remarkable players featured in the film.

School Library Journal caught up with first-time director Katie Dellamaggiore—who lives with her husband in Williamsburg, Brooklyn—for an illuminating chat about her directorial debut, chess, education, filmmaking, and making a difference.

Where did you get the idea to make Brooklyn Castle?
I found the story through an article I read in the New York Times in the spring of 2007. This article was about Shawn Martinez at Edward R. Murrow High School and the article was all about him and how they had the best chess team in the nation.

I also read The Kings of New York by Michael Weinreb. The hook for me was that I was from Brooklyn and I had no idea that we were known for public school chess teams. It didn’t seem like a likely situation. I was wrong of course. [laughs] One small chapter was about I.S. 318. So I talked to Michael and he was the one who suggested that it would be a good documentary: “You should check it out.” And so I did.

As soon as I met these kids, I knew that they would make for amazing characters in a documentary. The chess team was treated almost as athletes. It broke a lot of stereotypes. I was like, “Wow. This story is unexpected in so many ways.” I thought that if I found it unexpected and moving—and I’m from this neighborhood—others would, too.

When did you begin filming Brooklyn Castle? When did you wrap up?
We started shooting officially in April 2009. Then from there, we decided we would shoot for an entire school year, wrapping in June 2010. We spent two years editing on and off until it premiered in 2012.

Chess Champion Alexis Paredes at Home Photo Courtesy of PDA

Given how much time you were able to observe these kids, why do you think the chess players of I.S. 318 are so successful?
I think it’s a couple of things that make them so successful. A combination of really dedicated staff. [Assistant Principal] John [Galvin] and [chess teacher] Elizabeth [Spiegel] are really committed. Elizabeth gets them excited and John figures out ways to make it possible. The culture of the school in general is a really big part of it. The principal [Fred Rubino], who sadly passed away, really built a culture of activity.

I think kids at that age really respond to that. It gets them excited to go to school. And the kids themselves they work really hard. I mean, chess is not one of those skills you’re just born with. You have to put a lot of time and effort into it. These kids are motivated to do well. The parents in the film were so supportive of the kids and I think that is a big part of the equation. There really is no secret.  Elizabeth just has an unparalleled enthusiasm for chess and kids just really respond to teachers like that.

Do you have a favorite memory from filming?
There’s a lot of stuff that didn’t make the film. We traveled with the team a lot and so the kids are on field trips and there’s really funny shots with them doing silly stuff in the hallways, eating cereal from the box. And I remember being like, “Wow, I forgot that this was what it was like in junior high school.” These milestones, like we all had when we were younger.

What was your hardest or most difficult moment?
The most difficult part was editing the movie; we had so much footage. Like 400 hours of footage. It’s hard figuring out how to cut it down. It’s our first film and we thought it was ready much sooner than it actually was. We eventually found the movie, but that was the hardest part: figuring out a way to interweave it all so it’s cohesive.

Chess comes to signify something so much larger than a game in these kids’ lives. What do you think that is?
I think you can replace chess with any kind of positive enriching activity with any kid at that age. It’s an opportunity for these kids. For Patrick to over come his ADHD, for Rochelle to get a scholarship, for Alexis to go to college…it’s about opening up a kid’s world and that’s what chess did. But it doesn’t have to be chess as long as our public schools are giving kids opportunities like that where they can dream beyond their immediate world.

Do you keep in touch with the kids?
Certainly—especially in the last few months because of screenings. We’ve been seeing a lot of one another lately and will continue to. We’re in one another’s’ lives for the long run.

What kind of feedback have you received?
The immediate community here has really embraced the film. The school really embraced the film. We had some fundraisers for them; I think we’ve raised $35,000. That’s direct donations as a result of the film. Nationally, in terms of critical review, it’s crazy. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s one of the top films in terms of critics; so that’s awesome. It’s not just a Brooklyn story. It’s just nice to know that the film is a universal story. That makes me really happy.

Reacting to the drastic budget cuts his school faces, Galvin says, “If you believe in public education, if you believe in kids, you’ve got to fight for it.” What can people who want to make sure that programs like the chess club at I.S. 318 continue do to help?
On a national level, there’s an organization like the Afterschool Alliance, they’re a partner of ours, and they’re fighting every day. On our website, we have action fights that they’ve shared with us. You can go to take action and see what the latest push is.

In your own community you can get involved as a parent in PTA and local councils.

It’s also about finding resources in other ways. If you’re an adult that has a skill, like chess, you can donate your time. You need to light the fire sometimes.

If people want to donate to the I.S. 318 chess team, you can do that through our website. Pobo has a petition that people can sign. The more we can get the word out about the film, I think the more it energizes people to see the value of programs like this. I think the movie is a great way for schools to be reminded of what their schools are really good at. It’s also nice for people to be reminded that there are really good things happening at public schools.

On February 5, Brooklyn Castle will be available on digital platforms such as iTunes and on-demand video. Communities can request screenings at their local theaters through Tugg.com. Libraries, nonprofits, and schools that are interested in showing the film can find more information on the website or by emailing info@brooklyncastle.com.