Too cold outside? Read the books these 5 movies are based on

By Tamar Zmora – Posted by The Next Great Generation

This year, the books-turned-movies genre brought audiences a lot of Robert Pattinson and teenage angst — not mutually exclusive; theater marquees advertised the Twilight series’ third installment, an adaptation of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, and the final Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Profitable Studio (wait, that’s not the real name?).

The feature films of late 2011 and next year will once again send audiences running to their local libraries and/or bookstores (preferably before running to the theater). From 1950s comic books to ghost stories to the post-apocalyptic land of Panem, these movies are calling for you, bookworms.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Now playing). Caught in an embittered court case against a vicious financier, journalist Mikael Blomkvist is found guilty of defamation and must lay low until his prison date. But after leaving his post as co-owner/editor-in-chief of Millennium magazine, Henrik Vanger, former CEO of Vanger Enterprises, hires Blomkvist as a detective to investigate the disappearance of his granddaughter 40 years prior. This book is a suspenseful and gripping thriller, a story of redemption for the socially maligned.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Now playing). The 23-book Adventures of Tintin series, by author Hergé, presents a satirical political take on events of the 20th century, documenting the era’s ethnographic and racial epithets and addressing stereotypes of China, Arabia (The Middle East), and America. The series was published during the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War, and the plots rely heavily on events of the time period, but Tintin indulges readers with the lure of mystery and intrigue and entraps them with comical twists and ridiculous side characters.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Opens Friday, Jan. 20). Pull out the tissue box for this one. Jonathan Safran Foer’s second novel relays the story of a boy, Oskar Schell, seeking to connect with his father, a victim of 9/11. The boy finds one of his father’s keys in a vase and goes in search of its origins — Does the key open a door? A safe? Or does it serve a greater purpose? For Oskar, a child wise beyond his nine years, the search gives him an understanding of who his father was; for a city still grieving, Oskar is that flicker of prospect and boundless optimism. The book is extremely cathartic and incredibly low, and the heartbreak will latch on to you and linger even after the final page.

The Woman in Black (Opens Friday, Feb. 3). In this film based on Susan Hills’ ghost story, Daniel Radcliffe takes on the role of Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor summoned to Crythin Gifford, a small isolated village north of London, to attend the funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow and tend to her affairs. During his stay, Arthur is met with the haunting sight of the frail “woman in black.” The eerie isolating setting and history of the location make it a prime locale for a ghost story. Let’s hope the film scares audiences to the bone.

The Hunger Games (Opens Friday, March 23). Set in a post-apocalyptic future where the world is divided into 12 districts, this film will be the first based on Suzanne Collins’ bestseller trilogy, an idea formulated while flipping channels on T.V. One channel featured footage of the Iraq War, while a competing channel offered a reality T.V. show, and the melding of the two resulted in what is now known as The Hunger Games: Citizens, randomly selected through a lottery system, must fight to the death to appease and entertain the Fat Cats of the Capitol. In a society fraught with socioeconomic inequity, children are pitted against each other (it’s a bit reminiscent of Lord of the Flies), and when 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps in for her younger sister Prim, who was chosen by the lottery, she sets a plot-guiding precedent of valor. While the book — told in the first person from Katniss’ perspective — isn’t exceptionally well-written, there’s action at every turn of the page, so you won’t be able to put it down.

Need more good reads? These books are also being adapted for the silver screen:
The Lorax (out Friday, March 2)
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (out Friday, June 22)
The Bourne Legacy (out Friday, Aug. 3)
Atlas Shrugged (Part II out Fall 2012; Part I came out earlier this year)
The Hobbit (out Friday, Dec. 14)
The Life of Pi (out Friday, Dec. 21)
What’s your favorite book-turned-movie (or movie based on a book)?