Adaptations are a tricky business. When they’re good, they’re great — nothing quite beats seeing your favorite characters brought to life. When it’s bad, though, you wonder why they didn’t just leave a good thing alone. That’s why we’ve rounded up all the movies and TV shows based on books coming out for the rest of 2019. Sure, reading the book first means you won’t exactly be surprised by the plot in theaters, but it also gives you the opportunity to create your own interpretation first.
With Hollywood’s increasing fervor for reimagining old stories, it’s worth your while to treat movie and TV adaptations as a bit of a game. What parts did they leave in, and what did they cut out? Are any of the characters significantly different from how they were written? And what does this interpretation bring that previous adaptations might have missed? People love to walk out of adaptations claiming the book was better (and that’s often the case!). But since onscreen adaptations aren’t going anywhere, you might as well get more fun out of pinpointing why the book was better — and in the cases where the adaptation actually nails it, you’ll feel all the more satisfied for seeing how it hits the notes the book did.
What we’re saying is this: Reading the book before the movie or TV show comes out is a really, really good idea. So, here are the titles that should be filling your bookshelf through December. Happy reading!
‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ by Maria Semple
This upcoming film is directed by Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Before Sunrise), and stars Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig and Billy Crudup. Where’d You Go, Bernadette tells the story of Bernadette Fox, a genius architect and mother to 15-year-old Bee, who one day disappears from her home in Seattle, prompting her family to embark on a mission to get her back. It’s a heartwarming tale of self-discovery and finding one’s place in the world.
Release date: August 16, 2019
‘It’ by Stephen King
It: Chapter 2 comes out this fall, starring Bill Skarsgård, Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy. This sequel to 2017’s massively successful It is based on the same Stephen King novel, and continues the story of Pennywise the Dancing Clown with It’s childhood stars returning to their hometown as adults. Naturally, horror ensues.
Release date: September 6, 2019
‘The Goldfinch’ by Donna Tartt
Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch is getting a movie adaptation this fall, starring Sarah Paulson, Nicole Kidman, Ansel Elgort and Luke Wilson. The novel tells the story of Theo Decker losing his mother and stealing a piece of artwork early in life, and the complicated years that follow. It’s a sprawling, aching tale of adolescence and revelation, peppered with characters who are impossible to forget.
Release date: September 13, 2019
‘The Woman In The Window’ by A. J. Finn
The Woman in the Window adaptation stars Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, and Gary Oldman. This A. J. Finn thriller tells the story of agoraphobic Anna Fox living in New York City and spying on her neighbors. When she sees something happen in the Russell home across the way, she can’t help but investigate further, and gets in deeper than she ever intended.
Release date: October 4, 2019
‘Looking For Alaska’ by John Green
Looking for Alaska is being turned into a limited series on Hulu, and stars Sofia Vassilieva, Uriah Shelton and Charlie Plummer. Author John Green (The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All The Way Down) weaves yet another tale of young love and the search for greater meaning. When Miles Halter falls in love with a girl named Alaska at his new boarding school, he has no idea how complicated his world is about to become.
Release date: October 18, 2019
‘Motherless Brooklyn’ by Jonathan Lethem
The movie adaptation is directed by Ed Norton, and stars Bruce Willis, Willem DaFoe and Alec Baldwin. Detective novel Motherless Brooklyn tells the story of Lionel Essrog, an orphan with Tourette’s whose carefully cobbled together life falls apart. Making his way though Brooklyn’s mob scene, Lionel must use his detective skills to unpack what really happened.
Release date: November 1, 2019
‘Doctor Sleep’ by Stephen King
Another Stephen King horror movie to haunt your dreams this winter: Doctor Sleep, King’s sequel to The Shining, is hitting theaters in November, starring Rebecca Ferguson, Jacob Tremblay and Ewan McGregor. The book picks up with Danny Torrance as an adult, and explores how his particular powers appear in the rest of the world.
Release date: November 8, 2019
‘The Good Liar’ by Nicholas Searle
The adaptation stars Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen, and tells the story of a con man who goes after a well-to-do widow in the hopes of swindling her out of her money by making her fall in love with him. Psychological thriller The Good Liar will keep you on your toes — and with this venerable cast, it shouldn’t be half-bad onscreen either.
Release date: November 15, 2019
‘The Rhythm Section’ by Mark Burnell
Blake Lively, Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown star in hotly anticipated female spy thriller The Rhythm Section. After Stephanie Patrick’s family dies in a plane crash, she joins an intelligence organization and throws herself into a life of danger and espionage, seeking to uncover the truth about what really happened to that plane.
Release date: November 22, 2019
‘David Copperfield’ by Charles Dickens
The adaptation, titled The Personal History of David Copperfield, stars Dev Patel, Gwendoline Christie, Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie. This 1850 classic by Charles Dickens tells the story of David Copperfield’s life, starting with an unhappy childhood and building all the way up to his career as a writer later on. The characters of David Copperfield are among the most enduring in American literature — perhaps one of the reasons this particular novel has been adapted so often.
Release date: December 5, 2019
‘Little Women’ by Louisa May Alcott
Greta Gerwig’s Little Women stars Timothée Chalemet, Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern and more — suffice it to say the film has top-notch talent. Louisa May Alcott’s iconic Little Women tells the story of the March sisters in post-Civil War America: their family life, their journey to adulthood and their romances, sometimes all at once. It’s a thrillingly rich exploration of young women’s interior lives, and we’re very excited to see how this cast does it justice.
Release date: December 25, 2019
‘His Dark Materials’ by Philip Pullman
This Philip Pullman series His Dark Materials is being adapted into an HBO and BBC One TV series starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, James McAvoy and Dafne Keen. This epic fantasy trilogy tells the story of Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, two children traveling through parallel universes and figuring out the secrets of their world.
Release date: 2019
‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ by Charles Brandt
Charles Brandt’s I Heard You Paint Houses tells the real-life story of Jimmy Hoffa and Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, the latter of whom is a hitman for the mob. He ultimately kills Hoffa at the request of the Bufalino mob, and the story of his life reveals striking new details about the New York crime scene in those days. The upcoming adaptation The Irishman is directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino.
Release date: 2019
‘The Last Thing He Wanted’ by Joan Didion
Directed by Dee Rees, The Last Thing He Wanted stars Anne Hathaway, Willem Dafoe, Ben Affleck, Toby Jones and Rosie Perez. When reporter Elena McMahon inherits her father’s role as an arms dealer in Costa Rica, working on behalf of the U.S. Government, Elena is swiftly immersed in a world very different from her own and must adjust quickly to the life — and complications — that await her.
Release date: 2019
‘Death Comes As The End’ by Agatha Christie
BBC is planning an adaptation of this Agatha Christie novel for late 2019, though cast announcements are still forthcoming.Death Comes As The End is a murder mystery set in Thebes in 2000 BC, where the arrival of a new member to their community sets off a string of deaths.
Release date: 2019
‘All The Bright Places’ by Jennifer Niven
This adaptation stars Elle Fanning, Keegan-Michael Key, Luke Wilson, and Justice Smith. Based on Jennifer Niven’s young adult novel, All The Bright Places tells the story of two teenagers from small-town Indiana who find each other through their mutual struggles with depression.
Release date: 2019
‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker
You’ve definitely heard of Dracula, and likely even seen a few adaptations yourself. This one comes from Sherlock creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss as a three-episode Netflix and BBC series. The series will closely follow Bram Stoker’s setting, taking place in 1897 Transylvania as Dracula prepares an attack on Victorian London.
Release date: 2019
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