It’s no secret that lots of great movies and TV shows first thought as books — a good story is a good story, after all. Some of 2024’s busiest projects began as novels, such as “Evil,” “It ends with us,” “Bridgerton,” “The perfect couple” and more.
2025 means much more outstanding books coming to screens, from Philadelphia’s eerie police and family drama in Liz Moore’s “Long Bright River” to Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson and Lynne Ramsay putting their surely unique spin on Ariana Harwicz’s novel “Die, My Love.” While it’s a popular saying that the book is always better, we have a good feeling about the list below, which features stories that combine great plots with sharp characters portrayed by an exciting cast of actors (Sarah Snook! Alexander Skarsgård!).
If you’re looking for your next read, make it one of these, and you’ll surely be able to say to your friends, “Well, actually, it wasn’t quite like that in the book…”
Looking for even more? Although further away than that, some other memorable bestselling novels with adaptations officially in the works include “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” — a powerful tale of friendship, grief and video games that this reporter is obsessed with getting everyone to check out – as well as “Fourth Wing,” which Michael B. Jordan’s company is adapting for Prime Video and is the romantic obsession of the moment. (The third book in the planned five-book series by Rebecca Yarros, “Onyx Storm,” will be released on January 21, 2025.)
Add the books below — many of which don’t have official release dates but are expected this year — to your library list, stat.
1. “Long Bright River”
Participating: Amanda Seyfried
“Long Bright River” is an excellent book by Liz Moore, and has tons of potential to turn into a great series. The official logline states that the limited series will tell “the story of Mickey (Seyfried), a police officer who patrols a Philadelphia neighborhood hit hard by the opioid crisis. When a series of murders begin in the neighborhood, Mickey realizes that her personal history may be related to the case.”
“Long Bright River” was one of the best-selling books of the 2020s, featured on Barack Obama’s Best of the Year list and was a Good Morning America book club pick. Moore is adapting her book for the screen alongside Nikki Toscano, and both also serve as executive producers. A release date for the Peacock series has yet to be announced.
2. “The Woman Who Fooled the World”
Participating: Kaitlyn Dever
“Apple cider vinegar,” a narrative series based on the nonfiction book “The Woman Who Fooled the World” by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano will premiere on Netflix on February 6: It tells the tale of an Australian influencer in the mid-2010s, Belle Gibson, who fakes a cancer battle for followers and builds an empire based on a lie.
The book and show will also address the wellness industry and the appeal of these home remedies, especially to women who feel ignored by the male-dominated medical profession. The book especially has a lot to say about the rise of the Instagram/influencer culture that we now all live with the results of. Fun!
3. “The Housemaid”
Participating: Amanda Seyfried (again!), Sydney Sweeney
The 2022 bestseller by Freida McFadden is a twisting psychological thriller about a home so messed up you’ll long for the soothing embrace of a haunted house. The adaptation will star Sweeney as Millie, a young woman on her last chance who becomes a housekeeper for wealthy couple Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew. It’s not long before Millie realizes that things are pretty messed up in their home (there’s an attic door that can only be unlocked from the outside, for one…) – but, of course, Millie isn’t all she seems either.
Fans of “Gone Girl” and Paul Feig’s own adaptation of “A Simple Favor” are sure to eat up this dark mystery — and good news: There are already two published sequels by author Frieda McFadden (who has a slew of fun thrillers, so be ready to fall down that rabbit hole).*
4. “All Her Fault”
Participating: Sarah Snook, Jake Lacy, Michael Peña
The thriller by Andrea Mara follows an overwhelmed mother, Marissa, who goes to pick up her son Milo from a playdate, only to discover he’s not there – and the owners of the house have never heard of Milo. Her children have disappeared into thin air with their new nanny, and it’s up to Marissa to track them down, with very little to go on, before it’s too late. The novel is a classic “you’ll be up until you’re done” and expect the limited series, premiering on the Peacock, to feature more of the same.
