Last post I listed some adaptations from books to the big and small screens coming out this fall in the festival circuit or via streaming platforms. Here are more titles currently in development or in production.
James (2024) by Percival Everett
Stephen Spielberg executive producer, in pre-production, to be directed by Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, 2019) James is Percival Everett’s re-imagination of The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of escaped slave Jim. Currently, the highly acclaimed novel is long-listed for this year’s Booker Prize. Short list will come out Sept. 16 and James is expected to be on there. This is the second movie adaptation of Everett’s novels. After the success last year of his Erasure being turned into the Oscar winning American Fiction–for Best Adapted Screenplay–James is a highly anticipated encore.
Hamnet (2020) by Maggie O’Farrell
Another one on Stephen Spielberg’s list as producer, now in production. The adaptation of O’Farrell’s novel is directed by Nomadland’s Oscar winning Chloé Zhao, with a talented British cast: Jessie Buckley, Emily Watson, Paul Mescal, and Joe Alwyn. The book is a fictional account of Shakespeare and his wife’s loving relationship with their son Hamnet and their coping with his tragic death at the age of eleven. Zhao’s previous films (before Marvel’s The Eternals) are nuanced and soulful cinematic works. I look forward to her helming this adaptation about love and grief.
Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder (2024) by Salman Rushdie
Rushdie’s personal account of the traumatic, life altering event of being stabbed multiple times while on stage in upstate New York, August 2022, and his slow and painful recuperation. Ironically, he was speaking on the topic of keeping writers safe. His memoir will be adapted to the screen by the Oscar winning documentarian Alex Gibney. I’ve given this book 4 stars on Goodreads, was totally riveted by Rushdie’s writing. Hope Gibney’s is an effective documentation and a cautionary testimonial to safeguard artists from harm.
The Chronicles of Narnia (1950’s) by C. S. Lewis
After crashing the glass ceiling, catapulting Barbie to a record $1.4 billion box office sale by a sole woman director, Greta Gerwig is tasked to write and helm at least two of C. S. Lewis’s beloved children series as Netflix films. In a BBC interview, Gerwig said: “I’m slightly in the place of terror because I really do have such reverence for Narnia… I’m intimidated by doing this. It’s something that feels like a worthy thing to be intimidated by.” Let’s hope her fear is a driving force to push her towards excellence in adapting this meaningful book series.
Crying in H Mart (2021) by Michelle Zauner
Poignant memoir of Zauner’s, singer songwriter of the band Japanese Breakfast, about her rediscovery of her Korean heritage and reestablishing a deeper mother-daughter relationship through food and cooking… alas, after her mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis. As an Asian American, her father is Caucasian of Jewish heritage, Zauner’s book is a new and significant voice. She is writing the script herself, Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) directing. Zauner will create the soundtrack with her group Japanese Breakfast. The memoir is an American Book Award winner (2022) and the 2021 Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir & Autobiography, 55 weeks in the NYT Bestseller list.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (2022) by Gabrielle Zevin
Here’s another contemporary, literary voice from a biracial American writer. Like H Mart author Zauner, Zevin’s father is of Jewish and mother Korean heritage. Its title alluding to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a unique and original story about self, love, and video games. Goodreads Choice Awards in Fiction (2022) and top book of the year on numerous lists, and one of my best reads last year. Excited to find out that Paramount Pictures had acquired the film rights even before the book was published, and recently learned that Siân Heder, the Oscar winning director of CODA (2021), has signed on to direct.
The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016) by Ruth Ware
Ruth Ware’s popular suspense thriller takes place on a cruise ship, with British star Keira Knightley on board as a journalist who is the only eyewitness to a murder. The Netflix movie will be directed by Simon Stone (The Dig, 2021). Other Ruth Ware books on the drawing board for adaptation are The Turn of the Key and The It Girl. No further info on these.
Run Rose Run (2022) by Dolly Parton and James Patterson
Dolly Parton and country music fans take note, the legendary singer’s dip into the literary ink pot with her first fiction, a thriller she co-wrote with James Patterson, is to be adapted onto screen. The NYT bestseller about a young singer songwriter on the rise and on the run will be produced by Reese Witherspoon.
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Do you have any books you’d like to see adapted to a movie or TV series?
Ripple Effects 
Neat to hear about these books being translated into movies and TV series. I can understand why Greta Gerwig would be intimidated by working on the Narnia series! On the Percival Everett side of things… I enjoyed the audiobook of “Erasure” — then its “American Fiction” movie counterpart. And I’m listening to the audiobook of “I Am Not Sidney Poitier.” Everett has an absurdist sense of humor that I’m enjoying.
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Thanks for stopping by, Dave.
Yes, Greta Gerwig should be at awe face to face with Aslan. 😉
Do u have any books in mind that you’d like to see adapted into film?
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I recently finished reading “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and I think it could make for a fantastic TV series. It builds mysteries and layers of stories. I didn’t like one part of it toward the ending, but if a series included that, I could simply fast forward through it.
