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    Match These Books to Their Movie Versions

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    Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about books that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions, video games and more. With the summer-movie season here, this week’s challenge is focused on novels that went on to become big-screeen adventures. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the books and their filmed versions. More

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      The ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Star Mason Thames Is Still Freaking Out

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      Mason Thames was very, very nervous. The actor, then 15 years old, had arrived in London for another round of auditions on his quest to land the lead role in Universal’s live-action adaptation of “How to Train Your Dragon,” and the pressure was mounting.He had been a toddler when the original DreamWorks Animation film was released in 2010, and he grew up obsessing over the animated trilogy about Hiccup, a teenage Viking who befriends an injured dragon named Toothless. Now, the chance to play his childhood hero was within his grasp.As Thames fretted between chemistry readings with potential co-stars, Nico Parker, the actress who would eventually land the role of Hiccup’s love interest, Astrid, caught a glimpse of his anxious energy.“He was pacing back and forth, and my chest hurt from how cute he was,” Parker, who was then 18, recalled. “He was just the sweetest little angel; I can’t even put it into words.”Thames continued to be on edge as the two actors performed a scene together for the film’s executives. But when he delivered one of his scripted comedic lines, Parker broke character and burst out laughing, causing Thames to follow suit. Her flub, Thames said, instantly put him at ease and changed the course of the session.It wasn’t until after they’d both won the roles that he learned the truth: “She said she messed up on purpose to make me feel better because she saw how nervous I was,” Thames said. “That was the sweetest thing anybody could have ever done.” (Parker noted that she was also nervous. “I was just trying to hide it a bit more than he was.”)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Inside Universal’s Big Bet on ‘How to Train Your Dragon’

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      In an era of skepticism around live-action remakes, Universal believes audiences will take flight with Hiccup and Toothless again.In 2020, Dean DeBlois publicly blasted live-action remakes of animated films as “lazy” studio endeavors.The director who, along with Chris Sanders, had made the 2002 Disney animated “Lilo & Stitch” and the 2010 DreamWorks Animation release “How to Train Your Dragon,” said that he viewed such remakes as “a missed opportunity to put something original into the world.”Then, two years later, DeBlois received a call from the Universal Pictures president, Peter Cramer, asking if he’d be interested in directing a live-action version of “How to Train Your Dragon.”“At the expense of seeming like a hypocrite, I thought, well, I’m either going to sit here and pout and watch somebody else do it,” DeBlois said in a video interview with The Times, “or I could jump in and shoulder the blame or help to change the narrative.”Now, as the live-action “Dragon” arrives in theaters on Friday, DeBlois is enthusiastically attached to the type of movie he formerly criticized.A lot could have gone wrong: DeBlois had never made a live-action feature before Universal put him in charge of the $150 million remake, and the genre as a whole is facing increased skepticism from audiences and studios alike. (Disney reportedly put its “Tangled” remake on hold indefinitely in the wake of underwhelming box office for “Snow White” this spring.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Arnold Schwarzenegger Is Busy Caring for a Pony, Pig, Donkey and Malamute

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      The longtime actor, now starring in “FUBAR,” on his many animals, good cigars and wanting his kids to outshine him.Arnold Schwarzenegger was smoking a cigar on his patio in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, lamenting all the things that he had decided to trim from his list of 10 essentials. Most of all his five kids.“I cannot live without my children,” he said on a video call as his pet pig, Schnelly, wandered around. “I need to be in touch daily.”Schwarzenegger was sounding a lot like Luke Brunner, his character in the Netflix series “FUBAR,” which just began streaming its second season. In it, he plays the world’s best spy, and perhaps its most overprotective father, who learns that his daughter is a C.I.A. operative with an ego, just like Dad is.“She says, ‘When they say Brunner, I don’t want them just to talk about you. I want them also to talk about me,’” he said. “It’s the same thing as it is in real life with Patrick, my son, being an actor now and being big time and doing fantastic shows,” including a star turn this year in Season 3 of “The White Lotus.”Was the elder Schwarzenegger feeling a bit competitive? “I hope and wish that he will do bigger things than I’ve ever done,” he said before elaborating on his love of chess and driving his M47 tank. “It’s fantastic when kids are performing better than their parents because that is largely because of them, and it’s also because of you. It’s upbringing.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.ChessI learned to play chess with my father and did that pretty much every day. I have collected chess sets from all over the world, but now 99 percent of the time you play on an app with your friends in Austria or Germany or Hungary or Russia — wherever they are.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Action Movies to Stream Now: ‘Exterritorial,’ ‘Fear Below’ and More

