Watch out CliffsNotes. You may have a little competition on your hands.At the rate Hollywood is going, school books will probably be hitting the silver screen pretty soon.It seems like all the movies lately are based on books, or shall I say “boovies,” from best-sellers such as “Marley and Me,” to more obscure books, such as “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” and “Yes Man,” even to self-help books, such as “He’s Just Not That Into You.”And this trend doesn’t stop at books. “Doubt” was adapted from an award-winning play. “Iron Man” and “Watchmen” are based on comic books. And “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” came from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.Sure, movie-based books are nothing new in the movie biz. But lately it just seems like there is nothing original out there.So what’s going on?Patricia A. Suchy, director of the program for the study of film and media arts, referencing Linda Hutcheon’s book, “A Theory of Adaptation,” said the economy is one of the top reasons.”With as much money as it takes to produce a feature film, sticking with something that is ‘tried and tested’ can lessen the risk of losing money,” she said. “That’s why there are so many sequels, too.”And movie moguls aren’t just milking these books for all they’re worth inside the box office.”It’s not all about the film, since subsidiary rights are packaged up front,” Suchy said. “The goal would be to have someone who liked a Harry Potter book go see the movie and buy all the rest of the books as they come out, see the rest of the movies, buy the DVD and the action figures, [and] play with them while eating the Harry Potter cereal from the Harry  Potter lunchbox.”And basing a movie on a popular book is practically a guarantee the movie will do well.”Marley and Me” has topped the box office for two consecutive weekends and is the biggest Christmas Day opener ever.”Twilight” made more than $70 million its first weekend.And there is no doubt the movie boosted book sales — I know I’m going to surrender to the chick lit. and buy the series.Thanks to the movie, “Revolutionary Road” is now on The New York Times best-seller list 47 years after being published.”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is currently sold out on Amazon.com.Coincidence? I think not.So what’s the point of coming up with something new when producers know they can make the big bucks by adapting a best-selling book?Producers should take advantage of the plethora of literary material out there and make a blockbuster out of it.There’s certainly no wrong in that.Because Hollywood isn’t reaping the benefits alone.No one really has the time to sit down, relax and read a book anymore.Why waste your time reading the 498 pages of “Twilight” when you can swoon over Edward Cullen’s milky vamp skin glistening in the sunlight and get the full visual effect of him swooping over the tree tops like it ain’t no thang?Why bother reading “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” when you can watch the sexy beast Brad Pitt, decrepit dwarf or not, for two hours and 45 minutes?And why go to the trouble of scrounging up sexual fantasies when you can see Kate and Leo getting down and dirty in the kitchen in “Revolutionary Road”?If “The Reader” would have come out last semester, I sure as hell would have paid $7 and watched a two-hour movie instead of pulling an all-nighter to prepare myself for a quiz in my Holocaust Literature class.So what if these producers are being copy cats? After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.Plus, they’re easy to make, cheap to produce and so far have been rolling in the dough.But just like everything else in Hollywood, nothing lasts for long.And I have a feeling these boovies won’t have much of a shelf life.- – – -Contact Drew Belle Zerby at [email protected]