As everyone knows, books are much better as movies. You don’t have to do any of that ‘reading’ stuff, and it’s all over in 90 minutes (fingers crossed), rather than an entire year. Love movies, hate books, or something.
Of course, there are some people out there that actually like books (I know), and coincidentally, also like to watch the movie adaptations as well (pointless) - it’s almost like these movies have a built-in audience already, like they’re a safe bet, like money was instrumental in the decision to adapt them? Who knows how this wonderful machine works.
Either way, for both fans and non-fans of books, this list might be of interest: the 17 best books that will be making their way to our screens in the coming year, or as it’s more colloquially known, 2018. Read on, or watch on, whatever you prefer:
1.'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline
2.'Horse Soldiers' by Doug Stanton
3.'Maze Runner: The Death Cure' by James Dashner
4.'The Little Stranger' by Sarah Waters
The movie: The Little StrangerOooooh, spoOOooOOky goings-on in a big haunted house, with the ever-great Domhnall Gleeson in tow on the ghost train. Its from the revered author behind Tipping the Velvet, and the live-action version will be overseen by Lenny Abrahamson, who you may recognise as the director of Room. This time he’s upgraded to a whole house, which consists of multiple rooms - only time will tell if this a feat outside of his capabilities.Buy the book here.
5.'Fifty Shades Freed' by E.L James
6.'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare/'Ophelia' by Lisa Klein
The movie: OpheliaThat’s good old Daisy Ridley up there, smiling away, because she’s just landed the lead in this new Shakespeare adaptation - a film version of Hamlet, only from Ophelia’s perspective. A strong cast rounds it out, with Naomi Watts, Tom Felton and Clive Owen all presumably doing funny posh voices and saying made-up words, so fond of nonsense the Bard was.Buy the book here.
7.'Annihilation' by Jeff VanderMeer
8.'The War With Grandpa' by Robert Kimmel Smith.
The movie: The War With GrandpaRobert De Niro has done a ‘grandpa’ movie before, in the form of the endlessly fascinating Dirty Grandpa - I mean, you have to see this film to believe it exists - so him deciding to do another one so soon after is a tad baffling. Still, this is slightly lower on the crudity scale, and is based on a beloved book, so maybe everything will be OK.The story concerns a prank-war between a young boy and his De Niro-esque granddad, so expect this once-great actor to slip on a banana skin and bang his knee on a table or something at some point. You pesky little brat! He’ll scream, while shaking his fists. What a lark!
9.The Peter Rabbit series by Beatrix Potter
10.'Red Sparrow' by Jason Matthews
11.'Boy Erased' by Garrard Conley
The movie: Boy ErasedWhile we’re on the subject of Joel Edgerton, he’s popping up in this adaptation of Garrad Conley’s coming-of-age film, and you’ll never guess what - he’s directing and writing it too. The film (and book before it) is a memoir surrounding the author’s experiences with being enrolled in a fundamentalist gay conversion therapy. Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) is playing the author, and Russell Crowe (Gladiator) and Nicole Kidman (an actual alien from outer space, I’m convinced of it) are also showing their faces at the party.Buy the book here.
12.'Mortal Engines' by Philip Reeve
13.'The Girl in the Spider's Web' by David Lagercrantz
The movie: The Girl in the Spider’s WebThe whole Lisbeth Sander saga didn’t really go the way it was planned - the original adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig wasn’t the megahit everyone thought it’d be, so guess what? They’re rebooting it! Turns out “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” is a viable technique in Hollywood now.The movie will be based on the fourth book in the series (also the first to be written by someone else other than Stieg Larsson) and features The Crown’s Claire Foy taking over in the main role. Also, it’s under the watchful eye of Fede Álvarez, who is already my best friend after directing Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe - two utter bangers, in my humble, and most definitely correct, opinion.Buy the book here.
14.'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine L'Engle
15.'The Black Hand' by Stephan Talty
The movie: The Black HandLeonardo DiCaprio? Gangsters? Mafia? Extortion? Leo Dicaps? Detectives? Lee Cappy Rio? Yes, interested, thank you very much.The book, set in 1903, follows hotshot NYPD detective Joe Petrosino as he goes after a big scary Italian gang running an extortion racket in America. This’ll be good, won’t it?Buy the book here.
16.'Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda' by Becky Albertelli
17.'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling
The movie: MowgliYeah, they’re making another Jungle Book movie, a mere two years after the last one. No it’s not a sequel, it’s just the original story all over again. What we’ve got is a slightly delayed Deep Impact/Armaggeddon, A Bug’s Life/Antz, The Truman Show/Ed TV situation here, where both films went into production very close together, and nobody gave up. Well done Andy Serkis, stick to your guns and just hope jungle fatigue hasn’t set in already!Buy the book here.
If you’re quick, you can read all these before you see them and then when you’re in the cinema, simply shout something like “He shoots Lenny” and ruin it for everyone. People love a good spoiler.
(Images: Rex)