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      This month’s picks include a gaslit mother, a hungry shark, vengeful French cops, and more.‘Exterritorial’Stream it on Netflix.Sara (Jeanne Goursaud), a German war veteran, is moving to the United States with her son, Josh (Rickson Guy da Silva), to accept a job when he is abducted in the consulate. Although Sara begs for help, the consulate’s smarmy security officer, Eric (Dougray Scott), claims her son was never with her.Like “Flightplan,” another film about a mother searching for her missing child, “Exterritorial,” written and directed by Christian Zübert, makes gaslighting a juicy subject for an action thriller. In her pursuit, which is often slowed by her post-traumatic stress disorder, Sara discovers a secret drug ring and an imprisoned whistle-blower (Lera Abova). An expert in hand-to-hand combat, Sara also engages in bone-rattling scrums with consulate personnel. The oppressively white and bright setting, the psychological angst felt by Sara, and Zübert’s insistence on long takes make “Exterritorial” succeed as a frustrating fight for recognition.‘Fear Below’Rent or buy on most major platforms.In the director Matthew Holmes’s striking shark movie “Fear Below,” a diving team — Clara (Hermione Corfield), Jimmy (Jacob Junior Nayinggul) and Ernie (Arthur Angel) — is hired by a rugged gangster named Dylan (Jake Ryan) to salvage boxes of gold bars trapped in a truck at the bottom of a deep and dirty river. It’s a simple job complicated by a deadly female bull shark circling the treasure.“Fear Below” is both politically conscious — using its 1940s Australian background to comment on the sexism and racism of the era — and downright thrilling. While the wrathful Dylan is an easy-to-hate heel, the shark is commandingly elusive. The dingy water means the bloodthirsty predator can appear anytime, and the extreme close-ups in the divers’ helmets adds to the limited visibility. The two angles combine for a shark movie that ends with a crunch.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      7 Father’s Day Movies to Watch in Theaters

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      Whether you’re in the mood for dragons or a new Wes Anderson, theaters this weekend are filled with fatherly flicks.It’s tough being a dad, but you can at least be assured that you don’t have to contend with fire-breathing dragons, rooftop body slams or assassination attempts (we hope).Instead, you can enjoy watching other dads — and surrogate dads — confront those thrills this month in theaters.Here’s a roundup of what to watch with the father figure in your life.The Heartwarming‘How to Train Your Dragon’Hiccup isn’t like the other vikings. He can barely lift a battle ax, much less wield one; he’d rather tinker than trade insults with his peers, and he’s more clumsy than courageous. He is, in other words, tough for his manly-man village chief father (played by Gerard Butler), to love. But when he unexpectedly vaults to the top of his dragon-fighting training class — using mysterious means — his father is over the moon. However, when Hiccup suggests NOT killing dragons? Cue the shame. In theaters.‘Elio’Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) with Glordon (Remy Edgerly) in “Elio.”Pixar/Disney/Pixar, via Associated PressWhen your dad is a warlord, and you just want to make him proud — preferably without the need for intergalactic conquest — well, it’s not easy for either father or son. But that’s the case among Glordon, a sluglike purple alien with no eyelids, and his dad, the fearsome space ruler Lord Grigon, in the latest Pixar film “Elio.”When Glordon and the titular protagonist, 11-year-old Elio, who must negotiate with Lord Grigon to prevent him from destroying the universe, become fast friends, loyalties will be tested. Will Glordon’s dad come around when his son is kidnapped and agrees to be used as a bargaining chip? Or will he abandon the kid to fate? (Yes, this one isn’t quite out yet, but no one says you can’t buy your dad advance tickets!) In theaters June 20.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Watch Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal Spark in ‘Materialists’

