Upcoming Book-To-Screen Adaptations: What To Read Before The Movie Or TV Show
The simple joy of reading a book can inspire so much. While we’re turning their pages, we use our imaginations to live inside entire worlds with its characters. There are so many great books being made into movies or TV shows over the course of this year and beyond. And, since there’s nothing quite like comparing a production’s vision to your own personal experience reading a story, we’re preparing you for everything you should read before the Hollywood adaptation hits theaters and our TV screens.
Time to pop open your TBR list, because a lot of upcoming book-to-screen adaptations are on the way across loads of genres, from Dune to Bridgerton. Across numerous genres, pick up these titles so you can say ‘I read that book’ before they become major movie and TV releases.
The Hard Sell (Evan Hughes)
This fall, Netflix is releasing a crime drama starring Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Catherine O’Hara and Andy Garcia. Pain Hustlers released in October and tells the story of a high school dropout named Liza Drake (Blunt), who becomes enthralled in a criminal conspiracy after nabbing a job at a pharmaceutical start-up. It’s based on Evan Hughes’ book called The Hard Sell based on a true criminal trial.
Black Cake (Charmaine Wilkerson)
Charmaine Wilkerson’s 2022 bestseller Black Cake is becoming a Hulu TV series that was executive produced by Oprah Winfrey. The fiction novel is about Byron and Benny, the two children of recently deceased Eleanor Bennett as their mother leaves a strange inheritance for them. Eleanor leaves behind a black cake and a voice recording detailing a long held secret that includes heartbreak, murder and a long-lost child. The siblings must go on a unique journey to piece together the mystery of their mother’s true life.
All The Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr)
The Pulitzer-winning and best-selling 2014 novel, All The Light We Cannot See, has been adapted into a mini series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and Stranger Things’ executive producer, Shawn Levy. The story, set during World War II, follows a blind French girl who takes refuge at her uncle’s house after Paris is invaded by Nazi Germany.
Elvis And Me (Priscilla Presley with Sandra Harmon)
Following Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis becoming a huge hit last year, writer/director Sofia Coppola is placing the focus on his wife, Priscilla Presley, in her upcoming biopic, Priscilla. The movie stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla and Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi as Elvis during their life. It is based on the 1985 biography Priscilla wrote and published that detailed their relationship, including their first time meeting, marriage, affairs and subsequent divorce.
The Buccaneers (Edith Wharton)
At a time when period series like Bridgerton are all the rage, perhaps the adaptation to Edith Wharton is coming at the perfect time. The Apple TV+ series follows a group of American women in the 1870s living in London and taking part in the city’s high society. Based on Edith Wharton’s last novel, the story was previously turned into a BBC series back in 1995 starring Carla Gugino and Mira Sorvino. This version stars a host of fresh talent including Thirteen Reasons Why star Alisha Boe and Christina Hendricks.
The Killer (Matz)
David Fincher’s latest movie is an adaptation of the French graphic novel series, The Killer, which is about a calculated killer who begins to develop a conscience for his crimes, which places him in huge danger with his clients Before Michael Fassbender stars as the unnamed assassin for the neo-noir Netflix movie, you can check out the complete series (yes, in English).
Beacon 23 (Hugh Howey)
Hugh Howey’s Beacon 23 was such a popular science fiction book the year it came out, in 2015, Goodreads users named it the best one that year! It now becomes a brand new fall series starring Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey and If Beale Street Could Talk’s Stephan James. The story takes place in the 23rd century where a young man works at a remote “lighthouse” in space that assists passing spaceships. The show was adapted by Zak Penn, who wrote the screenplays for Free Guy, Ready Player One along with having credits on numerous Marvel films including The Avengers.
The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes (Suzanne Collins)
A decade after rounding out her Hunger Games trilogy with Mockingjay, author Suzanne Collins surprised fans in 2020 with a prequel called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The YA dystopian novel tells the story of President Snow before he was a tyrant leader, when he mentored the female District 12 tribute at 18. Lionsgate’s adaptation for the novel hits theaters this fall and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes cast is stacked with talent like Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Peter Dinklage, and Viola Davis.
Leave The World Behind (Rumaan Alam)
Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail wrote and directed an adaptation for the 2020 thriller Leave The World Behind. The movie boasts an impressive cast including Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Kevin Bacon and is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama. The story is about a family that heads to Long Island for a family vacation before they become interrupted by two strangers who knock on their door one late night bringing news of a mysterious blackout.
Eileen (Ottessa Moshfegh)
Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie have teamed up for the adaptation of the 2015 thriller. The screenplay adapted by the author herself tells the story of a young woman (McKenzie) living in 1960 New England who becomes captivated by a new and mysterious counselor (Hathaway) who starts working at a prison she also works at. The movie premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews overall.
Poor Things (Alasdair Gray)
Following Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone teaming up for 2018’s The Favourite, the director/actor duo are back with the science fiction film Poor Things, alongside a cast including Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Christopher Abbott and Ramy Youssef. The movie is an adaptation of a 1992 book of the same name about a woman named Bella Baxter who is brought back to life by a scientist and eager to learn about the world she is thrust into. The story is a spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)
Roald Dahl’s beloved 1964 novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is once again the subject of a major movie, this time in the form of Wonka. The movie will see Timothée Chalamet playing a young Willy Wonka and tell his origin story, including answering the question of how he met the Oompa-Loompas. While Wonka is not a straight adaptation of the book, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to read through it before this version adds to its story. Check out the Wonka trailer ahead of its holiday season release.
