By Arti
The annual film festival season kicks off in late August, and come September, there are arrays of new offerings on streaming platforms. I haven’t done actual research, but I just have a feeling that nowadays, more and more movies are adapted from printed sources. The following is a list of upcoming adaptations as full features in theatres, or TV movies and series for streaming:
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot (2016)
Liptrot’s award winning memoir of her troubled past is adapted to the screen and directed by Nora Fingscheidt (The Unforgivable, 2021) starring Saoirse Ronan. From wild living and alcoholic ruin in London, Liptrot rehabilitates herself as she seeks the sanctuary of nature and her childhood home in Orkney off the northeastern coast of Scotland. (In UK Theatres late September.)
The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand (2018)
A Nantucket-set wedding disrupted by a murder which makes everyone a suspect. Goodreads declares Hilderbrand “the queen of the summer beach read.” Nicole Kidman, Live Schreiber, Dakota Fanning anchor the Netflix mini-series out now.
The Critic or Curtain Call (2015) by Anthony Quinn
Had its world premiere at TIFF (Toronto Int’l Film Fest) last year and slowly trickling to theatres this September. Directed by Anand Tucker (Girl with a Pearl Earring, 2003) with an exciting British cast including Ian McKellen as the eponymous, acerbic critic, his power and influence affecting many. Co-stars include Lesley Manville, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Romola Gerai, Ben Barnes.
Disclaimer by Renée Knight (2015)
Oscar winning director Alfonso Cuarón (Roma, 2018) helms a stellar cast including Cate Blanchett, Lesley Manville, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee. A mini-series where Blanchett plays a TV documentary journalist who exposes dark secrets of others is threatened with the revealing of her own past. Canadian premiere at TIFF in September, mini series on Apple TV+ in October.
Conclave by Robert Harris (2016)
International Premiere at TIFF in September, in theatres November. Directed by Edward Berger (2023 Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front) with a stellar cast led by Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow. Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 2011) adapts from Harris’s novel revealing the dark secrets and intrigues in the intense proceedings in electing a new Pope.
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth (1971)
10 episodes on Peacock, (Sky Atlantic in the UK from Nov 7) a remake of the iconic 70’s movie. Political thriller recounting the plot to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle after he signed the treaty leading to Algeria’s independence. In this new version, Eddie Redmayne is the assassin Jackal.
Here, graphic novel (2014) by Richard McGuire
McGuire’s works are multi-faceted and highly acclaimed, as permanent collections at MoMA, The Morgan Library and others, in print form in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Le Monde… Can a movie version do justice to this multi-talented artist? The team that made the eras-spanning Forrest Gump (1994), director Robert Zemeckis, screenwriter Eric Roth, star Tom Hanks and Robin Wright re-unite to bring us Here. An interesting addition to the cast that I look forward to is Michelle Dockery. In theatres come November.
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
The National Book Award-winning novel of 2022, has genre-defying writing that fuses a novel and a screenplay. The story of a young Chinese American actor struggling to escape stereotypical roles in Hollywood. Stand-up comedian and actor Jimmy O. Yang (Crazy Rich Asians, 2018) stars. 10 episodes on Hulu (no UK platform yet).
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019)
New York Film Festival’s (Sept. 27 – Oct. 14) opening film. The winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is adapted into a film with the title slightly changed to Nickel Boys. The friendship between two Black teenagers in the notorious reform institution, the Dozier School for Boys in Jim Crow-era Florida sustains the two of them during their harrowing residency. It reaches UK screens in November.
The Return based on The Odyssey by Homer
World premiere at TIFF, in theatres December. Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus, returning home to Ithaca after the Trojan War and misadventures twenty years later to find his kingdom changed. Juliette Binoche is the patient wife Penelope, trying to buy time to wait for his return and at the same time warding off unruly suitors. Son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) not so patient. (No UK date yet).
Wicked by Gregory Maguire (1995)
Based on the musical, which was in turn adapted from the book by L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), this new rendition as a two-part movie is directed by Jon M. Chu (In the Heights, 2021; Crazy Rich Asians, 2018) Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, 2019) and Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton, 2020-2024) star. Part one will reach screens in mid November, part two a couple of weeks later.
*****
Arti will be back in a couple of weeks looking at book adaptations in development.
Arti blogs at Ripple Effects where this post originated.
