If you enjoy reading the book before you view its movie or TV series adaptation, we have several exciting titles to get you started before fall. Here at MI Library, we also like to read first, then watch. As it happens, we've been busy staying on top of all the book-based films and series coming soon to theaters and television.
One of the biggest surprises thus far has been the popularity of Netflix's Lupin, based on Maurice LeBlanc's 1905 series Ars̴ẽne Lupin, Gentleman Burglar. To say that Arsẽne Lupin, also known as Assane Diop on the Netflix show, is suave would be an understatement. He is handsome, debonair and devilishly charming. But it sure is fun to watch this consummate thief continuously outsmarting his would-be captors. Season 2 of Lupin began streaming on Netflix in June but there's still time to read The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsẽne Lupin before Season 3 starts streaming in late 2021.
Filmmakers just can't resist another remake of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune. If you haven't read this 1966 classic, there's plenty of time to check it out from MI Library before Dune: Part One arrives in theaters this fall. The series begins in a far off future on a distant planet, where Paul Atriedes plans to take his family's business empire to the next level. In 1984, Dune was adapted into a film by director David Lynch. The 2021 movie, directed by Denis Villanueve stars Timothẽe Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, and Charlotte Rampling.
Another highly anticipated film coming this fall is The Last Duel, based on the book by the same name by Eric Jager. In 1386, Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight returns from combat in Scotland to to find his wife, Marguerite accusing Jacques Le Gris, her husband's old friend and fellow courtier, of brutally raping her. Based on true events, the knight takes his cause before the teenage King Charles VI, the highest judge in France. Amid Le Gris's vociferous claims of innocence and doubts about the now pregnant Marguerite's charges (and about the paternity of her child), the deadlocked court decrees a "trial by combat" that leaves her fate, too, in the balance. The movie adaptation stars Ben Affleck, Adam Driver and Matt Damon. The Last Duel is scheduled to be released in theaters this October.
Fashion fans who read Sara Gay Forden's The House of Gucci will not want to miss this fall's upcoming film by the same name. This 2001 true crime story chronicles the rollercoaster ride of Maurizio Gucci, from Guccio Gucci's leather shop in the early 1900s to the Investscorp takeover of the multimillion dollar corporation in 1993 and Maurizio's 1995 murder by his ex-wife. The new film stars Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Salma Hayek, and Jared Leto.
The movie we're most excited about is Nightmare Alley, based on William Lindsey Gresham's 1946 book by the same name. Gresham's psychological thriller about a circus performer's rise and fall was adapted into a haunting film by the same title in 1947 that starred Tyrone Power, whose stunning performance was not easily forgotten. Nightmare Alley's second adaptation will be directed by Guillermo del Toro, the 2017 Best Picture Oscar winner for The Shape of Water, and stars Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett.
Just in time for Halloween, MGM's Dark Harvest will arrive in theaters. Based on Norman Partridge's 2007 Bram Stoker award-winning novel by the same name, the story is set in a small Midwestern town on Halloween, 1963. Each year, the October boy, also known as Sawtooth Jack emerges from the cornfields holding a butcher knife with evil intent. The town's teenage boys eagerly await the chance to face this legendary nightmare. For Pete McCormick, one such teenager facing what he considers to be a dead-end fate in a one-horse town, killing the October Boy and winning the annual prize presents the ticket to his escape. But before the terrifying night is over, Pete will discover the awful secret of the October boy.