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      The writer and director Celine Song narrates a sequence from her film, which also features Chris Evans.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.A meet-cute, an intriguing drink order and a stealth character in the background make for a clever scene in Celine Song’s latest film, “Materialists.” Narrating this sequence, the writer-director said she chose this particular scene to discuss for this series “because it’s the first scene that I wrote.”In it, Harry, played by Pedro Pascal, is at the reception following his brother’s wedding. He rearranges his name card so he can sit next to Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a matchmaker he quickly starts to hit on.Discussing the scene, Song said she wanted the camera to settle on a long two-shot, in which Lucy and Harry have a thoughtful conversation.“This really reflects how incredible my actors are,” she said, “because we’re really treating them like they’re theater actors having to have a whole conversation while sitting in this two-shot.”During that discussion, Song adds to the narrative with a background moment, a quick introduction of the film’s third lead, John (Chris Evans), who walks through the frame while the two are talking.“I really did want the sound design and the way that he walks by to be something that is maybe not easy to spot in the first watch, but it’s a bit of a secret.”That moment pays off when Lucy tells Harry her drink order toward the end of the scene.Read the “Materialists” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      Celine Song’s New Rom-Com ‘Materialists’ Takes a Deep Look at Love and Value

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      In her 20s, long before she wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated “Past Lives,” Celine Song spent six months working as a matchmaker in New York. By day, she’d meet with single women rattling off requirements for a potential mate, from appearance and height to income. By night, over beers with her artist friends, she couldn’t help but notice a disconnect: Many of her favorite people would be instantly rejected based on those criteria.“I’d be like, ‘You guys would be not good mates for any of my clients,’” she said. “I spent all day listening to these women describe them as worthless people they do not want to meet, even though I ascribe so much worth to them because they are creative and brilliant and amazing.”That tension lies at the heart of Song’s new rom-com, “Materialists,” which stars Dakota Johnson as Lucy, a New York City matchmaker with an enviable track record of steering single women toward successful men. But when Lucy meets the handsome and rich Harry (Pedro Pascal), who’d prefer to woo Lucy instead of her clients, she must decide if the material things he can offer are more valuable than the deeper connection she feels with John (Chris Evans), her broke ex-boyfriend.Before making movies, Song worked as a matchmaker. Ryan Pfluger for The New York TimesSong wrote the screenplay for “Materialists” in 2022 as she awaited the release of “Past Lives,” about a South Korean immigrant reunited with the childhood friend who still carries a torch for her. When I met Song last month over drinks at a West Hollywood hotel, she spoke candidly about love and longing as a creative through line in her work.“When I talk to people who are really, really smart, who seem to know everything, if you start asking them about their romantic life, everything falls apart,” she said. “They’ll just admit that they don’t know things about love, or they’ll be like, ‘I don’t know, she makes me feel like a kid.’ They’ll say things that are not becoming of the put-together, intelligent people they are, because love is a mystery.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Prime Minister’ Examines a New Zealand Leader and a Global Issue

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      The film is a memoir of sorts for Jacinda Ardern, who governed at a time of multiple disasters. But it was misinformation that proved hardest to cope with.When she became prime minister of New Zealand in 2017, Jacinda Ardern was the world’s youngest female head of state, at 37. From the start, she was playing on hard mode. After giving birth to a daughter not quite eight months later, she led her country through a series of generational catastrophes — shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, a deadly volcanic eruption, the Covid-19 pandemic — all while pushing a hefty set of progressive reforms through the legislature and getting re-elected, too.The new documentary “Prime Minister” (in theaters) mostly covers this tumultuous period, showing how Ardern, the Labour Party leader at the time, navigated her choices while also giving space to her misgivings. But it’s not a biopic or a puff piece. It’s more of a memoir: a bigger story told through the events of one person’s life. That tale goes far beyond Ardern, even beyond New Zealand.The directors Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe drew on a variety of sources. There’s footage from 2024, with Ardern teaching as a fellow at Harvard and working on her new book, “A Different Kind of Power.” But that’s just the framing device. The bulk of “Prime Minister” leans on video that her husband, Clarke Gayford, shot during Ardern’s time in office, including intimate glimpses of her home life and private thoughts, as well as audio interviews that haven’t been previously released.The result can be uncommonly frank. Ardern talks about reluctant governing and impostor syndrome. Her political journey, she says, has been a battle between two parts of herself, “the one that says that you can’t and the one that says that you have to.” She speaks her mind but is also in tune with her emotions. You can hear her voice crack when she contemplates the grieving families of the people slain in the Christchurch massacre, or considers the implications of pandemic lockdown policies on children who depend on school for food and women who will face domestic violence in isolation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More