Books To Screen 2020
**THIS POST IS NOT UPDATED! The pandemic changed a lot of plans and release dates for these projects. It also gave me some time to make changes, like starting a second blog ‘ALISON IN LIBRARYLAND‘. It’s fully dedicated to books and movies, including an up-to-date and monitored 2020 Books To Movie and TV Adaptaions post.**
Ever since I was little I have loved to read. I get it from my parents, who are even bigger readers than I am. So maybe it’s genetics or maybe it’s the fact that I grew up with no other choice. Down time? On vacation? Before bed? The answer was always reading.
As I grew up I also fell in love with movies and theater and every kind of story-telling. These days those two things go hand in hand, especially thanks to the streaming world.
Because of all those things I have also always been a ‘read the book’ first kind of person. I won’t watch whatever the ~screen~ version is until I’ve read the book. So sometimes I’m very delayed lol but I need to experience those projects both ways.
2020 is an INCREDIBLE year for books to screen releases. For the past few years I’ve done smaller posts on this same subject but I was splitting them up between tv & movies, and also only picking the few I was most interested in. As I fell down the rabbit hole this year though, finding project after project after project, it felt too overwhelming to narrow it down.
–7 Books To Read Before The Movie Comes Out In 2018
–10 Books To Read Before The Movie Is Released: 2019
–9 Books To Read Before The TV Show Premieres: 2019
Instead I decided to just make a masterlist of everything I found. I also decided it wasn’t worth splitting up by tv or movie. Between streaming & theaters, movies & shows & mini-series, there’s no set categories anymore. Books to screen projects have so many options these days which is why I think we’re seeing so many more and also such great quality.
So here’s my ultimate list of Books To Screen 2020 releases.
Dare Me by Megan Abbot (Trailer)
Release Info: Premieres December 29, 2019 on USA Network
Summary: “Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy’s best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they’re seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls — until the young new coach arrives.”
Starring: Willa Fitzgerald, Herizen Guardiola, Marlo Kelly
Notes: I’m cheating a bit since this *technically* starts before 2020 but I decided one episode before the new year doesn’t really count. As someone who was a cheerleader when I was in high school, I was ALL OVER this book when it first came out. Like most Megan Abbot it’s pretty dark and it looks like the tv show is staying very true to that.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (Trailer)
Release Info: January 10, Theater
Summary: “Just Mercy shadows world-renowned civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson as he recounts his experiences and details the case of a condemned death row prisoner whom he fought to free.”
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson
The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme Book 1) by Jeffery Deaver (Trailer)
Release Info: January 10, premieres on NBC
Summary: “Lincoln Rhyme was once a brilliant criminologist, a genius in the field of forensics—until an accident left him physically and emotionally shattered. But now a diabolical killer is challenging Rhyme to a terrifying and ingenious duel of wits. With police detective Amelia Sachs by his side, Rhyme must follow a labyrinth of clues that reaches back to a dark chapter in New York City’s past.”
Starring: Russell Hornsby, Arielle Kebbel
The Outsider by Stephen King (Trailer)
Release Info: January 12, premieres on HBO
Summary: “An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens—Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. As the investigation expands and horrifying details begin to emerge. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.”
Starring: Ben Mendelsohn, John Gettier, Marc Menchaca, Jason Bateman
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Trailer)
Release Info: January 17, Theater
Summary: “After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Victorian England, hermits himself away behind the high walls of Dolittle Manor with only his menagerie of animals for company. But when Queen Victoria falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure, regaining his wit and courage as he crosses old adversaries and encounters wondrous creatures”
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Emma Thompson, Rami Malek
The Turning (The Turn of the Screw) by Henry James (Trailer)
Release Info: January 24, Theater
Summary:”The Turning takes us to a mysterious estate in the Maine countryside, where newly appointed nanny Kate is charged with the care of two disturbed orphans, Flora and Miles. Quickly though, she discovers that both the children and the house are harboring dark secrets and things may not be as they appear.”
