Poets & Writers Theater

News of the World is a film adaptation of Paulette Jiles’s 2016 novel of the same name, which was a National Book Award finalist. Tom Hanks plays Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a war veteran, widower, and newsreader in the 1870s who travels from town to town reading the news to locals and comes across a young orphaned girl played by Helena Zengel. 

The Dig is a Netflix film adaptation starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan based on the 2007 novel of the same name by John Preston, which reimagines the events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England.

Let Him Go is a film adaptation of Larry Watson’s 2013 novel of the same name published by Milkweed Editions, which tells the story of a couple on a dangerous journey to reclaim their young grandson. Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, the film stars Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Lesley Manville. 

Joanna Rakoff’s memoir My Salinger Year (Knopf, 2014) has been adapted into a feature film directed by Philippe Falardeau and starring Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver. Set in 1995, an aspiring writer and poet takes a job at a literary agency in New York City that represents the notoriously reclusive J. D. Salinger and handles his fan mail.

Rebecca Dinerstein Knight’s debut novel, The Sunlit Night (Bloomsbury, 2015), has been adapted into a feature film directed by David Wnendt and starring Gillian Anderson, Zach Galifianakis, Alex Sharp, and Jenny Slate.

Watch the trailer for the highly anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction novel Dune. Directed by Denis Velleneuve, the film stars Josh Brolin, Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and Zendaya.

Shirley (Blue Rider Press, 2014), Susan Scarf Merrell’s historical fiction novel about a young couple who stay at the home of horror writer Shirley Jackson and literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman in 1964, has been adapted into a feature film of the same name. Directed by Josephine Decker, the thriller stars Logan Lerman, Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Odessa Young.

The Invisible Man is a new feature film loosely based on the classic science fiction novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, which has inspired a number of television and film adaptations since it was first published in 1897. Directed by Leigh Whannell, the new thriller stars Aldis Hodge, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Elisabeth Moss, and Storm Reid.

The Rhythm Section (HarperCollins, 2000), Mark Burnell’s first novel in his series featuring international spy Stephanie Patrick, has been adapted into a film. Directed by Reed Morano, the thriller about a woman who goes undercover as an assassin after her entire family is killed in an orchestrated plane crash stars Blake Lively, Jude Law, and Sterling K. Brown.

The Personal History of David Copperfield is a film adaptation of Charles Dickens’s autobiographical novel, first published as a book in 1850. The comedic drama is directed by Armando Iannucci and stars Dev Patel as the titular character, and the cast includes Peter Capaldi, Hugh Laurie, Sophie McShera, Tilda Swinton, and Ben Whishaw.

The Call of the Wild is a new feature film adaptation of Jack London’s classic 1903 adventure novel about a dog named Buck who must struggle to survive in the Yukon wilderness during the 1890s gold rush. The live-action CGI-animated film is directed by Chris Sanders and stars Harrison Ford, Karen Gillan, Dan Stevens, Omar Sy, and Bradley Whitford.

The Earthquake Bird (Picador, 2001), the debut mystery novel by British author Susanna Jones, has been adapted into a feature film directed by Wash Westmoreland. The psychological thriller follows a young expat in 1989 Tokyo who is accused of murder when her friend goes missing and stars Riley Keough, Naoki Kobayashi, Kenichi Masuda, Kiki Sukezane, and Alicia Vikander.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Spiegel & Grau, 2014) by Bryan Stevenson, a memoir recounting his experience as a young defense attorney fighting for a death row inmate wrongfully convicted of murder, has been adapted into a feature film. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the legal drama stars Jamie Foxx, Michael B. Jordan, Brie Larson, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Rafe Spall.

In the Tall Grass is a film adaptation of a novella of the same name written by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, first published in Esquire magazine in 2012. The horror film, which follows a brother and sister as they venture into a field of grass in Kansas and find themselves trapped, is directed by Vincenzo Natali and stars Laysla De Oliveira, Harrison Gilbertson, Avery Whitted, and Patrick Wilson.

Jojo Rabbit is a film adaptation of Christine Leunens’s novel Caging Skies (Overlook Press, 2019), a dark comic story set in 1940s Vienna about a ten-year-old boy in the Hitler Youth who discovers that his parents are hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Directed by Taika Waititi, who also costars as an imaginary Adolf Hitler, the satire stars Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, and Rebel Wilson.

Stephen King’s novel Doctor Sleep (Scribner, 2013), the sequel to his 1977 classic The Shining, has been adapted into a feature film directed by Mike Flanagan. The movie picks up the story several decades later as a grown-up Danny Torrance, played by Ewan McGregor, meets a young girl with psychic powers similar to his own that he tries to protect from a supernatural cult of murderous nomads.

A Million Little Pieces (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2003), the controversial and fabricated best-selling memoir by James Frey, has been adapted into a feature film directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Odessa Young, the film focuses on the life of a young writer seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

Malina, the 1971 novel by Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann, was rereleased by New Directions in May with a revised translation from the German by Philip Boehm and an introduction by Rachel Kushner. A screening of the 1991 film adaptation of the novel, directed by Werner Schroeter, was recently presented in celebration of the book.

Motherless Brooklyn, a film adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel of the same name, stars Edward Norton as Lionel Essrog, a lonely private detective afflicted with Tourette’s Syndrome who attempts to solve the murder of his friend and mentor. Directed by Norton, the film’s cast includes Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Bruce Willis.

The King is a film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s history plays known as the Henriad: Richard II, Henry IV Parts I and II, and Henry V. Directed by David Michôd, the film stars Ben Mendelsohn as King Henry IV, Timothée Chalamet as King Henry V, and Joel Edgerton as Falstaff. Michôd and Edgerton cowrote the screenplay.