July 2014 Movie Prequel Guide: A Checklist

In this month’s Prequel Guide (for the month of July), I’ve again included all of the necessary prequel materials (that’s what I call novels, comic books, prequels, originals, or anything else) you’ll need before seeing the movie.

I’ve categorized the different materials into Essential, Useful, and Extra.

Here are the nine non-originals films of July:

Useful:
“Beware the Night” by Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool – Deliver Us From Evil is based on some unusual paranormal investigations Sarchie, a retired NYPD police officer, was apart of. I’m too scared to check out the book but that doesn’t mean you can’t.

Useful:
“Life Itself: A Memoir” by Roger Ebert – I am very interested in eventually catching up with Roger Ebert’s memoir – which was made into a documentary – so this month is the month to do it apparently.

Useful:
“A Long Way Down” by Nick Hornby – Hornby isn’t a stranger to Hollywood (the movies High Fidelity, About a Boy, and Fever Pitch are based on his works), so I’d suggest reading this book before seeing the movie.

Useful:
Planet of the Apes franchise – I was torn on this movie and whether I should marathon my way through the entire Planet of the Apes franchise. Ultimately, I think Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the most important to see, but I don’t think it is 100% necessary. This isn’t to say the movies won’t help you in the long run, but you’ll be fine going into this without anything else.

Extra:
TV series – Planet of the Apes and Return to the Planet of the Apes are two TV series you could check out.

Novels – There are two novels as well (“Planet of the Apes: The Fall” and “Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes”) that you could check out, too.

Comics – There are also several tie-in and spin-off comics you could invest in.

Video Game – Lastly, you could check out the Planet of the Apes video game.

Useful:
“Froth on the Daydream” by Boris Vian – Michel Gondry’s (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) next film is based on a 1947 novel you could read.

Extra:
Film adaptations – There two film adaptations (one French, one Japanese) of “Froth of the Daydream” as well.

Useful:
Planes – Kind of like Planet of the Apes, I’m not convinced you really need to see the original Planes film to get its sequel.

Extra:
Cars franchise – Planes was originally a spin-off of Pixar’s Cars universe. Therefore, you could check out Cars and Cars 2.

Useful:
The Purge – James DeMonaco’s next movie is a sequel, but the entire cast is different. The only thing that is the same is the premise, so you could get away without seeing the first.

Useful:
“A Most Wanted Man” by John le Carré – John le Carré, the esteemed writer, has his novel being adapted. If I had to choose one or two books to focus on, I’d start here.

Useful:
“Hercules: The Thracian Wars” by Steve Moore – Moore wrote two limited series comics about Hercules. Technically, Brett Ratner’s film is based on “The Thracian Wars” so you should start there.

Extra:
Films – Just like when The Legend of Hercules released, there are a lot of other extras.

So there you have it. No truly essential things you have to get to, but a lot of reading if you want to be caught up before seeing the July non-original movies.

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