Pittsburgh Books Turned into Movies

Perks of Being A Wallflower is not the only book turned into movie that is from Pittsburgh.  Authors from Pittsburgh have had major successes turning their stories into film over the past 50 years.  Everything from Judy Moody to Robopocalypse have roots in Pittsburgh, and they are starting to come to life through actors and film.   Pittsburgh's film industry is booming and we are likely to see more of these Pittsburgh novels come to life soon.

If Jesse Andrews' novel "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" makes it to the big screen, it would be just the latest of many books turned into movies that were written by authors with Pittsburgh connections. A sampling includes:

"Perks of Being a Wallflower," filmed here by novelist turned writer-director Stephen Chbosky, a native of Upper St. Clair, is expected to open in theaters in September. It stars Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller.

"Robopocalypse," a movie based on a novel by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Daniel H. Wilson, is expected to be released in April 2014. Steven Spielberg is directing. It's about a robot that starts a war in an effort to destroy mankind and a young photojournalist who tries to tell the tale.

"Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer," released in 2011, was written by popular "Judy Moody" children's series author Megan McDonald, who grew up in Ross.

"Wonder Boys" (2000) and "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" (2008) were written by Michael Chabon, who attended Carnegie Mellon University in 1980-81 and graduated from University of Pittsburgh in 1984.

Of course way before that, East Pittsburgh native Joseph Wambaugh had his many novels about police work turned into movies: "The Choir Boys" (1977), "The Onion Field" (1979), "The Black Marble" (1980), plus a slew of TV movies and TV series.

"The Valley of Decision" is a 1945 film based on Marcia Davenport's historical novel about an Irish immigrant who accepts a job as a live-in maid at the home of a steel mill owner. It's a multigeneration tale examining social classes, love, a violent strike and more starring Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore and others.

While not a movie, filming is under way in Toronto of a 13-episode Netflix streaming series "Hemlock Grove," based on a gothic horror novel by Brian McGreevy, who grew up in Charleroi. It is being produced by Gaumont International Television. The novel and TV series centers around solving the gruesome deaths of several young women in a fictional Western Pennsylvania steel town, Hemlock Grove.

For more information go to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.