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 across the 2024 movie schedule 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.

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.  

Bad Monkey (Carl Hiaasen)

Among the latest of upcoming AppleTV+ shows is a TV adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s Bad Monkey. The 2013 novel is about a former police detective, Andrew Yancy, who is forced to work as a health inspector for the Department of Hotels and Restaurants in Florida. While on the job, a severed arm is found, which severely complicates Yancy’s life. In the series from Ted Lasso and Shrinking creator, Vince Vaughn plays Yancy and is joined by Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith and Rob Delaney.  

The Perfect Couple (Elin Hilderbrand)

After doing Big Little Lies and Expats in recent years, Nicole Kidman is set to lead another novel adaptation with The Perfect Couple. The book is about how the marriage of a couple in Nantucket turns upside down when a dead body is found on the harbor just hours before the ceremony. The event turns the celebration into a murder mystery. Kidman and Liev Schreiber play the parents of the groom. The cast also includes Dakota Fanning, Jack Reynor, Eve Hewson, Billy Howle and Meghann Fahy. 

The Thicket (Joe R. Lansdale)

Joe R. Lansdale’s 2013 suspense novel, The Thicket, has been turned into a movie starring Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis. Set in East Texas during the turn of the century, Jack Parker’s grandfather is murdered by a group of travelling bank robbers, and he enlists a rag-tag crew to trail the criminals. 

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 Outrun (Amy Liptrot)

In 2016, Scottish journalist and author Amy Liptrot wrote a memoir called The Outrun about her journey to rehabilitate in her childhood home set off the coast of Northern Isles after struggling with alcoholism while living in London. Liptrot co-wrote the screenplay with German filmmaker Nora Fingscheidt. The movie stars Saoirse Ronan and already received positive reception when it premiered earlier this year at Sundance. 

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. 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Back in 1972, Barbara Robinson published The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which is a children’s novel about six kids, known for being rowdy and getting in trouble, who volunteer to star in their town’s Sunday school Christmas pageant. Lionsgate has turned it into a movie starring Judy Greer and Peter Holmes. The family film is directed by Dalla Jenkins, who also created Christian drama series, The Chosen. 

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. 

Along Came A Spider (James Patterson)

Among the most exciting 2024 TV premiere dates this fall is a new adaptation of James Patterson’s best selling Alex Cross book series. After Tyler Perry previously played the detective in a 2012 movie, Aldis Hodge has taken up the mantle for a new Amazon series. Ben Watkins, who previously worked on Burn Notice and Hand of God is the new show’s creator. 

Interior Chinatown (Charles Yu)

Charles Yu’s 2020 novel, Interior Chinatown, was a huge award winner following its release (including for the National Book Award for Fiction). It’s about a man named Willis Wu, who is stuck playing roles like "Background Oriental Male" and “Delivery Guy” on a fictional police procedural called Black And White. Jimmy O. Yang is set to star in a Hulu series that has its author being showrunner and Taika Waititi as executive producer. 

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. 

Not Without Hope (Nick Schuyler and Jeré Longman)

The true story about how three NFL football players got into a boating accident in 2009 was told through the non-fiction novel Not Without Hope, as told by its sole survivor. Zachary Levi, Josh Duhamel, Quentin Plair and Marshall Cook star in the drama based on the 2010 book. The Grey director Joe Carnahan directed the film.

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. 

Dog Man (Dav Pilkey)

Dav Pilkey is well known for his Captain Underpants books, but he also made a children’s comic book called Dog Man, which is a spinoff of the Underpants series. DreamWorks Animation is making a feature film based on the comic book series. Dog Man is about a superhero who is part dog and part man. 

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. 

The Cat In The Hat (Dr. Seuss)

Dr. Suess’ beloved 1957 children’s book, The Cat In The Hat, is about a tall cat who pays a girl and her brother a visit on a rainy day when her mother is away to entertain them as his friends Thing One and Thing Two wreck the house. It was previously adapted for live action in 2003, but this time it will be an animated movie starring Bill Hader as the cat along with Quinta Brunson, Bowen Yang and Xochitl Gomez also among the voice cast. 

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!