Starring: Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince
Notes: I know this is a classic but even just the trailer was WAY too scary for me🙈
The Stranger by Harlan Coban (Trailer)
Release Info: January 30, Netflix
Summary: “The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar, or a parking lot, or at the grocery store. Their identity is unknown. Their motives are unclear. The information is undeniable. Then they whisper a few words in your ear and disappear, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world…”
Starring: Richard Armitage, Hannah John-Kamen, Dervla Kirwan
The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell (Trailer)
Release Info: January 31, Theater
Summary: “Stephanie Patrick is devastated after her whole family dies in a plane crash. But when she discovers that the downing of flight NE027 wasn’t an accident but an act of terrorism, Stephanie enters the fight of her life to achieve her one goal: revenge. When she’s recruited by a covert intelligence organization, Stephanie sees a means to an end. But as her missions become more brutal, and the stakes grow ever higher, she begins to question everything she knows about flight NEO027.”
Starring: Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown
Notes: Some of you may recognize this one because it was first featured in last years post. It was delayed though after Blake Lively got hurt during filming so now it’s a 2020 release!
The Call Of The Wild by Jack London (Trailer)
Release Info: February 21, Theater
Summary: “A gripping tale of a heroic dog that, thrust into the brutal life of the Alaska Gold Rush, ultimately faces a choice between living in man’s world and returning to nature.”
Starring: Harrison Ford
The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion(Trailer)
Release Info: February 21, Netflix
Summary: “Elena McMahon, estranged from a life of celebrity fundraisers and from her powerful West Coast husband, Wynn Janklow, whom she has left, taking Catherine, her daughter, to become a reporter for The Washington Post. Suddenly walking off the 1984 campaign, she finds herself boarding a plane for Florida to see her father, Dick McMahon. It is from this moment that she is caught up in something much larger than she could have imagined, something that includes Ambassador-at-Large Treat Austin Morrison and Alexander Brokaw, the ambassador to an unnamed Caribbean island. ”
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (Trailer)
Release Info: February 28, Theater
Summary: “An optics scientist who discovers a method of rendering the body invisible. Successfully completing the procedure on himself, he quickly finds that he is unable to reverse the effect. Initially, he delights in the advantages of his invisibility, but his subsequent descent into madness and violence have captivated generations of horror readers. When Cecilia’s abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.”
Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Storm Reid
Notes: The movie isn’t an adaptaion, but a modern story based on a similar premise. Which is fine because I don’t really remember the original book lol. The movie looks SO GOOD though!
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (Trailer)
Release Info: Amazon Prime, March 13
Summary: “When an elderly priest is murdered, the killer searches the victim so roughly that his already ragged cassock is torn in the process. What was the killer looking for? And what had a dying woman confided to the priest on her deathbed only hours earlier? Mark Easterbrook and his sidekick Ginger Corrigan are determined to find out. Maybe the three women who run The Pale Horse public house, and who are rumored to practice the “Dark Arts,” can provide some answers?”
Starring: Rufus Sewell, Kaya Scodelario, Sheila Atim
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (Trailer)
Release Info: March 13, Disney+
Summary: “Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’ s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first. Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. ”
Starring: Grace VanderWaal, Giancarlo Esposito
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Trailer)
Release Info: March 18, Hulu
Summary: “Follow the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. The story explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger in believing that following the rules can avert disaster.”
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Joshua Jackson
The Council Of Dads by Bruce Feiler (Trailer)
Release Info: March 24, NBC
Summary: “When author Bruce Feiler discovered he had cancer he was worried about his daughters growing up without him by their sides to advise them. Just days afterward, the best-selling Brooklyn author came up with the idea of asking six friends to look out for his daughters should he not survive.”
Starring: Clive Standen, Sarah Wayne Callies, Michael O’Neill
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman (Trailer)
Release Info: March 26, Netflix
Summary: “As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. It was stolen moments spent with the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott that helped her to imagine an alternative way of life. Trapped as a teenager in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage to a man she barely knew, the tension between Deborah’s desires and her responsibilities as a good Satmar girl grew more explosive until she gave birth at nineteen and realized that, for the sake of herself and her son, she had to escape.”
Starring: Shira Haas, Amit Rahav, Jeff Wilbusch
Defending Jacob by William Landay
Release Info: April 24, Apple TV
Summary: “Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for two decades. Then Andy’s quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: a young boy stabbed to death in a leafy park. And an even greater shock: The accused is Andy’s own son—shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob. Andy believes in Jacob’s innocence. Any parent would. But the pressure mounts. Damning evidence. Doubt. A faltering marriage. The neighbors’ contempt. A murder trial that threatens to obliterate Andy’s family.”
