It’s an age-old query: What’s higher, the guide or the film? However with so many trustworthy, inventive cinematic diversifications of books, the controversy now not feels urgent and even related. Administrators like Guillermo del Toro and Philippa Lowthorpe, for instance, have confirmed that movies can honor their supply materials whereas being well timed artworks in their very own proper.
2026, particularly, appears to be the yr of the page-to-screen adaptation. Buzzy administrators like Christopher Nolan, Emerald Fennell, and Maggie Gyllenhaal are set to adapt a number of the most beloved classics in Western literature, whereas up to date authors comparable to Emily Henry and Shelby Van Pelt might be seeing their phrases dropped at cinematic life for the primary time. Learn on for particulars on these diversifications and extra.
10
‘Individuals We Meet on Trip’ (January 9)
Primarily based on ‘Individuals We Meet on Trip’ (2021)
Emily Henry’s up to date romance novel, Individuals We Meet on Trip, was a runaway success when it was launched in 2021, racking up awards nominations and sitting atop bestseller lists by The New York Occasions and IndieBound. The lighthearted friends-to-lovers guide follows Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) throughout a decades-long friendship marked by a yearly summer season trip collectively. After their relationship experiences an all-time low, they reunite for a ultimate journey during which they vow to restore their bond and, in the end, settle for their true emotions.
The movie adaptation of Individuals We Meet on Trip was launched on Netflix on January 9, 2026. Very like the novel, it has delighted audiences. The movie stays trustworthy to the guide’s construction, weaving between previous holidays and present-day rigidity to construct emotional payoff. Amid a yr of alarmingly severe information, this movie, together with its novel, is a lighthearted balm for the thoughts and spirit.
In 2022, Shelby Van Pelt noticed success along with her debut novel, Remarkably Vivid Creatures, which facilities on the shifting friendship between a 70-year-old widow and a Pacific octopus. The guide was launched on the heels of the favored 2020 documentary, My Octopus Instructor, which equally particulars the unbelievable intelligence and emotional depth that octopuses are able to. Remarkably Vivid Creatures even features a part informed from the attitude of the octopus itself, driving house a message of affection and empathy between dwelling creatures.
Now, readers can look ahead to a movie adaptation of Remarkably Vivid Creatures with author and director Olivia Newman on the helm. Newman is uniquely suited to direct the difference, too, with the 2022 adaptation of Delia Owens’ The place the Crawdads Sing already beneath her belt. Display and stage legend Sally Area is about to star within the movie and might be joined by Lewis Pullman, Colm Meaney, Joan Chen, and Kathy Baker.
8
‘The Starvation Video games: Dawn on the Reaping’ (November 20)
Primarily based on ‘Dawn on the Reaping’ (2025)
Within the unique Starvation Video games novels, Haymitch Abernathy is likely one of the most compelling characters. A mentor to Katniss and Peeta, he tempers his angst and bitterness with empathy and kindness, reworking into probably the most highly effective supporters of the resistance towards the Capitol. Subsequently, it solely is sensible that Suzanne Collins would write a prequel centered on his expertise as a Tribute—and that the prequel could be made into a movie.
This isn’t the primary Starvation Video games prequel, after all. In 2023, Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler starred in The Starvation Video games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which was primarily based on Collins’ 2020 novel about Coriolanus Snow’s complicated origins. Given the continued success of the franchise and the unceasing fascination with the dystopian world of Panem, Dawn on the Reaping is sure to be a business success, and it most likely received’t be the final we’ll see of Panem.
7
‘Sensible Magic 2’ (September 18)
Primarily based on ‘The E-book of Magic’ (2021)
Sensible Magic, the 1998 movie primarily based on Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel, stays one of many most beloved movies of the Nineties. Nonetheless, not many followers know that the Owens household’s story didn’t start or finish with the occasions of the movie. The truth is, Hoffman wrote 4 books concerning the Owens witches, together with two prequels and a sequel. Sensible Magic 2, slated for a September launch, is predicated on Hoffman’s sequel, The E-book of Magic.
On this installment, the Owens witches traverse Europe to confront their household’s complicated previous and put an finish to the curse levied towards their household. To followers’ delight, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Dianne Wiest, and Stockard Channing might be reprising their roles from the unique movie. Plus, they’ll be joined by new forged members, together with Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña and The Kissing Sales space’s Joey King.
6
‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ (November 26)
Primarily based on ‘The Magician’s Nephew’ (1955)
Greta Gerwig is thought for her coming-of-age movies. She received her begin with indie gems like Frances Ha (2012), build up her portfolio with beloved unbiased movies like Girl Chicken (2017) earlier than lastly producing business blockbusters like Barbie (2023). Satirical and tinged with angst, her movies persistently ship nuanced narratives, which is why her 2026 adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew is destined to be so recent and insightful.
