Poets & Writers Theater

A new trailer for the limited Amazon series The Underground Railroad, a television adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning historical fiction novel of the same name, has been released by director Barry Jenkins. The reverse-motion trailer features music composed by Nicholas Britell.

“How do you take the nightmares and dreams and put them onto paper?” asks Julie Taymor in this trailer for the second season of Poetry in America featuring interviews with Marilyn Chin, Katie Couric, Elena Kagan, John Kerry, Maxine Hong Kingston, and others. Created and directed by Harvard professor Elisa New, each episode explores and interprets a single American poem.

National Book Award–winning novel The Good Lord Bird (Riverhead Books, 2013) by James McBride has been adapted into a seven-episode series starring Rafael Casal as Cook, Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglass, Ethan Hawke as John Brown, and Joshua Caleb Johnson as Onion. The series finale airs this Sunday on Showtime.

Looking for something eerie to watch? The Haunting of Bly Manor is a supernatural horror drama loosely based on Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw. The Netflix series created by Mike Flanagan stars Carla Gugino, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, T’Nia Miller, Victoria Pedretti, Kate Siegel, and Henry Thomas.

Director Barry Jenkins has released a teaser trailer for the upcoming television adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning historical fiction novel, The Underground Railroad (Doubleday, 2016). The limited Amazon series stars Thuso Mbedu as Cora, a woman who escapes a plantation in Georgia and finds the Underground Railroad, an actual train system transporting runaways to the north.

“The story is sprawling, the scope is sprawling. It unfolds over the course of a thousand years.” Executive producer and showrunner David Goyer introduces the trailer for the upcoming Apple TV Plus series Foundation, adapted from the award-winning science fiction novels by Isaac Asimov, which stars Laura Birn, Jared Harris, Leah Harvey, Lou Llobell, Terrence Mann, and Lee Pace.

This new Netflix miniseries about a woman growing up in a strict Hasidic Judaism sect in Brooklyn who flees her arranged marriage and cuts ties with the community is loosely based on Deborah Feldman’s 2012 memoir, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. The four-episode series is directed by Maria Schrader and stars Shira Haas, Amit Rahav, and Jeff Wilbusch.

Agatha Christie’s 1961 novel The Pale Horse has been adapted into a two-part television series written by Sarah Phelps and directed by Leonora Lonsdale. Starring Georgina Campbell, Kaya Scodelario, and Rufus Sewell, the story begins with the murder of a priest soon after hearing a woman’s deathbed confession, and leads to an old pub inhabited by a mysterious trio of women, rumored to be witches.

Sally Rooney’s second novel, Normal People (Hogarth, 2019), has been adapted into a Hulu and BBC television miniseries directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald. The twelve-episode series stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal as two teenagers in Ireland from different backgrounds navigating friendship and romance through the years.

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 Plot Against America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004), Philip Roth’s alternative history novel in which Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election and fascist anti-Semitism is on the rise, has been adapted into an HBO television miniseries. The series, directed by Minkie Spiro and adapted by David Simon, stars Ben Cole, Winona Ryder, Morgan Spector, John Turturro, and Zoe Kazan.

Nick Hornby’s first novel, High Fidelity (Riverhead Books, 1995), whose 2000 film adaptation starred John Cusack and moved the story from London to Chicago, has been adapted into a Hulu television show. The series stars Zoë Kravitz as the neurotic owner of a local record store in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood who revisits former romantic partners after a recent breakup.

Little Fires Everywhere is a television adaptation of Celeste Ng’s 2017 novel of the same name about the tensions between two families in the Ohio suburbs during the 1990s. The eight-episode miniseries is directed by Lynn Shelton and stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Jordan Elsass, Joshua Jackson, Kerry Washington, and Reese Witherspoon.

Dracula is a new BBC/Netflix television adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 gothic horror novel. Created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, the three-episode miniseries stars Claes Bang in the title role, along with Morfydd Clark, John Heffernan, and Dolly Wells.

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.

Charles Dickens’s classic 1843 holiday novella, A Christmas Carol, has been adapted into a new BBC television drama. The three-part fantasy miniseries is directed by Nick Murphy, and stars Joe Alwyn as Bob Cratchit, Jason Flemyng as the Ghost of Christmas Future, Stephen Graham as Jacob Marley, Guy Pearce as Ebenezer Scrooge, Charlotte Riley as Lottie (the Ghost of Christmas Present), and Andy Serkis as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

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.