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 the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us this summer  to the Wicked movie coming this fall. Across numerous genres, pick up these titles so you can say ‘I read that book’ before they become major movie and TV releases.

Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Julia Quinn)

Bridgerton is back with Season 3, with another adaptation of one of Julia Quinn’s novels from the Regency romance series. The third season, which is going out of order in the Bridgerton book series, jumps 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. Following the first half of the season dropping in May, the season will continue this month with four more episodes.  

Presumed Innocent (Scott Turow)

Back in 1980, Harrison Ford starred in an adaptation of Scott Turow’s legal thriller, Presumed Innocent. Over 40 years later, Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a new adaptation of the novel of a prosecutor who becomes the prime suspect in a murder of his former lover. 

Too Many Men (Lily Brett)

Lily Brett’s Too Many Men is a 1999 novel about a New York businesswoman who decides to take her 80-year-old father, a Holocaust survivor, back to where he was born, Poland. The 2024 movie stars Lena Dunham as Ruth (the daughter) and Stephen Fry as Edek (her father). 

Queen’s Gambit: A Novel Of Katherine Parr (Elizabeth Fremantle)

No, Anya Taylor-Joy’s Netflix hit isn’t coming back. There’s another Queen’s Gambit about Katherine Parr, a former Queen of England and widow of Henry VIII. In the movie, titled Firebrand, Alicia Vikander plays Katherine Parr, Jude Law plays Henry VIII. It focuses on the king’s final wife during the final years of his reign. The 2013 novel it's based on is thrilling historical fiction about the only wife of Henry VIII’s that lived. 

Fire & Blood (George R.R. Martin)

House of the Dragon Season 2 is almost here, and if you’re looking to reach for George R.R. Martin’s text but don’t know where to turn, we have you covered! The Game of Thrones prequel series is based on the 2018 book Fire & Blood, a 752-page book that delves into the history of the Targaryen family. 

The Bikeriders (Danny Lyon)

Ahead of Jeff Nichols latest movie, The Bikeriders, which follows the rise of a Chicago outlaw motorcycle club called Vandals MC, you can check out the inspiration behind it! The filmmaker based the movie off a 1967 photo-book of the same name that depicts the lives of a real club called Outlaws Motorcycle Club. The book features a ton of black and white photographs and interviews conducted by Danny Lyon. The movie stars Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist and Norman Reedus.  

The Search For WondLa (Tony DiTerlizzi)

Tony DiTerlizzi, who famously created The Spiderwick Chronicles with Holly Black, also wrote a sci-fi fantasy novel series for children called WondLa in 2010, which became a trilogy. It’s about a twelve year old girl named Eva Nine, who is raised by a robot named “Muthr” in an underground sanctuary. When she’s forced to flee her sheltered home, she goes on an epic adventure as she discovers the outside world for the first time. It has been turned into an animated series by Skydance Animation and Apple. 

Lady in the Lake (Laura Lippman)

Natalie Portman is set to be the star of a new miniseries based on Laura Lippman’s novel, Lady in the Lake. The 2019 novel is set in 1960s Baltimore, where an investigative journalist named Maddie Schwartz (Portman) who becomes impassioned about the unsolved murder of a young black woman named Cleo Sherwood (Moses Ingram). 

Harold And The Purple Crayon (Crockett Johnson)

Harold And The Purple Crayon has been a classic children’s picture book since it was published in the 1950s. It’s about a four-year-old boy who finds a magic purple crayon that allows him to create his own imaginative world. The book has been turned into a live-action family film starring Zachary Levi, Lil Rel, Alfred Molina and Zooey Deschanel as a sequel to the source material. 

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace (Jeff Hobbs)

Back in 2014, Jeff Hobbs, who was Robert Peace’s college roommate, immortalized the life of a brilliant young Black man who leaves his hometown of Newark, New Jersey on a full scholarship to Yale University to major in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. Sadly, he was murdered at the age of 30 in a drug-related shooting. Chiwetel Ejiofor wrote and directed a film adaptation that explores the life of Rob Peace with depth and heart. 

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.  

Rule: A Marked Men Novel (Jay Crownover)

Jay Crownover’s bestselling YA romance Rule is coming to the big screen this fall, with Marked Men. The movie is set to star Outer Banks’ Chase Stokes and American Born Chinese’s Sydney Taylor will play the couple at the center of the passionate romance written by After We Fell’s Sharon Soboil. The book itself is an opposites attract love story about a good girl pre-med student who ends up falling for a tattooed-up rebel. 

The Wild Robot (Peter Brown)

Peter Brown’s middle-grade best seller The Wild Robot, which was called Hatchet meets WALL-E is the latest movie coming out of DreamWorks following the release of Kung Fu Panda 4. The movie is written and directed by Chris Sanders, who was previously behind animated classics like Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon. It will star Lupita Nyong’o as a robot who is shipwrecked on an inhabited island and makes their objective to become the parent of an orphaned gosling. 

The Lives of Lee Miller (Antony Penrose)

Kate Winslet is set to play war journalist Lee Miller in the upcoming movie, Lee. The movie follows Milller as she goes from being a model to enlisting as a photographer to chronicle the events of World War II for Vogue magazine. Also among the cast is Marion Cotillard, Andy Samberg, Josh O'Connor, and Alexander Skarsgård. You can first get to know the figure through the 1985 bioography it’s based on. 

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. 

Conclave (Robert Harris)

The 2016 novel, Conclave, is a fictional novel about how the death of a pope leads to a papal conclave in order to elect the next one in line. Robert Harris’ book has been adapted by All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger, with Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini 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 will be split into 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. 

Nightbitch (Rachel Yoder)

Rachel Yoder’s 2021 horror novel Nightbitch is set to be adapted into a movie by Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood’s director, Marielle Heller. The movie will star and be produced by Amy Adams. The book itself is about a stay-at-home mother with a two-year-old who starts to believe that she is turning into a dog at night. 

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 Amateur (Robert Littell)

Slow Horses filmmaker James Hawes has lined up a star-studded cast for The Amateur that includes Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Laurence Fishburne and Outlander’s Caitríona Balfe. The book it's based on by Robert Littell was previously adapted into a movie in 1981 (the year it was published). It’s considered a spy thriller classic that follows a cryptographer for the CIA who takes matters into his own hands when his fiancée is murdered by terrorists and his agency decides not to pursue the case. 

The Twits (Roald Dahl)

​​There’s been so many great Roald Dahl adaptations over the years, from numerous Wonka movies, to Fantastic Mr. Fox or Matilda. Netflix is now adapting an animated version of The Twits, which has yet to be imagined into a movie prior. The Twits is a children’s novel from 1980 about a couple who play a series of practical jokes on others for their own amusement. 

Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir)

One popular science fiction bestseller in recent years has been Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, which is now getting a movie adaptation. The book comes from the same author who previously wrote The Martian, which was adapted into a blockbuster by Ridley Scott and starred Matt Damon. Project Hail Mary follows the journey of a school teacher that became an astronaut as he comes out of a coma while in space. The movie version will star Ryan Gosling as the protagonist with Phil Lord and Chris Miller of the Spider-Verse movies signed on to direct. 

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!