10 Book-to-Screen Adaptations We Can't Wait to See in 2023

Coming to Hulu on April 26, Saint X is an eight-episode drama series adapted from Alexis Schaitkin’s acclaimed psychological drama about grief, obsession, and the search for the truth. The series stars Alycia Debnam-Carey (Fear the Walking Dead, The 100) as Emily, a young woman haunted by the unresolved death of her sister at a luxury Caribbean resort many years ago. Emily has worked hard to piece her life back together, but everything comes crashing down after a chance encounter with Clive, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. As Emily begins shadowing Clive, she embarks on an obsessive search for answers — not just about what happened that terrible night but also about who her sister really was. People hailed Schaitkin’s Saint X as “a smart, socially conscious thriller that will take you away.” We can’t wait to see it brought to life on the small screen. If you’re in need of a transfixing narrative to read before the series airs but have already read Saint X, check out Schaitkin’s newest speculative fiction tale, Elsewhere.

Release date: Streaming on Hulu April 26, 2023

Swedish thriller author M. T. Edvardsson’s 2019 character-driven mystery A Nearly Normal Family is getting the Netflix treatment and being released globally as a limited crime drama this year. When 18-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of murdering a much older business man, her father, a pastor, and her mother, a defense attorney, must decide how far they will go to protect their daughter, while trying to learn the truth about what really happened. Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as a “page-turner” and by the Wall Street Journal as “a compulsively readable tour de force,” A Nearly Normal Family is a multi-layered novel that makes you question how well you really know your family. While you’re waiting for the show to air, order a copy of Edvardsson’s new novel, The Woman Inside, coming in June.

Release date: Streaming on Netflix, 2023

Sixth grade in a new town, with new classmates and new middle-school perils? Margaret’s going to need some support. Judy Blume’s beloved coming-of-age novel is headed to the silver screen this spring. The acclaimed narrative follows 12-year-old Margaret Simon, the child of an interfaith marriage who moves from New York to New Jersey and grapples with adolescent anxieties both big and small. Starring Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, and rising star Abby Ryder Forston as Margaret, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret hits theaters in April.

Release date: In theaters April 28, 2023

David Grann’s bestselling true crime narrative Killers of the Flower Moon tracks the rise of the FBI alongside one of the most appalling murder conspiracies in American history. In the 1920s, members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma were thriving thanks to the wealth they accrued from their oil-rich land. Then the Osage people — and members of one family in particular — started dying under mysterious circumstances. The FBI, still in its infancy, took up the case as one of its first major homicide investigations but proved to be poorly suited for the job. Desperate for answers, the FBI’s director, a young J. Edgar Hoover, turned to the Texas Rangers for help, and they went undercover to expose the terrible truth. Grann is an award-winning journalist, and his acclaimed true crime book was a finalist for the National Book Award. Flower Moon’s big-screen adaptation, currently set to release in May, promises to be one of the must-see films of the year, with Martin Scorsese directing and a stacked cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone.

Release date: In theaters May 2023

In the Pulitzer Prize–winning American Prometheus, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin deliver the monumental biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant theoretical physicist who oversaw the development of the atomic bomb. The true-life narrative is set to hit the big screen this July as Oppenheimer. An all-star cast includes Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and Cillian Murphy as the titular physicist, and we have faith that Oppenheimer won’t disappoint.

Release date: In theaters July 21, 2023

In 1985 Alice Walker’s The Color Purple was adapted into a feature film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey. This December, Walker’s American classic will receive its second adaptation, this time as a musical historical drama directed by Blitz Bazawule and starring Fantasia, Colman Domingo, and Taraji P. Henson. The National Book Award–winning novel tells the unforgettable story of two African American sisters in early-20th-century Georgia. Separated as children, Celie and Nettie sustain their bond through a series of letters spanning 20 years. A groundbreaking work of historical fiction that shattered the silence surrounding domestic abuse and sexual violence against women, The Color Purple is a must-read and -watch.

