'Little Women' & More Favorite Reads Are Becoming Movies This Year

If you’re the type who prefers to read the book before seeing the movie, get thee to the nearest bookstore or library, because these promising adaptations from top directors and whip-smart writers will wait for no one.

Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell face off as Ann Atwater, a civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, the president of the Ku Klux Klan, in this adaptation  of Osha Gray Davidson’s 1996 nonfiction read. The issue: school integration. The solution: forged cooperation in the face of hate.

In theaters April 5. Get tickets

Yes, it’s been done. But genre fans are excited for this reboot of Stephen King’s classic supernatural novel because Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, the directing team behind one of horror’s most haunting films, Starry Eyes, are running things. Prepare for something special. 

In theaters April 5. Get tickets

Director Ry Russo-Young handled Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall with tremendous care, so we expect the same result when she brings Nicola Yoon’s existential romance about a guy, a girl, and New York to the big screen. Tracy Oliver, a screenwriter for some of your favorite comedies (Girls Trip, anyone?), is adapting the screenplay. 

In theaters May 19. Get tickets

Despite this one’s nearing release date, we still don’t know too much about Ben Taylor’s adaptation of Australian writer Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project, a romantic comedy about a genetics professor who goes about finding a wife the only way he knows how: By conducting a survey. 

In theaters May 19.

Cue the movie franchise: Disney is finally releasing its film version of Eoin Colfer’s 2001 science-fiction fantasy. The first in a series of eight novels, Artemis Fowl follows the exploits of a mini evil genius (described as a preteen Bond villain). Kenneth Branagh directs the adaptation. 

In theaters August 9. Get tickets

The satirical novel that solidified Maria Semple as one of the literary world’s most resonant voices has appropriately captured the attention of one of cinema’s most nuanced voices, Richard Linklater. Cate Blanchett plays the eccentric woman whose vanishing sparks a family adventure. 

In theaters August 9. Get tickets

Andrea Berloff, who wrote the Straight Outta Compton screenplay, is bringing the speech bubbles in Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle’s 2014 graphic novel, The Kitchen, to life. Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss, and Melissa McCarthy will star as the mob wives running their incarcerated husbands’ rackets. 

In theaters September 20.

“Have you read The Goldfinch yet?” It’s a question that circulated friend groups in 2013, separating the “finished it” pals from the “over it” ones. Get ready for a similar inquiry—”Have you seen The Goldfinch yet?”—as Brooklyn‘s John Crowley directs the film version of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer fiction novel about love, loss, and art. Nicole Kidman, Ansel Elgort, and Sarah Paulson star. 

In theaters October 11. 

Like a true Dirty John or the fictional Tom Ripley, Roy Courtnay—if that’s his real name—is an octogenarian aiming for one last big payday. The con artist wooing an affluent woman he met online is at the center of Nicholas Searle’s thriller, with Bill Condon directing the adaptation and Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren starring.

In theaters November 15.

She fought a shark in 2016, and this year she’s taking down the terrorists who murdered her family. Blake Lively stars in this revenge espionage thriller from The Handmaid’s Tale director Reed Morano. It’s backed by James Bond producers and also stars Sterling K. Brown and Jude Law, so it should be a white-knuckler. 

In theaters November 22. 

Ladybird director Greta Gerwig is dusting off her copy of Louisa May Alcott’s classic coming-of-age tale. Saoirse Ronan stars, with Emma Watson, Timothee Chalamet, and even Meryl Streep along for the drama. 

In theaters December 25.

A gangster drama. Starring Robert De Niro. And very few women. It’s beginning to sound a lot like a Martin Scorsese production. A truly legendary director albeit one who doesn’t stray far from the DiCaprio/De Niro watering hole, Scorsese has his adaptation of I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt in the can. And the Hoffa pic is headed straight for Netflix. 

Release date TBD.

Here’s hoping the Edward Norton-directed adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s hard-boiled novel is a puzzle worth solving. The crime drama, about a private detective with Tourette’s trying to unravel the mystery of his only pal’s murder, stars Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and of course Norton himself as the centerpiece: Detective Lionel Essrog. 

Release date TBD.

Source: Read Full Article