Starring: Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, Jaeden Martell
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb (Trailer)
Release Info: April 27, HBO
Summary: “Middle-aged Dominick Birdsey recounts his troubled relationship with Thomas, his paranoid schizophrenic twin brother, and his efforts to get him released from an asylum.”
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Melissa Leo, Kathryn Hahn
The Good Shepherd (Greyhound) by C.S. Forester (Trailer)
Release Info: May 8, Theater
Summary: “A convoy of thirty-seven merchant ships is ploughing through icy, submarine-infested North Atlantic seas during the most critical days of World War II. In charge is Commander George Krause, an untested veteran of the U.S. Navy. Hounded by a wolf pack of German U-boats, he faces 48 hours of desperate peril trapped the bridge of the ship. Exhausted beyond measure, he must make countless and terrible decisions as he leads his small fighting force against the relentless U-boats.”
Starring: Tom Hanks, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Elisabeth Shue
The Woman In The Window by A.J. Finn (Trailer)
Release Info: May 15, Theater
Summary: “Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.”
Starring: Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Notes: This was originally scheduled for a 2019 release but delayed for reshoots. Usually that’s a warning but I love the cast enough that I’m not too worried. It has major Gone Girl vibes!
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (TrailerF)
Release Info: May 29, Theater
Summary: “Artemis Fowl II , a young Irish criminal mastermind, kidnaps the fairy LEPrecon officer Captain Holly Short for ransom to fund the search for his missing father in order to restore the family fortune.”
Starring: Ferdia Shaw, Judi Dench, Lara McDonnell, Josh Gad
Notes: This one keeps getting delayed so keep an eye out for updates😬 Also, it’s being directed by Kenneth Branagh which is why I will be seeing it!
How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran
Release Info: July 3, Theater(UK only so far)
Summary: “The novel charts the journey of teenager Johanna Morrigan, who reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde: fast-talking, lady sex-adventurer, moves to London, and gets a job as music critic in the hope of saving her poverty stricken family in Wolverhampton.”
Starring: Beanie Feldstein, Emma Thompson, Jameela Jamil
Infinite (The Reincarnationist Papers) by D. Eric Maikranz
Release Info: August 7, Theater
Summary: “Evan Michaels struggles with being different, with having the complete memories of two other people who lived sequentially before him. He fights loneliness and believes his ‘condition’ is unique until he meets Poppy. She recognizes his struggle because she has the same ‘condition’, except that she is much older, remembering back seven consecutive lives. But there is something else she must share with Evan – she is a member of a secret society of others like them. They are, in effect, near immortals – compiling experiences and skills over lifetimes into near superhuman abilities that they have used to drive history toward their own agenda on a longer timeline.”
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Dylan O’Brien, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Without Remorse by Tom Clancy
Release Info: September 18, Theater
F
Summary: “His code name is Mr. Clark. His work for the CIA is brilliant, cold-blooded and efficient…But who is he really? In a harrowing tour de force, Tom Clancy shows how an ordinary man named John Kelly crossed the lines of justice and morality to become the CIA legend, Mr. Clark. It is an unforgettable journey into the heart of darkness. Without mercy. Without remorse.”
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Jodie Turner-Smith
Death On The Nile by Agatha Christie
Release Info: October 9, Theater
Summary: “The tranquility of a cruise along the Nile was shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway had been shot through the head. She was young, stylish, and beautiful. A girl who had everything…until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalled an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger. Yet in this exotic setting nothing is ever quite what it seems.”
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Annette Bening
Notes: Agatha Christie has been one of my mom’s favorite authors since she was little, so I also got to grow up with all of these books. Kenneth Branagh did a fabulous job with Murder on the Orient Express so I can’t wait for this next Hercule Poirot!
Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith
Release Info: November 13, Theater
Summary: “Vic and Melinda Van Allen’s loveless marriage is held together only by a precarious arrangement whereby, in order to avoid the messiness of divorce, Melinda is allowed to take any number of lovers as long as she does not desert her family. Eventually, Vic can no longer suppress his jealousy and tries to win back his wife by asserting himself through a tall tale of murder—one that soon comes true.”
Starring: Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
Release Info: November 2020, Netflix
Summary: “The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.”
