Poets & Writers Theater

Living is a film directed by Oliver Hermanus with a screenplay by Nobel Prize–winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru, which was inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Set in 1950s London, Bill Nighy plays a hardworking civil servant who reflects on his life while facing a fatal illness.

Watch the trailer for the film adaptation of Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Other Four-Letter Words (Atria Books, 2017) by Michael Ausiello, starring Jim Parsons, Ben Aldridge, and Sally Field with a screenplay by David Marshall Grant and Dan Savage.

Watch the trailer for Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a new film adaptation of the 1928 novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence. Directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre with a screenplay by David Magee, the movie stars Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell and premieres in December on Netflix.

For a haunting Halloween treat, watch the trailer for Bones and All, a film adaptation of the award-winning 2015 novel of the same name by Camille DeAngelis. Directed by Luca Guadagnino with a screenplay by David Kajganich, the film stars Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, and Mark Rylance.

All Quiet on the Western Front is a Netflix film adaptation of the acclaimed 1929 novel of the same name by German author Erich Maria Remarque. Directed by Edward Berger, the German-language film stars Felix Kammerer, Daniel Brühl, Aaron Hilmer, and Albrecht Schuch.

Watch the trailer for White Noise, a Netflix film adaptation of the 1985 National Book Award-winning novel of the same name by Don DeLillo, written and directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig.

Watch the trailer for Three Thousand Years of Longing, adapted from the title story of A. S. Byatt’s collection of fairy tales for adults, The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye (Random House, 1997), directed by George Miller and starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton.

“From my many wanderings on this earth, I had so much to say about imperfect fathers and imperfect sons, and about loss and love.” In this film adaptation of the classic tale written by Italian writer Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio begins with Gepetto mourning the death of his son and carving a puppet from a tree growing above the boy’s grave. The stop-motion Netflix film is directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, and features a cast including Cate Blanchett, David Bradley, and Ewan McGregor.

Watch the trailer for Blonde, a film adaptation of the best-selling 2000 historical novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. Directed by Andrew Dominik, the film stars Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe and will be released on Netflix this fall.

Drive My Car is a film adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story of the same name, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and starring Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura. The film, which won best screenplay at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and the 2022 Oscar for best international feature film, follows the relationship between a widowed theater actor-director and a young woman hired to be his chauffeur.

“The crime is murder.” Watch the trailer for the film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery novel Death on the Nile, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Gal Gadot, and Armie Hammer.

After Yang, a film adaptation of Alexander Weinstein’s short story “Saying Goodbye to Yang” from his collection Children of the New World (Picador, 2016), follows a family conflicted with how to repair their android companion. Starring Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith, the film is directed by Kogonada and will be in theaters and available to stream on March 4.

Starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, and Rooney Mara, Nightmare Alley is a film adaptation of the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, the film follows an ambitious carnival performer with a talent for manipulating people who meets a corrupt and dangerous psychiatrist.

The Lost Daughter is a film adaptation of the 2008 novel of the same name by Elena Ferrante. Directed and written by Maggie Gyllenhaal, the cast includes Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, and Peter Sarsgaard.

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” Watch the trailer for The Tragedy of Macbeth, a film based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare, written and directed by Joel Coen and starring Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, and Corey Hawkins.

Watch the trailer for Passing, a film written and directed by Rebecca Hall and starring Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson, based on the celebrated 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen, a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance and American modernism. 

The Power of the Dog is a film written and directed by Jane Campion, adapted from the 1967 novel of the same name by Thomas Savage. The dark Western stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Flag Day is a film adaptation of Jennifer Vogel’s 2005 memoir, Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father’s Counterfeit Life, directed by Sean Penn with a screenplay by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. Penn stars in the film along with his daughter Dylan Penn, Josh Brolin, Regina King, James Russo, and Katheryn Winnick.

“What do you see when you look at me?” Monster is a film adaptation of the 1999 YA novel of the same name by the late Walter Dean Myers, which tells the story of seventeen-year-old film student Steve Harmon and how his life is altered when he is charged with felony murder. With a screenplay written by Radha Blank, Cole Wiley, and Janece Shaffer, the film stars Kelvin Harrison, Jr.; Jennifer Hudson; John David Washington; and Jeffrey Wright.

“Sometimes I feel like I’ve already seen everything that’s gonna happen. And it’s a nightmare.” Watch the trailer for Cherry, a film adaptation of Nico Walker’s 2018 debut novel of the same name, starring Tom Holland as a young man who ends up robbing banks to support his drug addiction.