Book lovers have a year to savour in store for them at the movie theatre and on streaming. Among the literary giants having their work adapted are Emily Brontë, Margaret Atwood, Enid Blyton, Albert Camus and Don Winslow. Most excitingly, the big dog of epic storytelling, Homer, is getting the IMAX-enhanced Christopher Nolan treatment with this summer’s adaption of The Odyssey. BookTokers, this is your moment.
Wuthering Heights
Emerald Fennell’s literary adaptation is sure to lob a Molotov cocktail in the general direction of early 2026’s cultural discourse. Emily Brontë’s toxic love story is getting a proper Fennelling, with Charlie XCX songs, a buzz-worthy cast (Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi) and provocative quote marks around the title on the poster like you’re supposed to say it in a sarcastic way. Wuthering Heights may be a landmark Romantic novel but it’s not exactly small ’r’ romantic, so that ‘the greatest love story of all time’ tagline may mystify literary types.
In cinemas worldwide Feb 13
Cold Storage
David Koepp adapted Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, but the writer-director has his own Crichton-esque monster tale in the shape of his 2019 novel. It delivers a Cold War-era sci-fi premise in a modern setting, with a military facility breach unleashing a parasitic fungus on employees at a self-storage facility. Liam Neeson, Stranger Things’ Joe Keery and Sosie Bacon will be hoping to swerve the blob. The latter could tap her dad, Tremors star Kevin Bacon, for survival tips.
In cinemas worldwide Feb 13
Crime 101
Don Winslow’s novels have been adapted by Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) and Oliver Stone (Savages). The latest filmmaker to dip into his violent worlds is The Imposter’s Bart Layton, making his overdue comeback with an LA noir take on one of the novellas in Winslow’s 2020 collection Broken: Six Short Novels. It’s a crime thriller for Heat fans, with Chris Hemsworth as a slick jewel thief and Mark Ruffalo as the cop on his trail.
In cinemas worldwide Feb 13
Lord of the Flies (BBC)
Peter Brook’s 1963 film of William Golding’s bleak coming-of-age classic remains a chilling vision of humanity’s innate savagery. Jack Thorne, screenwriter of The Hack, Help and Toxic Town, knows a thing or two about humans in extremis and he’ll be bringing a fresh skew on the Golding classic to this TV adaptation. With a cast of 10-13-year-old first-timers and stunning Malaysian locations, it’ll make for powerful and thought-provoking telly. It could even be this year’s Adolescence.
On BBC and Stan in the spring
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir’s sci-fi novel The Martian made for one of the best Ridley Scott movies in recent years. Now it’s the turn of 21 Jump Street-ers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to alchemise the American writer’s hard science fiction into blockbuster thrills. These two Weir adaptations share a gifted screenwriter, Drew Goddard, who will be giving Ryan Gosling’s teacher-turned-astronaut some big sums to do as he tries to save humanity.
In cinemas worldwide Mar 20
The Magic Faraway Tree
Enid Blyton’s 1940s book series is a bonkers tale about a tree that’s home to an array of out-there characters and the young scamps who climb it. It’s basically Blyton’s Fear and Loathing, or a more vertical Midsummer Night’s Dream – a none-more-English cheddar cheese dream of adventure and escapism up in the clouds. Paddington 2 co-writer Simon Farnaby is behind this modernised adaptation, which should guarantee some excellent jokes.
In UK and Ireland cinemas Mar 27
The Stranger
Boho students, Cure fans and beret-wearing fashionistas rejoice! Albert Camus’s iconic novella of existential disenchantment and post-colonial malaise gets a sauced-up adaptation from François Ozon starring Summer of 85’s Benjamin Voisin as the murderous but misunderstood Meursault. At a slender 159 pages, Camus’s 1942 book is arguably the perfect length for a film adaptation. Ozon could be the perfect filmmaker for the job, too.
In UK and Ireland cinemas Apr 10
The Odyssey
Homer meets Christopher Nolan. Ancient scribe meets cutting-edge filmmaker. Your Classics A-level revision meets salvation. Possibly the most anticipated film of 2026, this foundational text for, well, most storytelling is coming to life in spectacular, IMAX-enhanced life. Matt Damon is Odysseus, returning to his wife (Anne Hathaway) and son (Tom Holland) after years away fighting the Trojan Wars, only to find that getting home is the tricky bit.
In cinemas worldwide Jul 17
Verity
It Ends with Us novelist Colleen Hoover will probably be praying that the latest big-screen adaptation of her work doesn’t end with another ugly legal battle. Director Michael Showalter seems like good vibes, though, and with The Idea of You, he turned fanfic into a thoughtful age-gap romcom. Verity, originally self-published by Hoover in 2018, reunites Showalter with Anne Hathaway for a thriller about a ghost writer (Dakota Johnson) who discovers that a bestselling novelist (Hathaway) is not all she appears.
In cinemas Oct 2
Whalefall
Here’s a question: are you still a whale rider if you’re inside the whale? This is the predicament charted in Daniel Kraus’s 2023 survival novel. Austin Abrams (Weapons) is a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an 80-foot sperm whale and has an hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. Josh Brolin is the diver’s late dad – and ghost dad is the least bananas aspect of this high-concept mash-up of The Big Blue and Buried.
In cinemas Oct 16
Remain
Nicholas Sparks and M Night Shyamalan might sound like the least likely team-up since Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue but this supernatural yarn is apparently the product of several decades of trying for the novelist and filmmaker. Like their novel, the film will follow a grieving architect (Jake Gyllenhaal) who heads to Cape Cod for work, only to meet a mysterious woman (Phoebe Dynevor) who turns his life on its head.
In US cinemas Oct 23
Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol
Finally, A Christmas Carol movie! This new version is the story of a much-maligned character who embarks on a path to possible redemption. Yes, Johnny Depp is following in the footsteps of everyone from Alastair Sim to Michael Caine and playing Dickens’ mean-spirited Ebenezer Scrooge. Intriguingly, this one is directed by MaXXXine’s Ti West, a director with a gift for splashy but inventive horror beats. It might even be scary.
In cinemas worldwide Nov 13
The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping
Suzanne Collins’ second Hunger Games prequel was published in early 2025 but Hollywood waits for no one and lo, here comes the movie adaptation. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes told the story of the young Coriolanus Snow; Sunrise on the Reaping gives us the formative years of Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada), Katniss’s cynical mentor played by Woody Harrelson in the original trilogy. By our calculations, this just leaves a kitten-era back story for Katniss’s cat Buttercup.
In cinemas worldwide Nov 20
The Magician’s Nephew
And we thought it all started with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It may be his sixth novel but The Magician’s Nephew is the real origin tale in CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia book series, so it makes solid sense that the 1955 novel is where Netflix and Greta Gerwig will kick off the new seven-movie fantasy franchise. It’s the story that takes in the creation of Narnia, some young English tykes and that mighty big cat, Aslan.
In cinemas worldwide Nov 26
Dune: Part Three
Paul Atreides’s rise and fall are charted in the third Frank Herbert Dune novel, Dune: Messiah and they, and the Holy War that causes mass destruction across Arrakis and the galaxy, are reputed to form the backbone of Denis Villeneuve’s trilogy closer. But what should be read into the film’s title? Will Part Three dig into Herbert’s Children of Dune (1976) too? Either way, things will get very spicy.
In cinemas worldwide Dec 18
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