5. “The Hunting Wives”
Participating: Brittany Snow, Dermot Mulroney, Chrissy Metz
The plot of the novel by May Cobb, which will become a Starz series, reads: “Sophie O’Neill left behind an enviable career and the stressful, competitive life of big city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small town in Texas.…Then she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is secretly part of an elite clique known as the Hunting Wives.Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world late target practice and dangerous partying.When Sophie’s curiosity gives way to a full-blown obsession, she slips further from the safety of her family and deeper into this viper’s den.When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the hunting wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation. and her life spirals out of control.”
6. “The Better Sister”
Participating: Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Banks, Corey Stoll
This domestic noir by Alafair Burke is your classic book club tome: It involves big twists, complicated characters, and plenty of moral dilemmas to delve into and discuss. The plot follows two estranged sisters – estranged for what seems like obvious reasons, as wild child Nicky’s ex-husband Adam is now married to Nicky’s Type-A sister Chloe. Chloe is even the mother of Nicky and Adam’s child, Ethan. When Adam turns up dead in their apartment one night, the police suspect teenager Ethan – and Chloe must delve into the women’s respective checkered pasts to prove their innocence.
The limited series will be directed by Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya” “Cruella”) and is expected to premiere on Prime Video.
7. “Mickey 17”
Participating: Robert Pattinson, Toni Collette, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo
Bong Joon-ho’s first film since his triumph at the Oscars with “Parasite”, this science fiction comedy is based on Edward Ashton’s novel “Mickey7”. The film, “Mickey 17”, has a great cast and a delicious premise: In an attempt to leave Earth, Pattinson signs up to be an “expendable” in a process where a new body will be generated with his memories intact after a previous one version dies. The only problem comes when something goes wrong and Pattinson finds himself at war with one of his own iterations — the sort of thing that should give Bong plenty of scope for the kind of genre-bending, sly black comedy at which he excels. —Jim Hemphill*
8. “Washington Black”
Participating: Sterling K. Brown, Tom Ellis, Charles Dance
The official description for Esi Edugyan’s Man Booker Prize finalist reads: “Eleven-year-old George Washington Black – or Wash – a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is selected as a servant to his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde is a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist.Soon, Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, (and) two people, separated by an impossible gulf, can begin to see each other as human beings. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, they must abandon everything and run away together Christopher to tear them apart and push Wash further across the world in search of his true self.”
The long-running adaptation was reportedly completed in the fall of 2024.
9. “Die My Love”
Participating: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield
Jennifer Lawrence stars as a woman torn between love and madness (and seemingly some sort of postpartum breakdown, given the source material), opposite Robert Pattinson as her on-screen husband and LaKeith Stanfield as her lover. Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte star in a film that Lynne Ramsay said deviates from the book, about a woman in a secluded French village dealing with mental health issues.
Ramsay has been known to take a loose approach to his source material, freely adapting Lionel Schriver’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and Jonathan Ames’ “You Were Never Really Here”. She co-wrote “Die, My Love” with Edna Walsh and is working again with DP Seamus McGarvey, who created a nightmarish swirl of hallucinatory imagery for “Kevin.” The film doesn’t have a US distributor yet, but I’d bet on at least a Cannes premiere (where Ramsay generally goes) and a distributor to pick this up quickly. —Ryan Lattanzio*
10. “The Murderbot Diaries”
Participating: Alexander Skarsgård
The book series by Martha Wells follows “a sentient security android who calls himself Murderbot must mask his capacity for free thought while completing dangerous missions while being drawn to humans and horrified by their weakness.”
The adaptation will be another sci-fi saga for Apple TV+, which has found a niche with these kinds of futuristic projects (think “Severance”). To date, there are seven novels in the series, the first of which is titled “All Systems Red,” and won the 2018 Hugo Award. Current questions about AI are sure to please fans of the genre, and come on, who isn’t fascinated by a sentient robot?
* Indicates the write-up is from our list of IndieWire’s Most Anticipated Movies of 2025.