The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)
Disney+ is adapting Rick Riordan’s popular Percy Jackson series for streaming. Percy Jackson and the Olympians will star The Adam Project’s Walker Scobell as the titular demigod in a TV show that has its author very much involved. The first season will adapt the debut novel, The Lightning Thief, which begins Percy’s journey in learning he is the son of Poseidon and has a much larger destiny than getting through middle school.
The Boys In The Boat (Daniel James Brown)
This Christmas, the latest directorial effort from George Clooney is here in the form of sports drama, The Boys in the Boat. It’s based on the true story of a male rowing team as they compete during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It is an adaptation of Daniel James Brown’s 2013 biography novel, which detailed the story following eight men from low to middle class families going for gold in the middle of the Depression. The movie stars Star Wars’ Joel Edgerton and Fantastic Beasts’ Callum Turner.
The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning 1982 novel, The Color Purple, is set to hit the big screen again following Steven Spielberg’s decorated adaptation. This will be a musical version of the story, which first hit the Broadway stage in 2005, once again telling the story of sisters Celie and Nettie across twenty years of being separated. The movie stars Taraji P. Henson, Halle Bailey, H.E.R., Colman Domingo, and Corey Hawkins.
The Three-Body Problem (Liu Cixin)
The creators behind Game of Thrones have made another popular book series. The Three-Body Problem is a Chinese science fiction series about a fictional past, present and future where humanity has encountered an alien civilization that consists of three sun-like stars that orbit each other in an unstable way. The Netflix series stars the likes of Benedict Wong, John Bradley and Eiza Gonzalez.
It Ends With Us (Colleen Hoover)
Colleen Hoover’s beloved romance novel It Ends With Us is becoming a 2024 movie starring Blake Lively. The 2016 book that remains on Amazon’s top bestselling books years later centers on a young woman who becomes caught between a new fling with a neurosurgeon and her first love when she returns to her hometown in Maine to attend her father’s funeral. While fans were initially not happy with Lively’s casting not matching the book character’s age, Hoover has shared she “messed up” making her characters so young for the subject matter and made the decision to change it for the film.
Dune (Frank Herbert)
Denis Villeneuve beautifully adapted the first half of Frank Herbert’s Dune with 2021’s film of the same name. In spring 2024, we’ll get to pick up where the visionary filmmaker left off with the second half of the 658-page science fiction fantasy novel with Dune: Part Two. The director has teased that the first installment was him setting the table and this upcoming 2024 movies will be an “amazing playground” to really unfold the story. The movie was initially coming this fall but was pushed back four months reportedly due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Mickey7 (Edward Ashton)
Bong Joon-ho’s next movie since winning Best Picture for Parasite is a movie called Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo and Naomi Ackie. It’s based on a 2022 science fiction novel by Edward Ashton about a disposable employee on an expedition to colonize an ice world called Niflheim. After one iteration of Mickey dies, a new body is regenerated, with many of the previous versions intact.
The Watchers (A.M. Shine)
2022 horror adventure novel, The Watchers by A.M. Shine is the inspiration for the feature directorial debut for Ishana Night Shyamalan, the daughter of M. Night Shylamalan. The movie will star Dakota Fanning as the novel’s protagonist, a 28-year-old artist who becomes trapped in a mysterious forest in western Ireland.
Cold Storage (David Koepp)
This summer, Liam Neeson, Stranger Things’ Joe Keery and Smile’s Sosie Bacon are set to star in a thriller called Cold Storage based on the novel of the same title. David Koepp, who is also behind blockbuster movies like Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, 2002’s Spider-Man, published the novel back in 2019. It’s about a group of strangers who must come together to contain a very contagious and deadly organism.
The Legacy of Mark Rothko (Lee Seldes)
Mark Rothko was famously a painter associated with the Abstract Expressionist modern art movement. The 1978 novel The Legacy of Mark Rothko unveiled some in-depth information about the troubled artist, detailing what became of a ton of his artwork following his apparent suicide and legal scandals associated with his life and death. Fifty Shades Of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson is helming its adaptation Rothko, which will see Russell Crowe playing the painter and The Last Voyage of Demeter’s Aisling Franciosi as his daughter as she is drawn into a legal battle to honor her father’s legacy. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who is the husband to the director, is also among the cast.
Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch Of The West (Gregory Maguire)
Sure, everyone knows Wicked as a smash hit on Broadway, but the idea to tell the Wicked of the West’s origin story came from the 1995 novel from Gregory Maguire, which then inspired the beloved musical. Wicked is set to be adapted in two movies based on both this novel and the musical, per one star Cynthia Erivo. Erivo will play Elphaba and Ariana Grande will play Glinda amongst Wicked’s incredible cast.
Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Julia Quinn)
Netflix found a phenomenon in 2020 with Bridgerton and the series is set to continue in 2023 with another adaptation of one of Julia Quinn’s novels from the Regency romance series. The third season will go out of order in the Bridgerton book series, jumping to the 2002 fourth novel, Romancing Mister Bridgerton. This novel focuses on Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington’s romance following the pair developing a friendship prior.
Anyone else ready to head to the library and the bookstore to get caught up on these? There are so many upcoming book-to-screen adaptations on the way, and following along with what's next via your reading list is a great way to enjoy these movies and TV shows even more!
