Book Buzz: Hilary Mantel's prize-winning novels adapted for stage

Here's a look at what's buzzing in the book world:

From Ellroy to Franco: James Franco revealed to MTV at Sundance that he plans to direct and act in a movie adaptation of James Ellroy's 1995 novel American Tabloid, about government agents who become involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Mantel on stage: The Royal Shakespeare Company will adapt Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning novelsWolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies for stage, to be performed this winter season, TheBookseller reports. Read reviews of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies from USA TODAY's Deirdre Donahue.

Twitterature: Bret Easton Ellis may not be working on a new novel, but Variety's Vanessa Grigoriadis makes the case that Ellis' often incendiary 140-character tweets are an art form of their own, likening them to Beat poetry.

Library study: Books and publishing are changing, and with it, so is the use of libraries. A Pew survey found that 77% of Americans said access to computers and the Internet at the library was a "very important" service, The New York Times reports.

Orwell on the radio: For the first time, a two-part radio dramatization of George Orwell's classic 1984 will be performed on BBC Radio, the news source where Orwell worked nearly 70 years ago.

Millions of e-books: Book and literary site The Millions has begun publishing e-books, debuting with the long essay "Epic Fail: Bad Art, Viral Fame and the History of the Worst Thing Ever" by Mark O'Connell.