1 March 2018

10 Upcoming Adaptations to Get Excited About



We both LOVE to watch the Oscars and with the award show upon us (Sunday night people) we thought we'd share some upcoming movies being adapted from books for you all to get excited about.  So here's our take on casting, directors, and whether we think these adaptations will be a hit or a flop. You can also check out our favourite and least favourite adaptations here. 



I regret not putting this book on my Christmas list because I have known about it and wanted to read it for a while. I honestly love learning about other cultures when there's a playful, funny spin on it. While this is fiction it is based loosely on the author's life growing up in Singapore. I think this book will be a breath of fresh air from the stuff I usually read and I anticipate the movie will feel the same way. It feel confident it's not going to win any major awards but I think it will be a really fun, lighthearted and girly movie. I'm really excited to read this and watch the adaptation... stay tuned for a dual review.

This adaptation was made for me. Not only does it star Dakota Fanning, but it is also the DIRECTORIAL DEBUT OF KIRSTEN DUNST, THE LOVE OF MY LIFE. I have been following Dunst's career my entire life - as a child I was obsessed with Kiki's Delivery Service, I literally became a cheerleader because of my pre-teen obsession with Bring It On, and have been watching her ever since. Her performance in Lars Von Trier's Melancholia floored me. ANYWAYS, I also really loved Sylvia Plath's only fiction book, and it is one of those books that every woman will read at some point in their lives. I hope this is a successful adaption, and I will actually fight to the death to see this movie (here's hoping for a premiere at TIFF 18). The only downside is that Dunst has cast her husband, and father of her first to-be-born child, Jesse Plemons (who Meg and I hate). This was originally on Meg's list but I called her a bitch and told her how dare she take this from me.


I've posted a review for this book already but there is a movie adaptation set to come out sometime this year. It looks fantastic, starring my two favourite Rachels (Weisz and McAdams). I liked the book but it was really religion heavy for me and wasn't as focused on the relationships as I expected. The trailer for the movie definitely looks more relationship focused so I expect I'll like the movie better. One concern I have is that I don't know the director at all and he's also written the screenplay...








I bought this as soon as my friend Katie told me that they were adapting it and that Rooney Mara would star in it. Mara is one of my favourite actresses and I am excited about every project she picks up. This book is also one of those Canada Read things because it's about a Canadian girl who was abducted while working in Somalia and held hostage. My only concern with the book is that while Amanda Lindhout is supposedly a writer, she has a co-writer on the book. Garth David (who directed Lion, a film we were lucky to see at TIFF two years ago) is attached to direct.







I'm not super into biographies so I don't expect to read this at all. I always prefer the person write about themselves. The movie however is guaranteed to be amazing. Firstly, Ryan Gosling is playing NEIL ARMSTRONG. I love space. I love Ryan Gosling. Damien Chazelle is directing this and he is honestly a real surprise act. He directed Whiplash, then La La Land (a musical), and now an astronaut's biopic. So quite the repertoire for the ripe age of ~30 but I'm not complaining, I love his movies. As I write this part of me feels my whole life has been leading up to a Neil Armstrong biopic. This can't come soon enough.

This is a book I don't even own yet, but will be buying ASAP. My boyfriend actually pointed this adaptation out to me because it stars Nicole Kidman (an actress we love) AND Lucas Hedges (a new-to-Hollywood-but-killing-every-role-he-is-in actor we also love). This is an adaptation of Garrard Conley's memoir about his experience growing up gay in a super religious household. He is essentially told that if he doesn't go to a gay conversion camp than he can forget about being apart of the family. I already know I will sob my eyes out at the book, and can't imagine how I'll handle it in the theatre. I also think Hedges will do such a great job in this role because he plays a closeted gay student in Greta Gerwig's Ladybird and I cried at the 30 second scene he does.




This isn't technically a book adaptation but it is a biopic on an author I'm fascinated with so I'm counting it anyways. It's my blog after all. Elle Fanning plays Mary Shelley and the movie follows her love affair with Percy Shelley which resulted in her writing Frankenstein. I feel like I've met people who either really hate or really love Frankenstein and I'm definitely in the latter category. It's the ultimate feminist novel in my opinion. Meghan is a lot more into Elle Fanning than I am but I will agree she's going to be amazing in this role. This is another where I'm admittedly concerned because I don't know the director who is also the writer...







This book is apparently not even written yet, but all the research is done and director Adam McKay has sat down with the journalist and has looked at his notes so that he could write the script. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in Silicon Valley is about Elizabeth Holmes and her experience with her less-than-functional blood-testing machines that she sold in Silicon Valley. This is the movie that can save everything that disappointed me with David O' Russell's Joy. I literally walked around telling people that Joy was going to change my life ... it didn't. I think Adam McKay is a perfect person to attach to this movie. I loved The Big Short so much, and Holmes' story is very much up his alley. I also think Jennifer Lawrence is a phenomenal actress and will kill this role. LET THE OSCARS ROLL IN!




I'm actually excited about this movie coming out because, as you know if you read our TIFF adaptations list, I was bored to literal death of this book. What you'll also know if you read that is that I likely read this book too young to grasp the subject matter... but it was so boring I honestly don't think I can give it a second chance. The plot is about a couple who near kill their marriage because they're both so scared of sex. It sounds good in theory but because I didn't love the book, I'm glad they've adapted it. Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle play the couple. I am a big Saoirse fan so I'm excited about this casting. I also think it's interesting that Ian McEwan who wrote the book also wrote the screenplay, this is a bit of a rarity (and hopefully doesn't mean the movie is a total bore also). The trailer was actually just recently released and unfortunately, it looks like the film could be a big bore as well. 

This is in my top three books of all time. I loved Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch so much and I honestly think about it once a week. It has actually shaped the way I think about my life ... and I am not being dramatic. So obviously I am looking forward to the movie adaptation, but am also terrified for the source material. I think it's incredibly difficult to adapt certain novels, especially when they carry such a "literary weight." I can't help but think about Ewan McGregor's failed attempt to adapt Philip Roth's American Pastoral - a Pultizer Prize winner just like The Goldfinch. ANYWAYS, anxiety aside, I am excited. I am a bit skeptical with the casting of Ansel Elgort for the main character, but I am ready for him to impress me. I am confident in the director - it's John Crowley, the guy who directed Brooklyn. But I am terrified that the script writer is the same guy who wrote the Michael Fassbender thriller The Snowman ... known for it's horrible writing / plot. The rest of the cast I love: Nicole Kidman, Luke Wilson, Sarah Paulson... I am just waiting for them to recast Kitsy Barbour with Elle Fanning and then I will be 100% on board.

I mean, come on right? We had to include this. We are both obsessed with a fully made up (by us) genre of movies which we've named "animal horror." Not only does this coincidentally fit right into this genre but it is NAMED AFTER US. Well, it's named after a shark called the Megalodon, but, who cares. We've watched Jaws 100+ times and Jason Statham, the LEAD ACTOR in this, has described this film as Jaws meets Jurassic Park. Sold. While we don't have current plans to read Alten's book that this is being adapted from (something we'll surely regret), we did talk not-so-hypothetically about overthrowing the democracy of our book club and demanding everyone read this instead. There's still time I suppose, don't test us. 

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