Bookshelf to box office

Check out a few of our favourite books that have film adaptations in theatres before the year is out.

The Girl On The Train

Based on Paula Hawkins' 2015 runaway bestseller, The Girl On The Train is one of the most highly anticipated film adaptations of 2016.

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.

Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.

Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train…

In NZ cinemas now. 

Never Go Back

The second Jack Reacher  movie starring Tom Cruise, based on the bestselling novel by Lee Child.

Drop-out military cop Jack Reacher has finally hitch-hiked his way to Virginia. His destination, the closest thing to a home he ever had: the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th Military Police.

Reacher has no real reason to be here, except that he spoke to the new commanding officer on the phone. He liked Major Susan Turner’s voice. But now he’s arrived, she’s disappeared, and things are getting weird.

Accused of a sixteen-year-old homicide and co-opted back into the army, Reacher says nothing. 
But he’s sure as hell thinking of a way out.

In NZ cinemas now.

Inferno

Award winning Ron Howard returns to direct the latest bestseller in Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series, Inferno

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon awakes in a hospital bed with no recollection of where he is or how he got there. Nor can he explain the origin of the macabre object found hidden in his belongings.

A threat to his life will propel him and a young doctor, Sienna Brooks, into a breakneck chase across the city. Only Langdon's knowledge of the hidden passageways and ancient secret that lie behind its historic façade can save them from the clutches of their unknown pursuers.

With only a few lines from Dante's Inferno to guide them, they must decipher a sequence of codes buried deep within some of the Renaissance's most celebrated artworks to find the answers to a puzzle which may, or may not, help them save the world from a terrifying threat. 

In NZ cinemas now. 

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Since its publication in June 2011, this offbeat blend of supernatural fantasy and vintage photography has dominated the YA best-seller lists—and with this Tim Burton adaptation arriving soon, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children shows no sign of slowing down.

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

In NZ cinemas now. 

The Light Between Oceans

A global bestseller and award-winner, The Light Between Oceans, is arguably one of the most successful Australian novels of recent years. The film adaptation is being produced by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks, and stars Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weiss.

They break the rules and follow their hearts. What happens next will break yours.

1926. Tom Sherbourne is a young lighthouse keeper on a remote island off Western Australia. The only inhabitants of Janus Rock, he and his wife Isabel live a quiet life, cocooned from the rest of the world.

Then one April morning a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a crying infant - and the path of the couple's lives hits an unthinkable crossroads.

Only years later do they discover the devastating consequences of the decision they made that day - as the baby's real story unfolds...

Out in NZ cinemas 3 November 2016.

MIDDLE SCHOOL: THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE

Rafe Khatchadorian is getting the Hollywood treatment in a film version of Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life.

Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he's got an ace plan for the best year ever, if only he can pull it off. With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points, Rafe tries to break every rule in his school's oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class – 5,000 points! Running in the hallway – 10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm – 50,000 points! But when Rafe's game starts to catch up with him, he'll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he's finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he's been avoiding.

Out in NZ cinemas 12 January 2017