I'm still not sure how anyone can possibly make a movie out of The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky's magnificent coming-of-age book about an awkward young man navigating crushes, his relationship with his family, and some issues that are a bit too mature for him to grasp. But if anyone's going to pull it off, I guess it's Stephen Chbosky himself-- the novelist has turned screenwriter and director to make the film for Summit Entertainment, with rising stars like Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Mae Whitman, Ezra Miller, Johnny Simmons and Nicholas Braun in the lead roles. Paul Rudd, Melanie Lynskey, Dylan McDermott and Kate Walsh fill out the adult side of the equation, but as is usually the case with coming-of-age stories, it's the kids who take the center stage.

And it's the kids who are featured in the first two official images from the movie, specifically the very famous kid Emma Watson, who plays the very pretty, very mysterious Sam, the big object of affection for our hero Charlie (Logan Lerman). You can see both of them in the two images below, and click on them for the high-res versions.





With her hair chopped short and wearing some very appropriate early 90s clothes, Watson looks very far away from Harry Potter's Hermione Granger, which is definitely the point. Can she pull off this tricky role and make us think of her as an actual actress? We're going to need at least a trailer to make that call. Perks of Being A Walfflower doesn't yet have a release date, but it's due sometime next year.