Hayley breaks down the movies and TV series based on books due to hit screens in the coming months.
Lady in the Lake
This Apple TV+ series adaptation of Laura Lipmann’s 60s-set mystery Lady in the Lake marks Natalie Portman’s first ever television role. Starring opposite Moses Ingram, Portman plays Maddie, a housewife who leaves her husband to reignite her childhood dream of becoming an investigative journalist. When she becomes obsessed with the case of Cleo Sherwood, a young Black woman whose body was found in a lake in Baltimore – a case that is quickly forgotten by both the police and the community – Maddie is plunged into a surreal journey through the underbelly of the city. The series promises to be a dazzling, noirish mystery revolving around themes of misogyny and racism in the wake of the Jim Crow era.
The Decameron
More pandemic media? Kind of, but not quite – this one’s actually about the Black Death. Netflix’s new TV series is loosely inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, a 14th century collection of stories in a frame narrative, in which a group of Italian nobles and their servants retreat from the bubonic plague ravaging Florence in 1348 by holing up in a countryside villa; debauchery and chaos ensues. A bunch of out-of-touch rich people escaping a pandemic by going on an isolated holiday while everyone else suffers? That doesn't sound familiar at all... With a big ensemble cast including Tony Hale, Zosia Mamet, and stars from Derry Girls and Sex Education, this is set to be a darkly comedic tale of class disparity. Fun fact: New Zealand author Fiona Farrell's contemporary version of The Decameron, called The Deck and set during Covid lockdown was published last year.
The Perfect Couple
Nantucket? Elin Hilderbrand. With countless (and by that I mean too many for me to bother counting) books set there, the romance author has practically become synonymous with the upscale Massachusetts island, but Netflix’s adaptation of The Perfect Couple will mark the first time her work has graced the screen. The 2018 novel was also Hilderbrand’s first foray into mystery writing: in the lead-up to a lavish summer wedding, a body is found on the beach just hours before the ceremony, and suddenly everyone in attendance is being questioned. The series boasts quite the star-studded cast, featuring Eve Hewson, Jack Raynor, Dakota Fanning, Meghann Fahy, Liev Schreiber, and Nicole Kidman in yet another terrible wig.
The Outrun
One of the big films hitting NZIFF this year, The Outrun is an adaptation of Amy Liptrot's award-winning memoir of the same name, her own deeply affecting story of recovery from alcohol addiction. The ever-fantastic Saoirse Ronan stars as Rona who, after hitting rock bottom in London and completing rehab treatment, returns home to the Orkney Islands in Scotland to reconcile her past. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January, earning pretty good reviews with particular notice for (no surprises here) Ronan's "phenomenal" and "transcendent" performance; a fifth Oscar nomination for the 30-year-old next year seems entirely possible, just to make us all feel very unaccomplished.
Bad Monkey
Apple TV+ is serving up only the second Carl Hiaasen adaptation ever with Bad Monkey, 28 years after the Striptease film starring Demi Moore. The series, based on Bad Monkey, is spearheaded by Ted Lasso and Shrinking showrunner Bill Lawrence, with Vince Vaughn in the lead role and executive producing. It follows Andrew, a cop who's recently been axed from the Miami police department and is now working as a health inspector in the Keys. When he happens upon a severed human arm with a dodgy explanation behind it, he's convinced that proving a murder will be his route back to a detective job, but he has to contend with a colourful cast of Floridian characters, including the eponymous primate.
A Mistake
The adaptation of Wellington author Carl Shuker’s novel A Mistake premiered to positive reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival in June this year and is now coming home to Aotearoa to play at NZIFF. Elizabeth Banks, reportedly sporting a pretty convincing kiwi accent (we’ll be the judges of that), stars as Liz, a respected surgeon who allows her student doctor to assist with an operation, but when he makes a mistake that may have contributed to the patient’s death, the consequences send Liz’s life into disarray. The bleak medical drama brings an end to a 16-year hiatus for homegrown writer and director Christine Jeffs, whose last work was the Amy Adams and Emily Blunt-led Sunshine Cleaning in 2008.
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