Is the book always better than the movie or TV show? Better read these recent adaptations ASAP so you can decide.
Heartstopper
By Alice Oseman
October 3, 2024
The too-cute-for-words Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s graphic novel recently returned for its third season, following darling teen couple Nick and Charlie as they confront the looming shadow of university and whether they’ll finally say “I love you”—in addition to staring heart-eyed at each other.
’Salem’s Lot
By Stephen King
October 3, 2024
Dracula is having a moment. Not only will there be a new take on Nosferatu this Christmas (ICYMI in . . . 1922, Nosferatu is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula), but Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot, widely seen as the Maine horror master’s take on the template-setting vampire tale, was adpated into a Max (HBO’s streaming service) original movie starring Lewis Pullman, Bill Camp and Alfre Woodard.
The Outrun
By Amy Liptrot
October 4, 2024
Based on Amy Liptrot’s memoir of the same name, The Outrun follows the author (played by art house and Oscar darling Saoirse Ronan) as she returns home to the Orkney Islands in Scotland. There, she reestablishes her relationship with her parents, revels in the rugged landscape, and truly faces her alcoholism for the first time.
Disclaimer
By Renée Knight
October 11, 2024
This Apple TV+ adaptation of Renée Knight’s literary thriller stars the great Cate Blanchett and is helmed by Alfonso Caurón (Roma, Gravity, Y tu mamá también). The series will follow Blanchett as lauded documentary filmmaker Catherine, whose glamorous life may come tumbling down thanks to a mysterious book that not only seems to be inspired by a tragic incident in her past, but may be accusing her of something terrible.
Rivals
By Jilly Cooper
October 18, 2024
Jilly Cooper’s infamous 1988 “bonkbuster” (a truly superb ’70s and ’80s term for a blockbuster novel containing a whole lot of sex) has finally come to the small screen in a Hulu adaptation starring Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Katherine Parkinson. It sounds like exactly what the old money aesthetic needs: a shot of deliciously bad behavior.
Conclave
By Robert Harris
October 25, 2024
Every few years, there’s an Oscar-potential film that can basically be boiled down to “Great Actors in a Room or Rooms Arguing About Something.” Think Women Talking, The Post, Spotlight, etc. The starry adaptation of Robert Harris’ Vatican-set thriller (yes, you read that right) is yet another drama-filled, highly satisfying addition to this Acting with a Capital A-friendly subgenre. To wit: Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, who has been tasked with overseeing the election of a new pope, with Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow as some of the candidates and Isabella Rossellini as a nun lurking in the wings.
The Marlow Murder Club
By Robert Thorogood
October 27, 2024
Ever since Richard Osman released The Thursday Murder Club, readers have been inundated with similarly quirky, gentle mysteries starring older sleuths. It should surprise absolutely no one that the British absolutely rose to the occasion (unsurprising given their long history of producing lovable sleuths like Miss Marple, Aunt Dimity and Agatha Raisin), and have produced the greatest challengers to Osman’s throne. Robert Thorogood’s Marlow Murder Club series is one of the chief contenders, and a TV adaptation of the books aired this fall as part of PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery! slate. Read our review of Death Comes to Marlow, the second book in the series.
Like Water for Chocolate
By Laura Esquivel
November 3, 2024
Having already served as source material for the very successful 1992 film, Laura Esquivel’s magical realist classic about a downtrodden Mexican cook who can infuse her dishes with her own dreams and emotions was adapted to the small screen on Max.
Small Things Like These
By Claire Keegan
November 8, 2024
Apparently not content to rest on the laurels he gained for his towering work in Oppenheimer, actor Cillian Murphy has taken on another role that seems destined for awards and acclaim in Small Things Like These, the film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novel of the same name. Set in small-town Ireland in the 1980s, just before Christmas, the film follows Bill Furlong (Murphy) as he uncovers the abusive practices of a local convent, forcing him to make a choice between silent conformity and potentially ostracizing dissent.
Say Nothing
By Patrick Radden Keefe
November 14, 2024
And speaking of Irish drama, Patrick Radden Keefe’s incredible true crime book-cum-history of the “troubles” has been transformed into a scripted miniseries on FX. The interesting choice paid off, with the parallel stories of Dolours Price, an IRA member, and Jean McConville, a woman who disappeared in 1972 after being accused of spying for the British, coming vividly to life.
Wicked
By Gregory Maguire
November 22, 2024
Seemingly in production ever since the original book was published, let alone the generation-defining musical, the Wicked film adaptation finally hit the big screen after years of casting rumors and false starts. Musicals are a tricky prospect for audiences these days: For every La La Land or Les Misérables, there’s a Dear Evan Hansen or, god forbid, a Cats. But Wicked assembled a truly impressive cast (Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey are perfect picks for Elphaba and Fiyero, and Ariana Grande as Glinda defied the naysayers with an inspired comic performance), and Jon M. Chu is one of the only directors in Hollywood who actually understands how to shoot musical numbers. So far, audiences have been utterly enchanted.
Nightbitch
By Rachel Yoder
December 6, 2024
Of the spate of recent novels dealing with motherhood and female rage, Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch is certainly one of the most distinctive: An unnamed narrator, overwhelmed with the demands of her toddler and mourning the loss of her art career, thinks she’s transforming into a dog. Adapting this novel for the big screen is certainly a huge swing, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Marielle Heller, the acclaimed director of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and her star, the absurdly talented Amy Adams (who really should have won an Oscar by now).
One Hundred Years of Solitude
By Gabriel García Márquez
December 11, 2024
And now for an even more challenging adaptation: Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece of magical realism, a multigenerational family saga that spans several decades and is generally considered one of the greatest books ever written. Márquez’s estate has been famously averse to any sort of screen version of the book: The author, rightfully, doubted a film could ever capture all the nuances of his work. It remains to be seen whether Netflix’s upcoming miniseries succeeds on this front, but the show is already notable for being shot on location in Columbia and being entirely in Spanish, which was Márquez’s hope for any adaptation.
The Nickel Boys
By Colson Whitehead
December 13, 2024
It seems risky to adapt Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, mainly due to the brutality of its subject matter (a heinous “reform school” in the Jim Crow South that abused and killed the Black children it was supposedly reforming). But advance reviews for Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ movie version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, are absolutely glowing, hailing documentarian Ross’ unique approach to the story. Filmed entirely from the point of views of two of the boys incarcerated at the school, Nickel Boys looks poised to be one of awards season’s biggest players.
The Return of the King
By J.R.R. Tolkien
December 13, 2024
Among certain circles of nerds, it is common to proclaim that more adaptations—especially those of sci-fi or fantasy classics—should be animated. This winter, we’ll be able to see that maxim put to the test with The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime film depicting an epic story found in Tolkien’s appendices at the end of The Return of the King. (If you are not a Tolkien person, this may not seem like enough to base an entire movie on. If you are a Tolkien fan, you know exactly how long those appendices are and presumably already skipped this parenthetical.) The War of the Rohirrim will tell the tale of the magnificently named Helm Hammerhand, a legendary king of Rohan, and his daughter, Hèra, as they defend their people from an invasion.
Mickey7
By Edward Ashton
January 31, 2025
Before it was even published, Edward Ashton’s sci-fi novel Mickey7 was announced as director Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to Parasite. The adaptation, Mickey 17, added a digit but otherwise seems to have the same plot: Mickey is an Expendable, a person sent to a dangerous planet who is 3D-printed anew each time he dies. But when a new Mickey returns home to find an old Mickey somehow still breathing, shenanigans ensue.
