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New & Upcoming Book-to-Screen Adaptations
Hollywood has been mining the world of books for a long time—since 1899, according to some reckonings. The practice has been ramping up in recent years, thanks to the various streaming services and their constant need for new content.
In our latest roundup of upcoming book-to-screen adaptations, we’ve gathered here 24 high-profile projects slated for release in the next year or so. These include both feature films headed to theaters and series adaptations coming to networks or streaming platforms.
You’ll find relatively recent stories from authors including Esi Edugyan, Colleen Hoover, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Koepp, and Richard Osman. Plus an array of literary classics from Emily Brontë, Thomas Pynchon, John Steinbeck, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Plus, of course, Stephen King. It's like death and taxes: At any given time, somewhere in the world, there's a Stephen King book being adapted.
We double-checked all the specifics, but keep in mind that these release dates get moved around all the time. Check your local listings.
This 2020 novella collection from Stephen King, our elder statesman of modern horror, features four tales longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. The collection’s second story, “Life of Chuck,” is a kind of reverse-chronology brain twist of cosmic wonder. The highly anticipated film adaptation, starring Tom Hiddleston and Chiwetel Ejiofor, opens in theaters on June 13.
In George Orwell’s timeless allegory, farm animals live in peace and prosperity after they overthrow their farmer and gain control of the farm. But the ambitions and selfish nature of a pig called Napolean upends the brief, bucolic bliss. What begins as a dream of escaping tyranny shows how revolutions go awry. The latest animated film adaptation of Orwell’s classic, directed by Andy Serkis, is scheduled for release on June 9.
It’s baaaaaack. Lois Duncan’s 1973 thriller novel was resurrected for audiences with the hit 1990s film, and this year brings a fresh retelling of the slasher story. In the original novel, four teenagers kill a boy on his bicycle in a hit-and-run accident after a party. They make a pact to never mention their involvement, but someone knows what they did. Franchise favorites Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt are back for the new reboot, in theaters on July 18.
National Book Award finalist—and winner of the 2014 Goodreads Choice Award for YA fiction—E. Lockhart’s novel We Were Liars is a devastating example of sustained psychological suspense. It’s the story of four teenagers, their wealthy families, a private island, and a terrible secret. Be wary of spoilers if you haven’t read this one yet. The book and its sequel, Family of Liars, have been adapted into an Amazon Prime series set to debut on June 18.
An improbable and epic adventure, Washington Black follows field-turned-house slave “Wash” through life and its incredible journey. Wash gets his freedom early on, fleeing Barbados with his master’s brother in a hot-air balloon. But he’s being tracked by a bounty hunter and is never fully free. Author Esi Edugyan’s 2018 novel explores the tension between slavery and freedom, oppression and possibility. The eight-part series based on the book is set to premiere on Hulu on July 23.
British author Richard Osman’s hugely successful cozy mystery series features a team of amateur sleuths from an upmarket retirement village who crack cold cases in their spare time. The first book in the series chronicles the gang’s first real-time murder investigation and serves as the basis for Netflix’s upcoming adaptation, slated to debut on August 28. And how’s this for an all-star cast: Helen Mirren, Sir Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, and Celia Imrie.
A former baseball player finds himself hunted by the New York City criminal underworld in this Hitchcockian 2004 thriller from author Charlie Huston. The exciting news for film buffs is that the big-screen adaptation is written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, the acclaimed filmmaker who brought us Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan. Set to release on August 29, the new movie stars Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Live Schreiber, and Bad Bunny.
Mary Shelley’s timeless monster-and-mad-scientist face-off has inspired movies, comic books, television shows, spin-off sequels, a bride, and still more movies. In the next 12 months or so, fans will get two additional updates to Shelley’s original 1818 Gothic masterpiece. Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix adaptation Frankenstein arrives in November, while Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! is slated for a March 2026 release. The monster is, indeed, alive and well. And dating.
David Koepp is the most famous writer you’ve never heard of. He wrote the movies Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, and Mission: Impossible, but the 2019 thriller Cold Storage was his first novel. The gist: A parasitic fungus accidentally escapes its container, and all of humanity is at risk for abrupt extinction. Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz is sent to stop it, but how? The film adaptation—also written by Koepp—is expected in the later weeks of 2025.
More from the feverish brain of Stephen King: The 1978 novel The Long Walk was published by King under his pseudonym Richard Bachman. The story follows a group of young men forced to compete in an annual competition, known as the Long Walk, across a future America spiraling into dystopian horror. The winner gets anything he wants. The losers get executed. Good times. The film adaptation from Lionsgate is slated to open on September 12 in the United States.
Also scheduled to hit theaters on September 12, the dark comedy One Battle After Another is the latest from director Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia), the biggest of big names in Hollywood. The cast names are big, too: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall. But the biggest name may be the author behind the story: The new film is based on Vineland, Thomas Pynchon’s visionary 1990 novel about America, creeping decline, and revolution. Read it now for bragging rights in September.
