Jump to navigation Skip to content
In this film adaptation of Lee Israel’s memoir of the same name, Melissa McCarthy plays Israel who has made a living as a celebrity biographer but turns to forgery when her career takes a downturn. Directed by Marielle Heller, the film also stars Jane Curtin, Richard E. Grant, and Dolly Wells.
Beautiful Boy is adapted from the memoirs Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction (Houghton Mifflin, 2008) by David Sheff and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines (Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008) by Nic Sheff, and chronicles a family coping with addiction over many years. Starring Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Amy Ryan, and Maura Tierney, the film is directed by Felix Van Groeningen.
William Giraldi’s 2014 novel, Hold the Dark, has been adapted into a film for Netflix. Directed by Jeremy Saulnier, the film stars Riley Keough, Alexander Skarsgård, and Jeffrey Wright. Giraldi is a frequent contributor to Poets & Writers Magazine, most recently with “The Art of Reading James Baldwin” in the November/December 2017 issue.
Bel Canto, the award-winning novel by Ann Patchett, has been adapted into a feature film directed by Paul Weitz. Julianne Moore stars as Roxanne Coss, an opera singer who is held hostage after she performs a private concert at a birthday party for a wealthy Japanese businessman, played by Ken Watanabe.
The Wife (Scribner, 2003), Meg Wolitzer’s novel about a devoted wife looking back on life choices and sacrifices as her husband is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Björn Runge, the film stars Glenn Close, Max Irons, Elizabeth McGovern, Jonathan Pryce, and Christian Slater.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness (Free Press, 2012), Susannah Cahalan’s memoir about her experience as a young journalist struggling with the diagnosis of a rare and mysterious neurological disease, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Gerard Barrett, the film stars Richard Armitage, Thomas Mann, Chloë Grace Moretz, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tyler Perry, and Jenny Slate.
Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked (Riverhead Books, 2009), a novel about a couple whose relationship is altered by a reclusive singer-songwriter’s album, has been adapted into a film. Directed by Jesse Peretz, the film stars Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, and Chris O’Dowd.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a film loosely based on Miguel de Cervantes’s classic seventeenth century novel Don Quixote, premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival after a well-documented decades-long production battle. Directed by Terry Gilliam, the film stars Adam Driver, Olga Kurylenko, Jonathan Pryce, and Stellan Skarsgård.
Boy Erased is a film based on Garrard Conley’s 2016 coming-of-age memoir of the same name. Lucas Hedges stars as a young man who is forced by his fundamental Baptist parents, played by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, to attend a gay conversion therapy program. The film is written and directed by Joel Edgerton, who also costars as the program’s head therapist.
Adapted from the 1978 novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, The Bookshop is set in 1959 England and follows a free-spirited widow who opens a bookshop in a conservative coastal town and is met with opposition by a local grand dame. Directed by Isabel Coixet, the film stars Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer, and Bill Nighy.
![CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? | Official Trailer [HD] | FOX Searchlight](https://www.pw.org/files/styles/video_thumb_medium/public/media-oembed/i.ytimg.com/vi/UvJIaNsf_bY/hqdefault.jpg?itok=Bs9uOQPA)
![Hold The Dark | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix](https://www.pw.org/files/styles/video_thumb_medium/public/media-oembed/i.ytimg.com/vi/OFAwDO6b5KI/hqdefault.jpg?itok=j9tK3HQh)
![Brain On Fire | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix](https://www.pw.org/files/styles/video_thumb_medium/public/media-oembed/i.ytimg.com/vi/VZn6G0M9wNs/hqdefault.jpg?itok=4b1iKCYA)
![BOY ERASED – Official Trailer [HD] – In Theaters November](https://www.pw.org/files/styles/video_thumb_medium/public/media-oembed/i.ytimg.com/vi/-B71eyB_Onw/hqdefault.jpg?itok=_-wDQN5I)