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I’m not familiar with Zafón, but now you’ve piqued my interest, and helpful for me as I’m gathering thoughts about a post on books that haven’t had a cinematic rendering. Back to your earlier comment, yes, American Fiction is a deserving Oscar win, one of the best films I watched last year. I haven’t read Erasure; its winning Oscar’s Best Adapted Screenplay is notable. I just finished listening to the very animated audiobook of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to prepare for James the book and look forward to its adaptation.
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I’m about 30 pages from the end of Knife and was wondering what happened with the documentary he mentions he and Eliza were making. I don’t think I will see it, reading the account is good enough for me. Of course, I might change my mind later 🙂
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I’m not sure if it’s the same documentary. I know what you mean… it would be hard to re-enact and also, reading the account is graphic enough.
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I really have to read Hamnet!
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Any books you’d want to see adapted into film? I’m currently listening to Meryl Streep narrate Tom Lake, and think of you. Do u want to see that made into a movie? Put Lansing or surrounding areas on the big screen 😉 I’m gathering thoughts for a future post.
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I’d love to see Tom Lake as a film with the right people. Such a lovely book. I just finished Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonder, which would be good to do on screen. I’m thrilled about the Thursday Murder Club and the wonderful cast. I’m sure there are others but I’m blanking!
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Yes the Thursday Murder Club, I forgot to mention. Thanks for the reminder. You know, I have a feeling that many of the published novels nowadays seem to be ready screenplays, aiming at being turned into a movie.
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I’m so looking forward to the Thursday Murder Club! I didn’t realise The Critic (out in UK imminently) was based on Curtain Call – a novel I’ve been meaning to read for a while. I read two novels are crying out recently to be adapted – the latest Joseph Knox thriller, Imposter Syndrome (his fifth, and why they haven’t made it to the screen yet is a mystery) – it would make a super mini-series, and the new Benjamin Myers, Rare Singles – which is set at a Northern Soul Weekender in Scarborough (Yorkshire seaside resort) at which brings a late 60s one-hit wonder from the USA over to star – screams British indie film at me.
Could I persuade you to put together a combo of these and your previous post as you’ve done before for us for Shiny New Books? I’d love it if you could… Thank you 😀
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Annabel, hey long time, thanks for stopping by. Yes, it’s been a while since I contributed to Shiny New Books. To make things easier, you may repost this current one and the last post onto Shiny. Just acknowledge these are originally published on Ripple Effects and with Arti’s permission now reposting them on Shiny, with a link to Ripple.
Would that work for you?
At present, I’m preparing a post on books my readers and me would like to see on screen and I will compile a list for it. After it’s posted on Ripple you may also put it up on Shiny with link and acknowledgement. What do you think?
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Thanks Arti, I’ll do that, but take a few out to make one post if I may, and I’ll add an intro made from the two. Full credits to you as stated. Hope that’s ok. Annabel
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Sure that’s fine. But note that the earlier post are those coming out this fall, well, in N. America not sure about it the UK. And the second post are projects in development or in production. No definite completion dates yet. Thanks.
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Sorry to muck you about. I couldn’t decide which to leave out which to keep, so going with the two full posts. The In Development one will be a fortnight after the On Screens one next week.
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No problem. That might work better but it’s up to you. And in a fortnight, I might have my third post up and that’s on books we’d like to see adapted to the screen. Stay tuned. 😉
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I’ve read Hamlet and want to read Knife and Tomorrow etc
I don’t really think in terms of books I want to see adapted. I want to read good stories and see good stories, and I guess I don’t really need to see one in a different form. Which is not to say that I don’t enjoy good adaptations when I see them, but I never really think when I read a good book, “oh, I’d love to see that in film or television”. Does that make sense?
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You know, I didn’t like Hamnet that much. But Knife is a must read. Not necessarily that my life view aligns with Rushdie’s, especially in terms of faith/atheism, his courage to speak out for freedom and will to survive are inspiring.
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I would love to read Knife. I’d like my reading group to do it, but I wonder if I can convince them!
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Not hard to convince, I don’t think.
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I fear the title and subtitle will put many off but I will try!
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I came to see whether you had seen/reviewed the Icelandic film Touch, which, we discovered, was an adaptation of an Icelandic novel. Not that I’d ever heard of it. But, it was a quiet, delightful film, that partly played to type but that had enough difference and subtlety in the way it was told to lift it to something meaningful.
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I’ve vaguely heard of Touch. But films like this won’t be coming to our city or even on streaming platform here in N. Am.
But I’m sure you have heard of The Taste of Things, which was France’s official entry into the Best International Feature Oscar category 2023. Juliet Binoche stars. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. I’ve written a Ripple review on it.
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I have heard of The taste of things, and I think it has been here, but I didn’t see it. I will keep an eye out for it.
A shame about Touch. I think you’d be interested in it, because it has quite a few angles to it, and it’s quietly done.
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I’ll keep an eye out for it.
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