From works of Harry Styles fan fiction starring Anne Hathaway to a supernatural horror set in the West of Ireland, there are *a lot* of great book adaptations coming in 2024.
We’ve had an exceptionally good run of page-to-screen adaptations hit the big screen and streaming services of late. Poor Things, based on a novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray, and Oppenheimer based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, have thoroughly dominated awards season, while Fool Me Once, adapted from a Harlan Coben novel, became the seventh most viewed English language Netflix series of all time.
When I left the cinema after watching (blurily, through tear-filled eyes) All Of Us Strangers, I kicked myself for not having read the book first, to get a deeper understanding of the story, characters, and emotions. Page-to-stage and book-to-screen adaptations have historically been, for the most part, hugely successful, running the gamut from the Twilight saga and Harry Potter to The Shawshank Redemption, Trainspotting, and American Psycho.
In the same way that people say a sequel can never be better than an original, the book is oftentimes far superior to the film, but I suppose you’ll just have to consume both varieties and decide for yourself. Throughout 2024, there are many, many, many book adaptations set for release, so you’re going to want to hit the books as soon as possible.
Here are ten book-to-screen adaptations coming in 2024 to read now…
The Idea Of You
Adapted from Robinne Lee’s novel of the same name
Is anyone else extremely enthralled by the discourse surrounding this one? Basically, the story revolves around a 40-year-old single mom as she begins an unexpected romance with a 24-year-old who just so happens to be the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet. Who else was in a popular boy band with a penchant for charming older ladies? Conspiracy theories abound. Now, while the author has denied that the story is a work of fan fiction, she has said that the character was mustered up to be Prince Harry meets Harry Styles. I will assume that Hathaway’s recent photo op with Olivia Wilde was purely coincidental.
It Ends With Us
Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name
Behind-the-scenes snapshots of the film adaptation for BookTok’s favourite title, It Ends With Us, have been surfacing for what feels like forever, and we’re still a few months out from a release. Assuming the film sticks closely to the plot of the novel, it should follow Lily Bloom (played by Blake Lively) as she falls for a neurosurgeon, played by Justin Baldoni. The official synopsis reads: “Though coming from a complicated past, Lily Bloom has always known the life she wants. While living in Boston, she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid and believes she may very well have found her soulmate. Soon, however, questions arise about their relationship, and to complicate matters, her high school love interest, Atlas Corrigan, comes back into the picture, putting her relationship with Ryle in jeopardy.”
Mickey7
Adapted from Edward Ashton’s novel of the same name
Starring Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo, Mickey7 is a science fiction story about a space explorer on his seventh cloned iteration, employed to help make a frozen planet hospitable. The most intriguing part? When one Mickey dies, another is cloned in his place with most of his memories intact, effectively rendering him immortal.
The Outrun
Adapted from Amy Liptrot’s memoir of the same name
Saoirse Ronan stars in the adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s raw 2016 memoir about addiction, recovery and nature. The story follows Rona, fresh out of rehab, as she attempts to come to terms with her troubled past after living life on the edge in London. She returns to the wild beauty of Scotland’s Orkney Islands (where she grew up) hoping to heal.
A Gentleman in Moscow
Adapted from Amor Towles’s novel of the same name
This miniseries, starring Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, follows aristocrat Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov who, after recently returning to Russia from Paris, spends decades banished to an attic hotel room following the October Revolution, sentenced to house arrest by a Bolshevik tribunal. Set in 1922, during a tumultuous period in Russian history, the eight-part series is set for release later this year.
Ripley
Based on The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith
Though Barry Keoghan may have been living out his The Talented Mr. Ripley fantasies in Saltburn, it’s fellow Irishman Andrew Scott who will be taking the reins as the eponymous Mr Ripley in the upcoming American psychological thriller series. Starring alongside Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning, the story is set in 1960s New York. Tom Ripley is hired by a wealthy man to convince his wayward son to return home from Italy, but Tom’s introduction to Dickie Greenleaf’s leisurely life abroad is the first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder.
The Watchers
Based on AM Shine’s novel of the same name
Galway author AM Shine’s The Watchers is set to make it all the way to the big screen this summer in an adaptation written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan. The story follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in the West of Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night. You can’t see them, but they see everything.
Trust
Based on Hernan Diaz’s novel of the same name
Adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Trust is a metafictional book that follows a wealthy financier who reads a book based on his life and becomes upset about the way he and his wife are portrayed in the novel. In an effort to set the record straight, he hires a secretary to ghostwrite a memoir about his life to represent their story in the way he knows it to be. The secretary, however, becomes aware that he’s trying to rewrite history and his wife’s place in it.
The Sympathizer
Based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel of the same name
An adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel, this miniseries is set near the end of the Vietnam War and follows a plant who was embedded in the South Vietnam army as he flees to the United States and takes up residence in a refugee community, where he continues to secretly spy and report back to the Viet Cong.
The Amateur
Based on Robert Littell’s novel of the same name
This espionage thriller follows a CIA cryptographer, who manages to blackmail his agency into training him to let him go after a group of terrorists who killed his wife in London. Rami Malek will be taking on the role of the lead, Charles Heller, who convinces his agency to train him to go on active duty and track down his wife’s killers.
Feature image courtesy Prime Video
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