Release date: In theaters December 20, 2023

Laura Dave’s sizzling psychological thriller The Last Thing He Told Me is packed with shocking plot twists and heartfelt family drama. It’s little wonder that the novel shot to the top of the bestseller list last summer — and it will hit the small screen soon. The limited series stars Jennifer Garner as Hannah, a woman whose life is upended by the disappearance of Owen, her husband of one year (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). All Owen leaves behind is an ominous note: “Protect her.” The “her” in question is Owen’s teenage daughter, Bailey, who doesn’t care for Hannah all that much. But the two will have to work together if they hope to get to the bottom of Owen’s disappearance — especially after it becomes clear that Owen had some dark secrets to hide. We can’t wait to see how Dave’s gripping mystery comes to life on Apple TV+. It will hopefully hit the streaming service sometime this spring or summer.

Release date: Streaming on Apple TV+ Spring/Summer 2023

Paul Tremblay’s Stoker Award–winning The Cabin at the End of the World is one of our favorite paranormal books. This winter, the very creepy read will receive the big-screen treatment in an adaptation directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Entitled Knock at the Cabin, the upcoming psychological horror thriller stars Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge as parents vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods with their daughter, Wen. The family’s idyllic escape is soon shattered when armed strangers break into the cabin. After promising Wen that what’s about to happen isn’t her fault, the strangers, led by a hulking figure named Leonard (Dave Bautista), take the family hostage and demand that they make an impossible choice — apparently in order to save the world from an impending apocalypse.

Release date: In theaters February 3, 2023

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss know how to adapt towering fantastical narratives into can’t-miss entertainment. This year, they are set to deliver a small-screen adaptation of Cixin Liu’s renowned Remembrance of Earth’s Past sci-fi trilogy, beginning with The Three-Body Problem this year. In the midst of China’s Cultural Revolution, the military secretly shoots messages into space in hopes of contacting other life. When their efforts reveal a failing alien civilization planning an invasion, Earth’s population separates into two factions: those who support the takeover by higher beings, and those who won’t go down without a fight. Netflix recently announced that The Three-Body Problem will premiere on the platform sometime in 2023, so keep watching the skies!

Release date: Streaming on Netflix 2023

Award-winning sci-fi and fantasy author Neil Gaiman has seen a number of his narratives transformed into acclaimed movies and TV shows, Coraline, Good Omens, and The Sandman, among them. This year, fingers crossed, we’ll get a new Amazon Prime series based on Gaiman’s bestselling fantasy novel Anansi Boys. Charles “Fat Charlie” Nancy’s life is put on hold when his boisterous father dies mid-song at a karaoke bar. Then a brother he never knew turns up on his doorstep, calling himself “Spider.” The two are nothing alike. In fact, Spider is far more like Charlie’s dad — a man who, it turns out, wasn’t just a troublemaker but an incarnation of the trickster god Anansi, manifesting wealth and stirring up rebellion. If the adaptations of Gaiman’s other works are anything to go by, we’re more than ready for another of his dazzling speculative fiction tales to come to life this year. While you wait, check out these stellar books recommended by Gaiman himself.

Release date: Streaming on Amazon Prime 2023

Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi saga Dune was first adapted for the silver screen in 1984 by David Lynch. In 2021 Herbert’s sweeping space narrative received a second film adaptation from Denis Villeneuve. Starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and Stellan Skarsgård, among many others, Villeneuve’s adaptation was a sight to behold and won six Academy Awards. This November Dune Pt. II will pick up where the 2021 film left off, covering roughly the second half of Herbert’s book. The immortal tale is set far in the future and tells the story of Paul Atreides, a young man from a noble bloodline. As Paul’s family is thrown into war over the inhospitable yet highly valuable desert planet Arrakis, Paul sets off on a transcendent quest to defend his family and meet his destiny. Interweaving mysticism with intergalactic adventure and set against a backdrop of war and ecological exploitation, Dune is a literary classic. You won’t want to miss Villeneuve’s second installment when it hits theaters this fall.

Release date: In theaters November 3, 2023