With all the streaming services and Hollywood looking for content, there are quite a number of books coming to the screen in 2022. Check out this helpful list to find your new favorite book-based movie or T.V. show.
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie is set for theatrical release in February. The classic mystery features Kenneth Branagh as the urbane sleuth Hercule Poirot, and also stars Tom Bateman, Gal Gadot, Annette Bening and Russell Brand.
Another classic suspense novel, Patricia Highsmith’s Deep Water, will debut on Hulu in January. This adaptation of the erotic thriller, published in 1957, stars Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas and Lionel Washington.
A more modern and horrific tale, The Black Phone, will premier in theaters in January. Based on a short story by Joe Hill in the collection 20th Century Ghosts, this chilling thriller features a 13-year-old boy imprisoned in the basement of a sadistic killer’s house. When an old phone in the basement rings, the boy answers and hears the voices of the murderer’s previous victims.
Also releasing in theaters in January is Redeeming Love, adapted from the inspirational women’s fiction novel by Francine Rivers. The 1850s-set movie tells the story of a women sold into prostitution, as she struggles to overcome the trauma of her past and find love and redemption.
Munich-The Edge of War premieres in January on Netflix. This run-up to WWII is based on the novel by Robert Harris. In 1938, as Hitler prepares to invade Czechoslovakia, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain travels to Munich. Joining him there are a British civil servant and a German diplomat. The two used to be roommates and now find themselves on opposite sides of the tense negotiations.
Also premiering in early 2022, as a limited series on Amazon, is The Power, based on the YA book by Naomi Alderman. In this dystopian thriller, teenage girls have developed the ability to electrocute at will. The power spreads to older women, altering the world irrevocably.
In lighter fare, Paul Gallico’s novel Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris, will arrive in movie theaters in March. In 1950s London, a cleaning lady falls in love with a couture Dior dress, and pursues her dream to Paris, influencing the future of the House of Dior.
Also in the spring, look for an adaption of Min Jin Lee’s novel Pachinko on Apple TV. The series will chronicle the hopes and dreams of four generations of a Korean family.
Debuting mid-year will be the movie version of the mega bestseller Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. A young girl grows up in the marshlands of 1960s North Carolina, outside the margins of society and immersed in the natural world. This lyrical coming-of-age story blends romance, adventure and mystery.
Slated for theatrical release in July is the movie version of Bullet Train, adapted from the book by Kōtarō Isaka. This action thriller stars Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock and Lady Gaga.
WWI is the focus of the classic anti-war novel, All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. The new movie version will premiere on Netflix in mid to late 2022.
Coming in September is the movie adaptation of White Bird: A Wonder Story, based on the graphic novel by R.J. Palacio. The story flashes back to WWII-era France where a young Jewish girl is hidden from the Nazis by a classmate.
In Dark Harvest, also debuting this fall, a legendary monster terrorizes a small Midwestern town. The movie is adapted from the book by Norman Partridge.
Another fall horror movie is Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. This classic vampire novel has been dramatized twice previously. This version features Lewis Pullman, Alfre Woodard and Spencer Treat Clark.
The latter part of 2022 will see the Netflix release of Uglies, based on the 2005 best-selling YA novel by Scott Westerfeld. In Westerfeld’s dystopian world, girls of sixteen face a compulsory operation to make their appearance conform to an ideal of prettiness. But not everyone wants to follow the rules.
Scheduled for December, is the premiere of The Nightingale, based on Kristin Hannah’s WWII novel about two sisters in France. Elle and Dakota Fanning star as the sisters.
Several movies from books coming out in 2022 don’t yet have a release date.
White Noise, adapted from the novel by Don DeLillo, stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle and Jodie-Turner Smith. DeLillo’s post-modern classic portrays a couple at the center of an environmental disaster in a small Midwestern town.
Also anticipated in 2022 is the film adaptation of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. Christina Hendricks, Kunal Nayyar and Lucy Hale star in this rom-com about a cantankerous bookstore owner who gets a chance to remake his life when a baby is left in his store.
Originally scheduled for 2021, the teen fantasy The School for Good and Evil, is now expected to release in 2022. Charlize Theron, Lawrence Fishburne and Kerry Washington head up the adaptation of Soman Chainani’s YA fairytale novel.
The Stars at Noon, adapted from the Denis Johnson novel, is another highly-anticipated 2022 release. Set in 1980s Nicaragua, the movie follows a mysterious American journalist and an English businessman as they become entangled in dangerous political intrigue.
Two novels by acclaimed literary heavyweights Joyce Carol Oates and Emma Donoghue are in production with Netflix and scheduled to premiere later in 2022. Blonde, by Oates, is based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Donoghue’s The Wonder is a psychological thriller about an 11-year-old girl in rural 1800s Ireland who stops eating but mysteriously still survives.
A new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion is expected on Netflix in 2022. Dakota Johnson stars as the quietly intellectual heroine Anne Elliot, with Cosmo Jarvis as her love interest Captain Frederick Wentworth. The story has been updated with more modern dialogue and actor Henry Golding playing Anne’s nemesis, Mr. Elliot.
Along with movies, several limited series adapted or inspired by books are in production and scheduled for 2022.
House of the Dragon, based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood, a Game of Thrones prequel, is being developed as a series by HBO Max.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger will also be an HBO series. Theo James, Rose Leslie and Kate Siegel will star.
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney is being made into a series by Hulu. The streaming network also did a series based on Rooney’s book Normal People.
In a massive undertaking, Amazon is developing a prequel series to the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy masterpiece The Lord of the Rings. The new series will be set two thousand years before The Hobbit, and tell a completely new story based on the world and characters of the trilogy. The production budget for the first season, filmed in New Zealand, is rumored to be nearly half a billion dollars.
Head to Laramie County Library System today to check out these reads and preview all of the new shows and movies that will be hitting the screen this year.
~Mary G.