STORY TOOLS

Studios read more into DVD movies

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 7/2/2007

Safe Harbour is one of about 40 planned releases based on Danielle Steel's novels.

JULY 2 | Studios are turning into regular book worms, with several prepping DVD premiere movies based on best-selling novels.

New Line Home Entertainment is hoping to release as many as 40 DVDs based on Danielle Steel novels. First on shelves on Oct. 16 (prebook Sept. 11; $19.97) will be SafeHarbor, starring Melissa Gilbert as a woman hoping to rediscover love. Next in development for DVD release is Steel’s Sisters, which features four adult siblings struggling to reunite.

Steel is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having at least one novel on The New York Times bestseller list for 390 consecutive weeks.

On Sept. 11 (prebook Aug. 9), Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will street Blue Smoke and Carolina Moon, films from Nora Roberts’ books by the same names that originally aired on Lifetime TV. Both are priced at $24.96.

Blue Smoke stars Alicia Witt, who works as an arson investigator after witnessing a fire destroy her family’s pizzeria. Carolina Moon stars Claire Forlani as a psychic who returns to her hometown to try to overcome the brutal murder of a childhood friend.

Roberts has penned more than 150 books, which have collectively sold more than 280 million copies.

Warner Premiere is turning the page on popular tween series The Clique and is streeting the first disc based on the books in 2008. The made-for-DVD movie production division, housed at Warner Home Video, is partnering with Clique publisher Alloy Entertainment to create the DVDs. The Clique novels follow junior high school adventures, as narrated by a 12-year-old girl.

“The content and style of these books makes them perfect as the basis for a series of DVD releases, and working with our partners at Alloy, we’ll be able to translate these fun and exciting characters into what the established fans of The Clique have been asking for since book one,” said Diane Nelson, president at Warner Premiere. “[Warner] will also help continue to introduce the series in both book and DVD format to a worldwide ‘tween girl’ audience.”

Warner Premiere also is working on launching on DVD the Christian favorite In His Steps, which originated the classic theological question, “What would Jesus do?”

Also in the faith-based DVD pipeline is The Christmas Candle by Max Lucado and The Penny co-written by Joyce Meyer. Lucado has penned more than 50 books, with 28 million in print. The movies will be released theatrically by The Weinstein Co. and later distributed by Genius Products on an unspecified date on DVD.

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