Whether you’re a firm believer that the book is always better or forever hoping your favourite novel will be adapted for the screen, there’s no denying book to movie adaptations are a cinema staple. Witnessing our favourite characters, worlds and stories come to life is a magical, albeit sometimes nerve-wracking experience. With the likes of A Wrinkle in Time, Ready Player One, Peter Rabbit and Love, Simon having already graced our screens this year, so far 2018 has proven to be pretty great for book to movie adaptations and with these ten equally wonderful titles still to come to a theatre near you, 2018 has a lot more to give.
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Based on Kevin Kwan’s hilarious bestseller, Crazy Rich Asians follows Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), a young Chinese American NYU economics professor, as she accompanies her boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding) to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding. It’s only when Rachel meets Nick’s family for the first time, that she discovers they’re one of Singapore’s most elite and one of the richest family’s in Asia. Rachel soon finds herself thrust into the lives of Asia’s rich and famous, uncovering the Young’s dark family history and dodging attempts to bring her down made by the ultra elite, ultra jealous women after one of Asia’s most eligible bachelor, her boyfriend.
UK release date: 17th August
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
When Sixteen-year old Korean American teenager Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) falls in love, she writes a letter. In this letter, she pours out her heart and puts on paper everything she wants to but could never say in person. Once written, she tucks it away and tries to move on. These letters are for her and her only, at least they were, until the letters she’s written to her crushes of the past and present are mysteriously sent out to each boy in question. Based on the wonderfully funny and adorable YA trilogy from New York Times best-selling author Jenny Han, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is a must watch (and read) this summer.
UK release date: 15th August, Netflix
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Set in an America in which a mysterious disease has killed most of the countries children, Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds follows sixteen-year-old Ruby (Amandla Stenberg) along with a number of children who managed to survive the virus but have emerged with something far worse, frightening abilities they cannot control. Pressured by the government, Ruby’s parents send her to Thurmond, a brutal state ‘rehabilitation camp’, where she learns to fear and suppress her new power. But what if mastering it is a whole generation’s only chance for survival?
UK release date: 10th August.
US release date: 3rd August
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
The night Cameron Post’s parents died, her first emotion was relief. Relief they would never know that hours earlier, she’d been kissing a girl. Now living with her conservative Aunt in small-town Montana, hiding her sexuality and blending in becomes second nature to Cameron (Chloë Grace Mortez) until she begins an intense relationship with the beautiful new girl in town. Desperate to ‘correct’ her niece, Cameron’s Aunt takes drastic action, sending her to ‘Promise’ a camp that practices ‘gay conversion’ therapy. Set from 1989 until 1993 and based on the hard-hitting and devastating novel by Emily M. Danforth, The Miseducation of Cameron Post follows Cameron from the age of 12 as she discovers herself, her sexuality and what life is like for a girl who likes girls, when living in a small town world filled with people who will fight who she is at every turn.
UK release date: 31st August
US release date: 3rd August
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
After Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is the sole witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed childhood best friend at the hands of a white police officer, the already uneasy balance between her two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs, is shattered. The world wants to know what really happened and Starr has a big decision to face. Whatever she decides to say could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give is a powerful and raw story following one girl’s struggle for justice and the repercussions of fighting for what’s right.
UK release date: 19th October
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
Described as a ‘musical comedy’ and featuring music from Dolly Parton herself, Dumplin’ follows the self-proclaimed fat girl and shameless Dolly Parton fangirl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed ‘Dumplin’’ by her former beauty queen mom played by Jennifer Aniston). Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald) has always been at home in her own skin; her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked out. That is until Willowdean meets private school attendee and hot former jock, Bo and rather than finding new heights of self-assurance in their mutual attraction, she starts to doubt herself. In retaliation to this new surge of self-consciousness, Willowdean decides to take a stand and sets out to steal back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: signing up for her mom’s Miss Teen Bluebonnet beauty pageant. Willowdean’s protest quickly escalates as several other unlikely contestants follow her lead and in turn, show the world that they deserve to be up there as much as anyone.
UK release date: October 2018
Mowgli aka The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
With multiple adaptations already under its belt, from the 1967 Disney animation to the 2016 live action movie, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling is no stranger to the screen. However, this October The Jungle Book will be brought to life in it’s most faithful adaptation yet in Mowgli. Following the books infamous characters, Mowgli (Rohan Chand), Bagheera (Christian Bale), Baloo (Andy Serkis), Nisha (Naomie Harris) and Shere Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch), director Andy Serkis promises a “darker” and more “serious” adaptation in comparison to its predecessors.
UK release date: 19th October
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Based on E.T.A Hoffman’s The Nutcracker and the Mouse and Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet, The Nutcracker, Disney’s upcoming The Nutcracker and the Four Realms follows Clara (Mackenzie Foy) after she discovers a Nutcracker doll among the family’s Christmas gifts and her parents put her in charge of taking special care of it. Soon Clara finds herself transported into a dark and magical world of the gingerbread men soldiers, the Sugar Plum Fairy (Kiera Knightly), ballet and an army of talking mice.
UK release date: 2nd November
The Grinch by Dr. Seuss
We return to Whoville this November with The Grinch, an animated adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss. Once again, this bizarre and wonderful children’s book isn’t a movie amateur, with the 2000 live-action movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas and the 1966 TV special of the same name being Christmas classics. Being adapted to the screen for the third time, The Grinch follows Grinch (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he hatches an evil plan with his trusty dog, Max, to ruin Christmas for the Whos of Whoville. Meanwhile, Cindy Lou Who decides to find Santa Clause to thank him for helping her single Mother at Christmas, concocting a plan that threatens to interfere with the Grinch’s schemes.
With Benedict Cumberbatch being the only cast member credited thus far, it’s unclear how close this adaptation will be to the original story. What we do know, however, is that baby Grinch is absolutely adorable…
UK release date: 9th November
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindelwald by J.K. Rowling
Based on the renowned Hogwarts textbook, The Crimes of Grindelwald (the second instalment in J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film series) will hit our screens as the tenth film in the Harry Potter franchise. Set during the aftermath of the events of the first film, The Crimes of Grindelwald follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) as they attempt to take down the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) after he escapes the custody the Magical Congress of the United States of America. Despite copious and continuous justified requests for a recast of Johnny Depp as Grindelwald being frustratingly denied, the brief glimpse of Hogwarts, Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange and the wizarding world in Paris, all offer hope to make up for the unfavourable Grindelwald casting and a magical second film following the wizarding world’s most infamous Hufflepuff.
UK release date: 16th November