2018 Screen Adaptations
of beloved children’s and YA books
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
The movie version of emily m. danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which takes on conversion therapy, will make its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this January. Teenager Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) is sent to a “de-gaying” camp in 1990s Montana by her conservative relatives after her parents’ deaths, and the narrative becomes one about survival. The cast also includes Jane Fonda.
The Death Cure
The epic finale to James Dashner’s action-packed “Maze Trilogy” saga is The Death Cure. Thomas leads his group of escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions the Gladers have been asking since they first arrived in the maze. Release date January 26.
A Wrinkle in Time
Love, Simon
The film version of Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda will go by the title of Love, Simon. Seventeen-year old Simon Spier (Nick Robinson ) has yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay and he doesn’t actually know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online. He is blackmailed into acting as an erstwhile matchmaker. Katherine Langford costars as Simon’s best friend, Leah. “Love, Simon” is a funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about the thrilling ride of finding yourself and falling in love. Release date March 16.
Ready Player One
Steven Spielberg ventures into YA sci-fi action-adventure in Ready Player One, based on Ernest Cline’s 2011 adult title with teen appeal. The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger. Release date March 30.
The Darkest Minds
The Darkest Minds is based on the first book in a trilogy by Alexandra Bracken. After a disease kills 98% of America's children, the surviving 2% develop superpowers and are placed in internment camps. The film centers on Ruby (Amandla Stenberg), a 16-year-old who escapes her camp and joins a group of teens on the run from the government. Mandy Moore plays a doctor and member of a crusade that wants to put a stop of the persecution of the children. Release date September 14.
Mortal Engines
Mortal Engines is a science fiction action adventure film based on the novel of the same name by Philip Reeve. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic steampunk world where entire cities have been mounted on wheels and motorized, and prey on one another.Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan)—who hails from a Lower Tier of the great traction city of London—finds himself fighting for his own survival after he encounters the dangerous fugitive Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar). Two opposites, whose paths should never have crossed, forge an unlikely alliance that is destined to change the course of the future. Release date December 14.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Jenny Han’s YA lighthearted romance To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was filmed last summer, with a cast led by actress Lana Condor as Lara Jean, whose stash of unsent love letters somehow find their way to her former (or are they?) crushes. Centered as much on the antics of heart as on Lara Jean’s Korean American family, the movie is among the upcoming films reflecting a wide range of teens. The release date has not yet been announced.
The Hate U Give
Amandla Stenberg will play the central character in The Hate U Give. Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Based on Angie Thomas’s debut novel, The Hate U Give was filmed in fall, 2017, and its release date hasn’t yet been announced.
Sue Heraper
SAGE Library at Newbury Park High School
Newbury Park, CA
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sagelibrary/
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