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February 2013

Books on Screen

February 2013

It’s February, and love is in the air! Whether you are looking for a night out and a quirky romance like Warm Bodies, a chick flick to watch with friends like Safe Haven, or television shows like "Monday Mornings" and  “Parade’s End” to curl up with and enjoy while having some “me” time, there is an exciting book adaptation on a movie or TV screen near you.

 

In Theaters:

Warm Bodies
Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, John Malkovich
Director: Jonathan Levine
Distributor: Summit Entertainment, LLC
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: February 1st (wide)
Based On: WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion

After a zombie epidemic leaves almost everyone a mindlessly stumbling, brainless body, Julie, a human survivor, meets R. R isn’t like all of the other zombies. He saves Julie from a zombie attack and seems to become more human the more time he spends with her. Can they transform the other zombies?

 

Beautiful Creatures
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Emma Thompson
Director: Richard LaGravenese
Distributor: Warner Brothers Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: February 14th (wide)
Based On: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Seventeen-year-old Ethan Wate has a recurring dream where he is trying to reach a mysterious girl on a Civil War battlefield. Every time he has this dream, he feels an unknown danger, and before he can reach her, he is always killed by a lightning bolt. However, this dream is preferable to Ethan’s real life with his withdrawn father in a small, behind-the-times South Carolina town. At least until Lena Duchannes arrives. Lena is a Caster, and a curse looms for her as she approaches her 16th birthday. Will this curse drag Lena and Ethan into a web from which they cannot escape?

 

Safe Haven
Cast: Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough, Irene Ziegler, Jon Kohler
Director: Lasse Hallström
Distributor: Relativity
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: February 14th (wide)
Based On: SAFE HAVEN by Nicholas Sparks

A young woman with a mysterious past movies to Southport, North Carolina. She plans to try to move on and forget her past, but when she finds herself falling in love with a widower, she will be forced to confront the secrets that haunt her.

 

Bless Me, Ultima
Cast: Luke Ganalon, Miriam Colon, Benito Martinez
Director: Carl Franklin
Distributor: Greer Garson Studios
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: February 22nd (limited)
Based On: BLESS ME, ULTIMA by Rudolfo Anaya

This coming-of-age tale set in 1940s New Mexico tells the story of Antonio Marez, a six-year-old boy, and Ultima, a curandera who moves in with his family. Under Ultima’s spiritual guidance, Antonio begins to question his strict Catholic upbringing and is confronted by questions about good and evil, his own destiny, and how to reconcile what Ultima teaches him with the Christian God.

 

On TV:

"House of Cards"
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Kate Mara, Corey Stoll, Michael Kelly
Network: Netflix
Series Premiere: Friday, February 1st
Based on: HOUSE OF CARDS by Michael Dobbs

Ruthless and cunning, Congressman Francis Underwood and his wife Claire stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex and corruption in modern D.C. Kate Mara (American Horror Story) and Corey Stoll (Midnight in Paris) costar in the first original series from David Fincher (The Social Network) and Beau Willimon (The Ides of March).

 

"Monday Mornings"
Cast: Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Jamie Bamber, Jennifer Finnigan, Bill Irwin, Keong Sim, Sarayu Rao, Emily Swallow
Network: TNT
Series Premiere: Monday, February 4th at 10:00 pm ET/PT
Based on: MONDAY MORNINGS by Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Doctors face life-and-death decisions each and every day as they fight against often-impossible odds to save their patients. When things don’t go as they should, it’s up to their medical colleagues to determine what went wrong and learn from those costly mistakes.

"Monday Mornings" follows the lives of doctors as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings. Every Monday, the doctors must gather with their peers for a confidential review of complications and errors in patient care.

Leading the staff at Chelsea General are Dr. Harding Hooten, the steely-eyed chief of surgery, and Dr. Jorge Villanueva, the hospital’s trauma chief. Their cadre of medical talent includes hotshot neurosurgeons Dr. Tyler Wison and Dr. Tina Ridgeway; the abrasive Dr. Buck Tierney; the socially challenged Dr. Sung Park; the petite-but-formidable Dr. Sydney Napur; and inquisitive resident Dr. Michelle Robidaux.

