Movie Tie-in Madness: Bond, Button, and McCarthy

Raya Kuzyk -- Library Journal, 10/7/2008 8:27:00 AM

Movie tie-ins are no longer strictly the stuff of sticker-slapped paperbacks; these days, all imaginable media are getting in on the action. Below are three forthcoming 2008 flicks—Quantum of Solace, The Road [as of 10/21, bumped to 2009], and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button—that, while drawing on works of print, also branch out into other formats for media-hungry patrons. Roll tape!

THE MOVIE: Quantum of Solace
(11/14, $224 million budget, Columbia Pictures, wide release)
Directed by Marc Forster
Starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric
Named after the short story from Ian Fleming’s 1960 anthology For Your Eyes Only (the film is otherwise unrelated)
THE WEB SITE
www.007.com/

THE TRAILER

THE PRINT TIE-INS
—Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories (Penguin, Sept.) by Ian Fleming
—Bond on Set: Filming Quantum of Solace (DK, Oct. 20) by Greg Williams

THE GAMES
—From Activision, a videogame available on six platforms: PS2 and PS3, XBox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS, and Windows PC
—From Sony Pictures Television, a mobile game

THE THEME SONG (digital)
—Listen to Alicia Keys and Jack White’s “Another Way To Die,” the first duet in Bond soundtrack history, at www.thirdmanrecords.com.

THE SOUNDTRACK (CD)
—24 tracks; with music by David Arnold (J Records, Oct. 28)

THE AUDIOBOOK (CD, MP3-CD)
—Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories (Blackstone, read by Simon Vance)

THE MOVIE: The Road
(11/26*, $30 million budget, Dimension Films, limited release)
[bumped to 2009]
Directed by John Hillcoat
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron
Based on the 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy
First, a Pulitzer® Prize winner, an Oprah’s Book Club Selection, an LJ Best Book, and the recipient of a starred review (LJ 9/1/06). Now, a movie. (The last adaptation of a McCormack book, No Country for Old Men, won four Academy Awards; an adaptation of Blood Meridian is tentatively planned for 2010 release.)

THE PRINT TIE-IN
—The Road (Vintage, reprint ed., Oct. 14)

THE AUDIOBOOK (CD, Playaway® digital)
—The Road (Recorded Bks., 2006)
Reviewer John Hiett called this recording, narrated by Tom Stechschulete (Shutter Island), though “bleak,” “a wonderfully moving tale”; “essential” (LJ 7/07). Listen to an audio clip.
THE SOUNDTRACK
—Nick Cave and Dirty Three violinist/Bad Seeds cohort Warren Ellis to provide the score (format/availability TBA)

THE MOVIE: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
(12/25, $150 million budget, Paramount Pictures, wide release)
Directed by David Fincher
Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond
Based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald

THE WEB SITE
www.benjaminbutton.com

THE TRAILER

THE PRINT TIE-INS
—The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Tales (Penguin Classics reprint ed., Aug. 2008)
—The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Wonderfully Illustrated Short Pieces (Collins Design, Oct. 2008), art by Calef Brown
—The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: The Graphic Novel (Quirk Bks., Oct. 2008), adapted by Nunzio DeFillippis and Christina Weir; illus. by Kevin Cornell

THE AUDIOBOOK (CD, MP3-CD w/ PDF, digital download)
—The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Tales (Tantor Media, 2006, read by Grover Gardner); listen to an audio clip.