This week on We’ve Got That! I’m highlighting a few of the great books in our collection that have been adapted into films that will be released this year. There are just a few short weeks left of summer, so stop by today to pick up one of these great reads before the fall semester starts.
Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a devil’s deal, Dick Lehr & Gerard O’Neill
If you’ve ever seen the movie The Departed, you’re familiar with this type of character. Except unlike Jack Nicholson’s role in that movie, which is only loosely based on Whitey Bulger, this book is all true. One of the most infamous modern American gangsters, the very real, very scary, Whitey Bulger, evaded capture for decades by working as an FBI informant and later going on the run. This book has now been adapted into a film titled simply, Black Mass, with Johnny Depp in the starring role. This non-fiction book, available electronically, tells the story of Bulger, his heinous crimes, and how he managed to hide from authorities for so long.
Scheduled movie release date: September 18th 2015
The Martian, Andy Weir
Originally released as a self-published novel in 2011, The Martian was eventually snapped up by publishers and went on to become a bestseller. This realistic sci-fi adventure novel tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney who (spoiler alert!) is left on Mars alone after his crewmates on Ares 3 believe he is killed in a dust storm. Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer (READ: MacGyver on Mars), has to survive on his own with the supplies that were left behind, his training, a data stick loaded with old episodes of Three’s Company, a cache of disco music, and with very little hope of rescue. The film of the same name, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon as the ingenious lead character, will be coming out this fall.
Scheduled movie release date: October 2nd 2015
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
Unless you’re extremely late to the party, you already know that this is the third and final installment of The Hunger Games series and that it continues the saga of the futuristic nation of Panem and its inhabitants, Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Haymitch Abernathy, and the dastardly President Snow. We’ve already seen part one of this installment in theaters, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. If you’re like me, you’ve already read the books, seen the movies, and are dying to see Mockingjay, Part 2. But in case you haven’t caught up on your reading, or in case you desperately need to re-read it, we’ve got you covered in both print and in audio.
Scheduled movie release date: November 20th 2015
In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick
I bet most of you didn’t know that Herman Melville’s Moby Dick was actually inspired by the true story of a real life whaleship called Essex. Once common knowledge, the story of what happened to the fated New England vessel is now little-known. Luckily, with the discovery of the manuscript of the ship’s cabin boy, lost for nearly a hundred years, historians were given a firsthand account of what happened on that fateful trip. It is this manuscript, in part, on which Nathaniel Philbrick based his 2000 non-fiction book. The film version of Philbrick’s rendering of the tale, In the Heart of the Sea, was directed by Ron Howard and will be coming to theaters this December, starring Chris Hemsworth as the ship’s captain and Tom Holland (and Brendan Gleeson) as the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson.
Scheduled movie release date: December 11th 2015
