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Have you seen the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Looks like lots of special effects and action. The movie comes out July 15. I’ll be there – will you?

Wow – I’m finding all kinds of stuff about popular books that are being made into movies today! USAToday has a first look at Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due in theaters Nov. 21…

A movie version of Cirque du Freak, a popular series of books by Darren Shan, is currently filming. It stars Willem Dafoe, John C. Reilly and Salma Hayak. No release date has been set yet, but firstshowing.net says that it should be out in late 2008. Here’s a still from the movie:

Looks like The Tale of Despereaux, Kate Dicamillo’s sweet Newbery Award winner, has been turned into another slapsticky cartoon. This is not the Despereaux I remember. See what you think – watch the trailer here. Or better yet – do yourself a favor and read the book instead.

SLJ reports that The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the Caldecott winning book by Brian Selznick, will be coming to a theater near you – maybe by Christmas 2009! The screenplay will be written by John Logan (Sweeney Todd, The Aviator, Gladiator) and the film will be directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots), making his live-action directing debut. Brian Selznick was in Dallas earlier this month for the Dallas Museum of Art’s BooksmART program. Read more about that event and what he had to say about the upcoming movie here.