 

The Walking Dead”
Cast: Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Wayne Callies, Jon Bernthal, Norman Reedus
Network: AMC
Season 3 Resumes: Sunday, February 10th at 9:00 pm ET/PT
Based on: THE WALKING DEAD by Robert Kirkman

Based on one of the most successful and popular comic books of all time, written by Robert Kirkman, AMC’s "The Walking Dead" captures the ongoing human drama following a zombie apocalypse. The series follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, Teachers, Strike Back), who are traveling in search of a safe and secure home. However, instead of the zombies, it is the living who remain that truly become the walking dead.

 

"The Carrie Diaries"
Cast: AnnaSophia Robb, Richard Kohnke
Network: The CW
Air Dates: Mondays at 8pm ET/PT
Based On: THE CARRIE DIARIES by Candace Bushnell

It's 1984, and life isn't easy for 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw. Since their mother passed away, Carrie's younger sister Dorrit is more rebellious than ever, and their father Tom is overwhelmed with the responsibility of suddenly having to care for two teenage girls on his own. Carrie's friends --- sweet, geeky Mouse, snarky Maggie and sensitive Walt --- make life bearable, but a suburban life in Connecticut isn't doing much to take her mind off her troubles. Even the arrival of a sexy new transfer student named Sebastian only reminds Carrie that she spent the whole summer grieving rather than moving on with life.

So when Tom offers Carrie the chance to intern at a law firm in Manhattan, she leaps at the chance. Carrie's eyes are opened wide at the glamour and grit of New York City --- and when she meets Larissa, the style editor for Interview magazine, she's inspired by the club culture and unique individuals that make up Larissa's world. Carrie's friends and family may have a big place in her heart, but she's fallen in love for the first time with the most important man in her life --- Manhattan.

 

“Elementary”
Cast: Jonny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu
Network: CBS
Air Dates: Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT
Based On: The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In a modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes, the iconic detective is taking on New York. Just out of rehab, he's been assigned to live with his worst nightmare-sober coach, Dr. Joan Watson. Holmes's unsurpassed skills of deduction and Watson's medical expertise come together to create a dream team for solving the NYPD's most impossible cases.

 

“Parade’s End”
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall
Network: HBO
Air Dates: February 26th (9:00-11:05pm ET/PT), 27th (9:00-11:05pm) and 28th (9:00-10:00pm)
Based On: PARADE’S END by Ford Madox Ford

From the reliable comforts of Edwardian England to the chaos and destruction of the First World War, the early 20th century was a defining era in history, a time of unprecedented change, when old certainties were being torn down. The long golden afternoons of the pre-war years would be shattered by the most destructive war the world had ever known, and countless lives would be changed forever.

Set against this backdrop of impending catastrophe is the story of English aristocrat Christopher Tietjens, trapped in a marriage to an unfaithful wife, and caught between his commitment to the values of Toryism and his unspoken love for a fearless young suffragette.

 

On DVD:

Alex Cross
Cast: Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Edward Burns, Rachel Nichols
Director: Rob Cohen
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13
DVD Release Date: February 5th
Based On: CROSS by James Patterson

Alex Cross follows the young homicide detective/psychologist, from the worldwide bestselling novels by James Patterson, as he meets his match in a serial killer. The two face off in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, but when the mission gets personal, Cross is pushed to the edge of his moral and psychological limits in this taut and exciting action thriller.

 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Cast: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller
Director: Stephen Chbosky
Distributor: Summit Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13
DVD Release Date: February 12th
Based On: THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky

A funny and touching coming-of-age story based on the beloved bestselling novel by Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a modern classic that captures the dizzying highs and crushing lows of growing up. Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller, this is a moving tale of love, loss, fear and hope --- and the unforgettable friends that help us through life.

 

Anna Karenina
Cast: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Johnson
Director: Joe Wright
Distributor: Focus Features
MPAA Rating: R
DVD Release Date: February 19th
Based On: ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy

The third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with acclaimed director Joe Wright, following the award-winning box office successes Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, is a bold, theatrical new vision of the epic story of love, adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s timeless novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love). The story powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart. As Anna questions her happiness and marriage, change comes to all around her.

 

Lincoln
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones
Director: Steven Spielberg
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
DVD Release Date: February 26th
Based On: TEAM OF RIVALS by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Steven Spielberg directs two-time Academy Award® winner Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln, a revealing drama that focuses on the 16th President’s tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come.