In 2021, veteran San Francisco Chronicle reporter Lizzie Johnson published her book Paradise, describing the unbelievably tragic fate of a small California town caught in the infamous 2018 wildfire known as the Camp Fire. In October, Apple Studios is set to release The Lost Bus, a disaster drama based on material from Johnson’s book. Significantly, the film is directed by Paul Greengrass, the former journalist turned filmmaker who specializes in true-story projects.
Never one to shy away from difficult subjects, author Colleen Hoover dives into the difficult relationships between mothers and daughters in her 2019 novel, Regretting You. Morgan and her teenage daughter, Clara, can barely relate and are pushed farther apart when a fatal accident befalls the family. The feature film adaptation of the novel, due in theaters on October 24, echoes the author’s bedrock themes: family secrets, betrayals, and finding the courage to face the truth.
It’s the year 2025. The economy is in shambles, crime is rampant, and survival is a spectator sport. Or at least it is for Ben Richards, who volunteers to be a contestant on a deadly reality show. Written by Stephen King under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Running Man was famously adapted into a 1980s sci-fi action film with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The new reboot, starring fledgling movie star Glen Powell, hits theaters on November 7. And yes, the original novel was set in the year 2025.
Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s futuristic novel asks what it means to be human through the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend powered by the sun who serves as a companion to Josie, a genetically enhanced 14-year-old. As she navigates the world and tries to help her ailing human, Klara also bargains with her life force—the sun—to help Josie survive in this bittersweet story of love and connection. The inimitable Jenna Ortega stars as Klara in the upcoming film adaptation, but the release date is still TBA.
With a nod to the rom-com classic When Harry Met Sally, Emily Henry’s 2021 novel, People We Meet on Vacation, tackles the age-old question: Can men and women ever truly just be friends? Poppy and Alex have a friendship of the opposites-attract variety, and we learn their backstory through chapters that travel through time. After a falling-out, Poppy reaches out to Alex to mend the friendship (and possibly more) on one final trip. The film adaptation hits Netflix this year.
British author Ruth Ware earned a wave of critical and popular acclaim with this 2016 mystery-thriller, concerning a travel writer, a North Sea luxury cruise, and a genuinely baffling disappearance. Keira Knightley, Guy Pearce, Art Malik, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw headline the British film adaptation, scheduled to come to Netflix sometime in the fall. Bonus trivia: Ware’s sequel novel, The Woman in Suite 11, is expected on July 25.
Sex! Scandal! Homicide! This 2021 thriller from author May Cobb follows the fate of big-city lifestyle blogger Sophie O’Neill when she relocates to small-town Texas. Things get weird when Sophie is drawn into a circle of wealthy Texan women who like to shoot guns, party hard, and keep secrets. The series adaptation from Starz, due this fall, stars Malin Akerman, Brittany Snow, and Dermot Mulroney.
It’s time for the second act! OK, deep breath: Wicked: For Good is the second part of last year’s film adaptation of the Broadway musical based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. That book, in turn, is based on the L. Frank Baum classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Thanks to Maguire’s modern classic, we learn that the green-skinned girl, Elphaba, isn’t wicked at all in this illuminating and imaginative fantasy. The new movie hits theaters on November 21.
Based on author Freida McFadden’s popular book series, the upcoming thriller The Housemaid—starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried—is scheduled to hit theaters on December 25. In this twisted tale of control and desire, Millie is an ex-con with a past who comes to the Winchesters' house as a live-in housekeeper. Nina, the lady of the house, may or may not be recovering from a psychotic break. Some messes can’t be cleaned.
John Steinbeck’s immortal classic East of Eden tells the story of two families in California farm country in the early days of the 20th century. Steinbeck considered it his greatest book, and in 1955 it was famously adapted to film by legendary filmmaker Elia Kazan. So here’s a wild thing: The new Netflix adaptation—coming in early 2026 and starring Florence Pugh—is written and directed by Zoe Kazan, Elia’s granddaughter.
Andy Weir’s ambitious 2021sci-fi novel is similar in tone and scope to his 2011 blockbuster debut, The Martian. Both books are great examples of modern “hard SF,” grounded in science and physics and cold, hard reality. Project Hail Mary features another stranded astronaut, but with the stakes raised to extinction-level seriousness. The much-anticipated film adaptation, starring Ryan Gosling, is currently slated for release on March 20, 2026. Bonus trivia: The novel won the 2021 Goodreads Choice Award for Readers’ Favorite Science Fiction book.
Emily Brontë’s classic 1847 novel—the only novel she ever wrote—has a permanent place in our cultural memory as the epitome of gothic vibes and windswept moors. The upcoming film adaptation, scheduled for February of 2026, features some heavy Hollywood firepower. Margot Robbie plays our heroine Catherine Earnshaw, and the director is filmmaker Emerald Fennel, known for her period dramas and the late, great BBC spy thriller Killing Eve.
A writer finds herself in a treacherous situation when she drifts into the orbit of bestselling author Verity Crawford and her handsome husband. Then it gets really complicated. Colleen Hoover’s psychological thriller made its way into a lot of neighborhood book clubs in 2018. The upcoming film adaptation—slated for May 15, 2026—stars Dakota Johnson along with Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett as the unhappily married couple.
