Oscar Nominations 2013: 11 Book Adaptations

This year, 11 Academy Award nominees are based on books or book series. As much as five of the nine films listed in the Best Picture category are book adaptations.

The movie industry took a lot of inspiration from books this year, so before checking out all the Hollywood glitz and glamour, head over to the Dexter District Library and borrow one of these available books.

• Life of Pi

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, was adapted to the big screen by Director Ang Lee. The movie was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Cinematography, Best Music (Original Score), and Best Music (Original Song).

The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India. Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parke.( trailer http://youtu.be/BxY4l9kFGD0 )

• Les Misérables

Nominated in six categories (Best Picture and Best Actress, among others), is based on the famous novel by Victor Hugo. The Romantic novel paints a picture of 19th century Paris, in all its gritty detail, at a time of revolution. Themes of moral redemption, politics, justice and human rights are vividly expressed as Hugo follows the lives of four unforgettable characters through the sordid streets of Paris. ( trailer http://youtu.be/IuEFm84s4oI)

• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

This book inspired Steven Spielberg to direct the movie, Lincoln. This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln’s mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation’s history. (Trailer http://youtu.be/KJVuqYkI2jQ )

• Anna Karenina

Nominated for Best Costume Design and Production Design, Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. ( Trailer http://youtu.be/rPGLRO3fZnQ )

• Argo

Argo, a film about a CIA agent who helps six Americans to escape from Iran in November 1979, was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. (trailer http://youtu.be/w918Eh3fij0 )

• The Silver Linings Playbook

David O. Russell’s adaptation of Matthew Quick’s novel, is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Pat Peoples, the endearing narrator of this touching and funny debut, is down on his luck. The former high school history teacher has just been released from a mental institution and placed in the care of his mother. Not one to be discouraged, Pat believes he has only been on the inside for a few months––rather than four years––and plans on reconciling with his estranged wife. Refusing to accept that their apart time is actually a permanent separation, Pat spends his days and nights feverishly trying to become the man she had always desired. (Trailer http://youtu.be/Lj5_FhLaaQQ )

http://dexter.patch.com/

• The Sessions

The Sessions (originally titled The Surrogate) is a 2012 American independentdrama film written and directed by Ben Lewin. It is based on an essay by Mark O’Brien, a poet paralyzed from the neck down due to polio, who hired a sex surrogate to lose his virginity. John Hawkes and Helen Hunt star as O’Brien and sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene, respectively. ( Trailer: http://youtu.be/Fy2y7UIpgP4 )

• Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman is a 2012 UK-American fantasy film based on the German fairy tale “Snow White” compiled by the Brothers Grimm. The film is directed by Rupert Sanders and written by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, and Hossein Amini. The cast includes , Charlize Theron, , Sam Claflin<, and Bob Hoskinsin his last role before retirement. The film received two Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design at the 85th Academy Awards. (Trailer http://youtu.be/2-UMNSVX7_I )

• Mirror, Mirror 

Mirror Mirror is a 2012 comedy fantasy film based on the fairy tale “Snow White” by the Brothers Grimm. It is directed by Tarsem Singh and stars Lily Collins, Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer, Nathan Lane, and Sean Bean. The name derives from the words that the Wicked Queen uses to address her Magic Mirror: “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. (Trailer: http://youtu.be/FCdMHUx59mQ )

• The Hobbit

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a 2012 epic fantasy adventure filmdirected by Peter Jackson. It is the first of a three-part film adaptation of the 1937 novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, to be followed by The Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again, due for theatrical release in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The three films together will act as prequels to Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

The story is set in Middle-earth sixty years before The Lord of the Rings, and portions of the film are adapted from the appendices to Tolkien’s The Return of the King novel. An Unexpected Journey tells the tale of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), who is convinced by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to accompany thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on a quest across Middle-earth to reclaim the Lonely Mountain fromSmaug the dragon. ( Trailer http://youtu.be/nOGsB9dORBg )

• Skyfall

Skyfall is the twenty-third James Bond film produced by Eon Productions. It was distributed by MGM and Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2012.^[2] It featuresDaniel Craig’s third performance as James Bond, and Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the film’s antagonist. The film was directed by Sam Mendes and written byNeal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan.

The film centres on Bond investigating an attack on MI6; the attack is part of a plot by former MI6 operative Raoul Silva to humiliate, discredit and kill M as revenge against her for betraying him. The film sees the return of two recurring characters to the series after an absence of two films: Q, played by Ben Whishaw, and Eve Moneypenny, played by Naomie Harris. Skyfall is the last film of the series for Judi Dench, who played M, a role that she had played in the previous six films. The position is subsequently filled by Ralph Fiennes’ character, Gareth Mallory.

The original screenwriter,Peter Morgan, left the project during the suspension. When production resumed, Logan, Purvis, and Wade continued writing what became the final version of the script. Filming began in November 2011 and primarily took place in the United Kingdom, China and Turkey. ( Trailer http://youtu.be/Xac0DuOYglM )