The Remarkably Bright Creatures Trailer and Its Narrating Giant Octopus

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

The Trailer for Remarkably Bright Creatures Has Dropped

At first, I thought the deep voice narrating the trailer for Remarkably Bright Creatures was just the generic Hollywood narrator guy. But as the trailer continued, I realized that it actually belonged to Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus at the center of the story. He seems to have a vested interest in the lady who cleans his tank finding her son, who disappeared years ago. Since its 2022 release, the book the movie was adapted from has gone mega platinum. It currently has more than 1 million ratings on Goodreads, and was on everyone’s bestselling list forever, so I suppose it’s no surprise it got an adaptation—starring Sally Field, no less—so quickly.

The general vibe of the trailer is very heartwarming and ultimately feel-good, which makes its Mother’s Day weekend release on Netflix (May 8) understandable.

Paramount Launches New Imprint

Three years after selling Simon & Schuster, Paramount is back to books. They’re set to launch Paramount Global Publishing this year, which will incorporate Paramount’s intellectual property into new stories that will appear in print, audio, and digital formats, and stretch across genres and age demographics. It’s interesting, after what has seemed like a cool whole decade of Hollywood rehashing IP after IP, things are heading back to (somewhat) original stories. Sure, it sounds like Paramount wants to add on to already existing characters and worlds, but at the very least, we’ll hopefully be getting expansions of worlds rather than more tired remakes.

A List of Black Book Festivals Throughout the Country

Sisters from AARP has published a list of Black Book Festivals happening throughout the country this year, and all I have to say is nobody told me nothing! I’m kidding, but only a little. It’s nice to be able to look at everything in one place. The dates start as early as April 25 and run until the fall, with locations in the South, the West, the Midwest, and the Northeast.

The Best Historical Fiction Books of the Century So Far

The best historical fiction books of the century so far take us from ancient Greece to the Joseon dynasty in Korea to the Six-Day War in Palestine to 1980s NASA astronaut training. Historical fiction continues to be biased towards recent events, but we are getting to see more of history around the world than we did just a few decades ago.