Starring: Amy Adams, Haley Bennet, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso
Directed by Ron Howard
Dune by Frank Herbert
Release Info: December 18, Theater
Summary: “Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for….When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. ”
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgård, Jason Momoa
Notes: This is one of the biggest releases of the year, with a cast to match. I haven’t read it yet but Dune is very high up on my ‘read-next’ list.
News Of The World by Paulette Jiles
Release Info: December 25, Theater
Summary: ” Set in the late 1860s, after the Civil War, while Texas was under martial law, the story centers on the return of a young girl to her family after her kidnapping by the Kiowa.”
Starring: Tom Hanks, Neil Sandilands, Thomas Francis Murphy
~Waiting For Release Dates~Books To Screen 2020~
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
Release Info: Netflix, Spring 2020
Summary: “Abandoned by their ill-humored parents to the care of an odious nanny, Tim, the twins, Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and their sister, Jane, attempt to fulfill their roles as good old-fashioned children. However, it is an unquestionably ruthless act that sets in motion the transformations that lead to their salvation and to happy endings for not only the four children, but their nanny, an abandoned baby, a candy magnate, and his long-lost son too. Replete with a tongue-in-cheek glossary and bibliography, this hilarious and decidedly old-fashioned parody pays playful homage to classic works of children’s literature.”
Starring/Voices: Martin Short, Maya Rudolph, Terry Crews, Alessia Cara
Notes: Animated!
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid
Release Info: Netflix
Summary: “An unexpected detour causes a woman who is trying to figure out how to break up with her boyfriend to rethink her life.”
Starring: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
Release Info: Netflix
Summary: “A single mother, whose world is thrown off kilter when she begins an affair with her new boss David and matters take an even stranger turn when she’s drawn into an unlikely friendship with his wife Adele. What starts as an unconventional love triangle soon becomes a dark, psychological tale of suspense and twisted revelations, as Louise finds herself caught in a dangerous web of secrets where nothing and no-one is what they seem”
Starring: Simona Brown, Eve Hewson, Tom Bateman
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Release Info: Late 2020
Summary: “This post-apocalyptic tale follows Augustine, a lonely scientist in the Arctic, as he races to stop Sully and her fellow astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe.”
Starring: George Clooney(also directing), Felicity Jones, Kyle Chandler
Notes: I first heard about Good Morning, Midnight because it was a ‘if you liked Station Eleven, check this out’ recommendation. Station Eleven happens to be one of my all time absolute favorite books so I’ve got high hopes.
The Devil All The Time by Donald Ray Pollack
Release Info: Netflix
Summary: “Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.”
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård, Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan
The Stand by Stephen King
Release Info: CBS All Access
Summary: “King’s apocalyptic vision of a world decimated by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil. The fate of mankind rests on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail and a handful of survivors. Their worst nightmares are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the Dark Man.”
Starring: James Marsden, Whoopi Goldberg, Greg Kinnear
Normal People by Sally Rooney (Trailer)
Release Info: Hulu
Summary: “Follows Marianne and Connell, from different backgrounds but the same small town in Ireland, as they weave in and out of each other’s romantic lives. Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.”
Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Paul Mescal
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Release Info: BBC
Summary: “It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to stake his claim in New Zealand’s booming gold rush. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: a wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous cache of gold has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky.”
Starring: Himesh Patel, Ewen Leslie, Benedict Hardie
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Release Info: Amazon
Summary: “Cora is a young slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him.”
Starring: Aaron Pierre, Thuso Mbedu, Joel Edgerton, William Jackson Harper
Directed by Barry Jenkins.
~Alison
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Wow, that’s a lot of books being turned into movies/tv shows! I’m just a bit confused by The Bone Collector because there was one with Denzel Washington not THAT long ago. I’m a bit perplexed at the amount of remakes we’re seeing even of movies that are not 50 years old or so. (Also the High Fidelity tv show despite the movie not being super old.)
There are a lot of really amazing book to screen adaptations on this list — quite a few that I REALLY would love to watch. I am going to have to favorite this post so I can refer back to it! Thanks for sharing all of these!
I need to read The Outsider. I had no idea so many great movies were coming out.
I’m so behind on keeping up with new series and films, but I had no idea so many were based on books. Time to update my reading list!
Wow! I didn’t realize so many books were being turned into movies! I haven’t heard of very many of these either!