The Best Books Made into Movies by iVillage

the help’ (2011)

Kathryn Stockett‘s 2009 novel about racial discrimination in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, heads to the big screen Aug. 11 with an all-star cast worthy of its acclaimed source material. Comic actressEmma Stone flaunts her dramatic chops as recent college grad Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a writer who befriends black housekeepers Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) — a.k.a. the titualr “help” — and documents their stories of discrimination. With Bryce Dallas Howard on board as the town’s bigoted ringleader and Stockett’s childhood pal Tate Taylor directing, the film is sure to do the book justice.

‘water for elephants’ (2011)

Sara Gruen’s 2006 best-seller Water for Elephants is a cinematic as they come. It boasts all the spectacle that comes with a Depression-era traveling circus (the titular elephants!), an intimate look at morality, a dangerous love triangle, an even more dangerous circus accident and a swoon-inducing romance for the ages. The film adaptation, in theaters April 22, captures all the book’s potential — casting the classically beautiful Reese Witherspoon as the circus’ main (human) attraction, equestrian Marlena Rosenbluth, Inglourious Basterds villain (and best supporting actor Oscar winner) Christoph Waltz as her menacing husband, and Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson as the veterinary student who shows Marlena what love truly is.

‘twilight’ (2008)

The vampire-romance series, written by Stephenie Meyer, was already a phenomenon unto itself. However, Twilight, the visual accompaniment to her 2005 novel, transformed the phenomenon into obsession. The adaptation, about a romance between a handsome vampire and a girl next door, was smartly loyal to its source material, bringing to life the impossibly chivalric, almost ethereal love story. While decidedly melodramatic, the prolific use of slow motion and extreme close-ups certainly played into that great escape. The fact that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart let their onscreen romance trickle into real life only added to the illusion. And starry-eyed teens and moms responded in kind.

Via Team Twilight, Source