Previously on Ripple, I’d posted lists of books-to-movies coming out soon here and here. If you’ve gone to the theatre lately, you’ve probably seen trailers for some of them: The Goldfinch, Where’d you go Bernadette? or Cats (like a horror movie for someone who has ailurophobia.)
Here are some updates. The following is a list of movie adaptations in development for the big screen or TV series. They are in various stages of production, just announced or in pre-production, release dates unknown or tentative. If you’re the well-prepped movie goer, here’s your list of summer reading:
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Now 46 weeks on the NYT Bestsellers List and has sold more than 1.5 million copies, Owens’s debut novel about a young girl who has raised herself and survived alone in a coastal North Carolina marsh is a mix of nature writing, murder mystery, and coming-of-age story. Reese Witherspoon will be producing it with Fox 2000. Owens is a wildlife scientist and nature writer who had spent years in Africa.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Another project by Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company. Ng’s novel about families in a Cleveland suburb dealing with diversity, teenager angsts, and generational conflicts had been named Best Book of the Year (2017) by NPR, Amazon, Goodreads, The Guardian… just to name a few. It will be adapted into a TV series with the Hulu platform.
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
The producers of American Beauty (1999) which won 5 Oscars in 2000 have bought the movie and TV rights of the book. Another novel about suburban families is being described in Goodreads as “profoundly moving.” Author Keane was a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow in Fiction; her previous works had been a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and garnered Best Book of the year acclaims.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Screenwriter Michaelides’s debut novel is described by Entertainment Weekly as “a mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy.” A psychotherapist has to unlock the mystery of his patient who’d killed her husband six years earlier and then remained silent since. (Read an excerpt using the link) Meanwhile, Michaelides will write the screenplay, naturally. Brad Pitt’s Plan B and Annapurna Pictures producing.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Hailed as the true story of Slovakian Jew, Lali Sokolov, who fell in love with a girl he was tattooing at the Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII, a powerful story of love and survival. British producer Synchronicity Films had secured the rights and a drama series is in development. Here’s the rub: the Auschwitz Memorial Research Centre had disputed the authenticity of the book according to The Guardian. A case of negative publicity is still good publicity?
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2017) is adapted by director Barry Jenkins. Jenkins’s name had catapulted to stardom since his Oscar win for Moonlight (2016) and the subsequent If Beale Street Could Talk (2018). The story of the harrowing escape of two Southern slaves Cora and Caesar using the Underground Railroad is adapted into 11 episodes for Amazon Studio.
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
The book is Edugyan’s second consecutive win of Canada’s Scotiabank Giller’s Prize, also shortlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize. The journey of 11-year-old slave boy “Wash” born on a Barbados plantation is a fantastical story of adventure when he became the personal servant of Englishman Christopher Wilde, inventor, naturalist, explorer, and abolitionist. 20th Century Fox TV, after “an intense bidding war” , had secured the rights to the small screen.
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Ripple Effects 
The Silent Patient appeals, as does Where the Crawdads Sing. I’ve never heard a crawdad sing, but I’ve seen a good many and I love the lands where they live, so the premise of the book caught my attention. I pay no attention at all to best-seller lists, so I’m always glad to see what you’re featuring and read your reviews.
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Linda,
I’ve read some titles on this list, the rest are TBR, top of it is Crawdads, main motivation is I heard an interview on CBC radio just a few days ago and I was totally fascinated by her experience: decades as a nature scientist in Africa. You might want to look into her non-fiction of nature writing which she’d published years before her debut novel.
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I’d already thought that I should explore that non-fiction, too. I’m sure I’d enjoy it.
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Our book club just finished “Where the Crawdad Sings” which I really enjoyed. I look forward to the movie. I went to a talk by Delia Owens and her then-husband Mark a couple of decades ago after they published “Cry of the Kalahari.” I bought a signed copy of that book, which reminds me I need to track it down and read it again.
I have “Washington Black” waiting for me on my bedside table. I read “The Underground Railroad.” It will be interesting to see how much it follows the book. I guess that’s true in every book to movie.
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Cathy,
I haven’t read any of Owens’s books, so this will be a treat I expect. Washington Black is a different kind of ‘slave story’. Within the sombre subject, it reads like a fantasy. Very interesting. Edugyan is our Canadian literary gem. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
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Whoa…I had not heard about the Barry Jenkins “Underground Railroad” project! Sounds very intriguing.
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Hey David, that series certainly is something to watch for. Maybe you’ll review it once it comes out. On another note, a thought just came to me… maybe Then Came Darkness could be adapted for the screen too, with its author writing the screenplay. 🙂
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I can’t believe I haven’t read any of these. But then books are usually out for awhile before I get to them. The Silent Patient has my vote!
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Jeanie,
I’m feeling more and more that certain books have the ultimate intention of being made into a movie and they are written for their easy conversion… like, Gone Girl, Woman at the Window. Silent Patient sounds like another one. For me, Where the Crawdads Sing is now on top of my TBR list.
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I haven’t read any of these books, which in a way is good because I don’t have to worry, if I see them, about whether they do the book justice.
I would be interested in The tattooist of Auschwitz, but it has had mixed reviews, but I would really love to read Colson Whitehead’s The underground railroad.
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WG,
That’s a good way of approaching movies, I guess. Watch it on its own terms; go into the theatre free of expectations and let the movie lead. Sometimes it just might lead back to the source material. Another experience.
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It works for me Arti, particularly since I just don’t have the time to have rules about what I read or see first!!
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You see, I reviewed this one as a movie viewer. That’s why I was so critical about the lapses. I knew what had taken place before, but not the movie viewers (if they have not read the book). Guess it’s also an editing issue. This movie has been delayed in its release dates a couple of times I heard, maybe striving to get it done to a more comprehensible state.
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WG,
I’ll be heading to Toronto in Sept. for TIFF. In the ‘Gala Presentation’ program, there’s an Australian film. It’s an adaptation as well, albeit the subject matter may not be our cup of tea. The book written by Peter Carey won the Booker Prize. Here’s the link.
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