Hundreds of viewers fell in love with Narnia after the 2005 launch of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with out essentially realizing that this story was the second installment of C.S. Lewis’ seven-book epic. The primary, The Magician’s Nephew, particulars the inception of Narnia and the way an unassuming wardrobe turned a portal between two worlds. It additionally chronicles the childhoods and Narnian adventures of Digory and Polly, the previous of which grows into the middle-aged man who cares for the Pevensie kids in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
5
‘Challenge Hail Mary’ (March 20)
Primarily based on ‘Challenge Hail Mary’ (2021)
Andy Weir’s 2021 science fiction novel Challenge Hail Mary is likely one of the biggest literary successes of the last decade. It spent 28 weeks on the New York Occasions’ bestseller checklist, and it received the Hugo Award for Finest Novel in 2022. Even its audiobook racked up an Audie Award, having been narrated by Zack Snyder’s Justice League actor Ray Porter.
However that’s not the one motive the Challenge Hail Mary movie is so extremely anticipated. The compelling storyline follows a trainer and former biologist who wakes up on a spaceship with none reminiscence of how he received there, conjuring echoes of profitable movies like Passengers (2016) and Interstellar (2014). Moreover, it’ll be dropped at life by Ryan Gosling and Sandra Hüller (of Anatomy of a Fall fame).
4
‘Wuthering Heights’ (February 13)
Primarily based on ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1847)
Wuthering Heights is, for sure, probably the most controversial adaptation of the yr. Director Emerald Fennell has infused the movie with all of the energetic, dream-like electrical energy that she turned well-known for in Promising Younger Lady and Saltburn. Margot Robbie’s costumes, for example, incorporate vibrant colours and leather-based. In the meantime, Jacob Elordi has been forged as Heathcliff, even writer Emily Brontë wrote the character as a dark-skinned man.
Given the criticisms that her adaptation has even earlier than its launch, Fennell has gone on the defensive, explaining that she by no means meant to make a film totally trustworthy to the 1847 novel. Slightly, she stated, her model of Wuthering Heights is predicated on the fantastical notion of the story that she shaped when she first learn it as a young person. “It was humorous, , I believe the issues that I remembered had been each actual and never actual,” she stated. “So there was a specific amount of want achievement in there, and there have been complete characters that I’d kind of forgotten or consolidated.” In sum, she selected to “make one thing that was my response and interpretation to that guide and to the sensation of it” slightly than a trustworthy adaptation. The result’s a sexually charged love story that’s removed from the cautionary story of obsession and trauma that Brontë initially wrote.
3
‘Klara and the Solar’ (2026)
Primarily based on ‘Klara and the Solar’ (2021)
Kazuo Ishiguro is likely one of the most beloved English novelists of our time, and he’s no stranger to movie diversifications. His Booker Prize-winning guide, The Stays of the Day, was tailored into a movie in 1993. Later, his science fiction novel, By no means Let Me Go, was tailored right into a commercially profitable film starring Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield.
Now, his dystopian science fiction novel, Klara and the Solar, is about to obtain the cinematic remedy as effectively—and it’s definitely getting the star remedy. Award-winning director Taika Waititi sits on the helm of the movie, which can star the likes of Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, and Steve Buscemi. As if this star energy wasn’t sufficient, Klara and the Solar may even discover a very related subject: using synthetic intelligence to ease human loneliness.
2
‘The Bride!’ (October 2)
Primarily based on ‘Frankenstein; or, The Trendy Prometheus’ (1818)
In Mary Shelley’s 1818 traditional, Frankenstein; or, The Trendy Prometheus, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster yearns for companionship and begs for a accomplice. Guillermo del Toro honed in on this element in his 2025 adaptation of the novel, humanizing the monster in a way trustworthy to Shelley’s unique work. Now, actress and filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal is taking the idea a step additional along with her 2026 movie, The Bride!.
The Bride! is probably probably the most unique and unconventional adaptation on this checklist. It’s primarily based on the 1935 movie Bride of Frankenstein, which itself is impressed by—slightly than drawn carefully from—Shelley’s novel. Along with depicting a narrative that’s not particularly explored within the novel, The Bride! modifications the setting from Europe to Nineteen Thirties Chicago, and it seems to centralize the monster’s bride slightly than the monster himself. Jessie Buckley might be main the star-studded forged, which additionally boasts Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
1
‘The Odyssey’ (July 17)
Primarily based on ‘The Odyssey’ (eighth century BC)
Christopher Nolan at all times generates pleasure when he declares a brand new movie, however The Odyssey, primarily based on Homer’s epic poem of the identical title, would possibly simply be his most extremely anticipated launch but. Set to hit theaters in July 2026, the movie particulars the journey of Odysseus, Greek King of Ithaca (performed by Matt Damon), as he returns house to his spouse, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), after the Trojan Battle. Alongside the best way, he encounters sirens, lotus eaters, and different threats, solely to seek out his house overrun by Penelope’s suitors, forcing him to defend his marriage.
As probably the most enduring works of Western literature, The Odyssey has been tailored numerous instances because it was written within the eighth century BC. Nolan’s adaptation is especially thrilling, nevertheless, as a result of the director has a penchant for depicting grandiose worlds and magical situations. Moreover, The Odyssey boasts a formidable forged that features Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, and Zendaya.