Print or screen savor

By Mark Olsen

July 24, 2003 12 AM PT

Special to The Times

It’s a perennial chicken/egg dilemma -- what to do first ... read the book or see the movie. Either way you play it, it’s a tough call. The shearing of detail and characterization necessary to pare down a novel’s heft to a reasonable running time means something has inevitably got to go, which for fans of a given book can lead to obvious disappointment. If you’re coming from the movie to the book there can often be a pleasing addition of new and interesting material, the page turner equivalent of DVD extras or CD bonus tracks. Whichever path you choose, here’s a selection of a few notable upcoming adaptations currently available for the beach towel, front porch or comfy chair nearest you.

Post-movie plus

If you’re heading out to theaters this weekend and haven’t already read the book “Seabiscuit,” by Laura Hillenbrand, chances are you’ll be catching up with it post-movie unless you have a day to set aside. Which in the case of a story such as this -- a team of underdogs turn the world of horse-racing upside down and lift the spirits of the nation during the Great Depression -- is probably a benefit. The wealth of factual detail and historical context included in the book is more than any movie could hope to contain.

Humanity’s big-picture

Philip Roth’s “The Human Stain” is perhaps more literary and high-minded than the average beach reading, but some folks enjoy that kind of thing. The conclusion of Roth’s “American Trilogy” alongside “American Pastoral” and “I Married a Communist,” the book filters through layers of race, identity and other big-picture concepts of the modern experience to tell a tale that is by turns sad and funny. The award-baiting movie, due in the fall, features such top-shelf names as Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman and is directed by veteran Robert Benton.

The smoking gun

For whatever reason, the zeitgeist eventually spun itself away from the once-ubiquitous John Grisham and his stream of idealistic young lawyers, as his last few novels, though successful, have not been perceived as quite the smash successes of his earlier work. Nothing exemplifies his decline quite like the long, hard road of bringing “The Runaway Jury” to the screen. (The movie apparently does away with the runaway modifier “the,” making it simply “Runaway Jury.”) The book’s tale of a hot-button lawsuit brought against Big Tobacco, has been superseded somewhat in the intervening years by actual tobacco company lawsuits that yielded payouts bigger than a John Grisham advance. The film now involves a lawsuit against gun manufacturers. Initially known for myriad changes of cast and director, it is finally coming to the screen with the exciting team of John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman, and Gary Fleder directing.

Stitch in time

If there’s one author Hollywood loves more than John Grisham (though maybe still not quite as much as Stephen King), it’s Michael Crichton. Behind the “Jurassic Park” series and the television show “ER,” his career even stretches back to such chestnuts as “The Andromeda Strain,” “Westworld,” and “Coma” -- Crichton has been nothing if not prolific. The long-in-coming film adaptation of his 1999 time-travel saga, “Timeline,” stars Paul Walker and Frances O’Connor and is directed by Richard Donner, whose previous work includes such pertinent titles as “Superman” and “Ladyhawke.”

Opening weekend looms

Seabiscuit

By Laura Hillenbrand

Random House, 339 pages

Movie release: Friday

Reading time: less than 24 hours

The Human Stain

By Philip Roth

Vintage International, 361 pages

Movie release: Sept. 26

Reading time: 10 weeks

The Runaway Jury