The Most Exciting Books Coming to Life on Screen This Year

Return to the sand-covered planet of Arrakis outside of your own imagination when Dune: Part Two hits theaters. Until then, watch the first film on Max.

Often sent on dangerous missions in outer space, Mickey is regenerated every time he dies. However, the seventh Mickey (known as Mickey7) decides to change things in the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. Mickey 17, based on this story, stars Robert Pattinson, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo and is expected in theaters in late March.

A horror novel set in an Irish forest, The Watchers follows Mina, who is trapped in a concrete bunker and watched by creatures above. M. Night Shyamalan‘s daughter, Ishana Shyamalan, is directing a film based on the book. The movie comes out in June and stars Dakota Fanning.

When a pioneer in abstract expressionism, Mark Rothko, died, his paintings were suspiciously sold by executors for a fraction of their value, causing major legal battles as documented in the book The Legacy Of Mark Rothko. Russell Crowe stars as the painter in Rothko, a film coming to theaters in October 2024.

Degrassi’s Sarah Fisher stars in Someone Like You, headed to theaters in early April. In the book that inspires the film, Maddie Baxter West’s life is turned upside down when she finds out she was adopted as an embryo. 

A CIA agent is on the hunt for revenge when his fiancée is murdered by a terrorist in Robert Littell’s novel The Amateur. Previously adapted into a film in 1981, the book is being revisited for an upcoming movie starring Rami Malek and Rachel Brosnahan.

With an all-star cast including Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel and Lil Rel Howery, you can expect big things from the movie adaptation of Harold and the Purple Crayon. The theatrical release date has been pushed back a few times, with a current date of August 2, 2024.

Colter Shaw is an expert tracker who helps the police find missing persons in The Never Game. CBS’ new show Tracker, starring Justin Hartley, is based on the series by Jeffery Deaver.

After the military sends signals to an alien race, the humans of Earth split into camps that either welcome them or plan to hurt them in Cixin Liu’s novel The Three-Body Problem. Netflix is adapting the book, with the help of David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, into a streaming series that premieres in March.

Trust by Hernan Diaz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a Wall Street tycoon and his wife, the daughter of an aristocrat. Kate Winslet is set to star in HBO’s adaptation of the book.

Carley Fortune’s best-selling romance novel Meet Me at the Lake, which Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are adapting for Netflix. In the book, Fern’s life was once full of potential, but now she’s back home running her mom’s lakeside resort, which she never wanted to do. Her life is turned upside down when a man from her past shows up offering to help.

While the date has yet to be released, Netflix has confirmed a third season of Bridgerton. If you can’t wait, catch up on the story by reading the third book in the series: Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.

Upon her 16th birthday, Tally will have surgery to become a “pretty,” after which all she has to do for the rest of her life is have fun. But is it really going to be the paradise she’s been promised? Scott Westerfeld’s New York Times best-selling series is coming to Netflix sometime in 2023 or 2024 and stars big names, including Joey King and Laverne Cox. 

Written in 1982, The Color Purple is a now-classic novel that was quickly adapted into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover. Taraji P. Henson, Halle Bailey and a truly amazing cast brought the musical version of this story to the screen. 

The hit movie Oppenheimer is based on American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The award-winning film will land on Peacock in mid-February.