Hayley breaks down the movies and TV series based on books due to hit screens in the following months.
Poor Things
The darlings of the 2023 film festivals are now starting to hit theatres in New Zealand, and among them is Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ zany new feature Poor Things. Emma Stone, who earned an Oscar nomination for the director’s previous film The Favourite, teams up with him again to star as Bella, a woman who is resurrected by a scientist (Willem Dafoe) after committing suicide, and runs off with a lawyer (Mark Ruffalo) on an odyssey of self-discovery.
Based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, the film is brimming with Lanthimos’ signature oddball wit alongside a spectacular array of costume and production design. Prior to the theatrical release, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September where it won the coveted Golden Lion prize, and the film is expected to be a mainstay throughout the 2024 award circuit.
Boy Swallows Universe
Trent Dalton's universally beloved debut novel Boy Swallows Universe is getting the Netflix treatment, adapted for a seven-episode series. The Aussie tale blends a coming-of-age base with swirls of crime and magical realism, as Eli, a 13-year-old in 1980s Brisbane, deals with all the bad stuff life can throw at him while growing up alongside his mute older brother, an absent dad, a mum who’s just gone to jail, and a heroin-dealing stepfather.
While not exactly autofiction, the novel is based on the childhood experiences of Dalton, who worked as a journalist before publishing his first book. The series draws an ensemble cast of Australian actors, including Simon Baker, Phoebe Tonkin and Travis Fimmel, with young Penguin Bloom star Felix Cameron in the lead role.
All of Us Strangers
Another indie hit at the festivals last year, All of Us Strangers is an English adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers by director Andrew Haigh (45 Years, Lean on Pete), following a Japanese adaptation in 1988. In the book, Adam, a lonely middle-aged screenwriter, returns to his childhood home one night, only to find his deceased parents living there as if frozen in time.
The new film takes a much more wistful approach to this ghost story, with the director adding a personal touch by shifting the setting to 1980s England and switching the female romantic interest to Harry, a young man who lives in Adam’s apartment building. The film features a magnetic quartet of Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy in the starring roles, all of whom have earned accolades for their performances.
The Color Purple
Alice Walker’s classic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple is making its way to the screen again, following the 1985 adaptation by Steven Spielberg, this time in the form of a musical. The stage production, based on the book, has had two Broadway runs in the last two decades, earning ten Tony nominations and three wins in its lifespan. The new musical film is calling in a host of cast and crew from both the previous film and the show: Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Quincy Jones are all producers, while American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino and Orange is the New Black star Danielle Brooks reprise their roles from the production.
Set in the American South across the early 20th century, the story follows the journey of Celie, who, despite suffering from abuse, finds strength and love from the fellow black women in her life.
It Ends With Us
Well, we’re finally here: Hollywood is forcing its first Colleen Hoover film adaptation upon us all. The romance author’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last couple of years thanks to the book lovers of TikTok, and amongst the whirlwind of obsession, her most fervently-loved title was picked up for the big screen. It Ends With Us follows Lily (Blake Lively), a woman leaving her past behind to start a business in Boston, as she falls for a commitment-phobic neurosurgeon, Ryle (Justin Baldoni), until their relationship takes a violent turn.
With Hoover-ites already tearing the set photos apart because of the costume and styling choices, and the rise in criticism of Hoover’s depiction of toxic relationships, I’ll be very curious to see how the film is received from both ends of the spectrum.
The Zone of Interest
There’s no shortage of World War II films coming out of Hollywood, but you’ve probably never seen one quite like this. The Zone of Interest, loosely based on a 2014 novel by Martin Amis, depicts the mundane day-to-day lives of Rudolph Höss, an S.S. commandant, and his family, in their home over the fence from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Directed by Jonathan Glazer, the film walked away from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival with two prizes, where it was hailed as a haunting and disturbing portrayal of the Holocaust in which the greatest horror is what is not shown; that is, the horror of the camp itself.
With its biggest competitor, Anatomy of a Fall, taken out of the running by France inexplicably choosing another film as their entry, The Zone of Interest is a likely candidate to sweep up the International Film award for the UK at this year’s Oscars.
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