While I'm a firm believer that the book is always better, I do love a good adaptation! And 2026 is bringing us many, many adaptations!
If you're team 'read the book first' then make sure to get your hands on the following titles before you head to your local cinema or click 'play' on one of the various streaming services!
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell
Winner of the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction, Hamnet is the untold love story that inspired Shakespeare's greatest masterpiece. The adaptation starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley is in cinemas now – just don't forget tissues!
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.
Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week.
Find more of Maggie O'Farrell's emotional novels here.
People We Meet On Vacation
Emily Henry
Emily Henry, queen of the romcom! It's no surprise People We Meet On Vacation has been adapted into a movie. And it's not the only one! Both Funny Story and Happy Place are also getting the screen treatment! We can't wait.
Two friends. Ten trips. Their last chance to fall in love ...
12 years ago: Poppy and Alex meet. They hate each other, and are pretty confident they'll never speak again.
11 years ago: They're forced to share a ride home from college and by the end of it a friendship is formed. And a pact: every year, one vacation together.
10 years ago: Alex discovers his fear of flying on the way to Vancouver. Poppy holds his hand the whole way.
7 years ago: They get far too drunk and narrowly avoid getting matching tattoos in New Orleans.
2 years ago: It all goes wrong.
This Year: Poppy asks Alex to join her on one last trip. A trip that will determine the rest of their live
Check out Emily Henry's other titles here.
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights has hit cinemas! Of course, this isn't the first adaptation of Brontë's famous gothic novel, but the film starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi has certainly created some buzz!
Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before – of the intense passion between the foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and her betrayal of him.
As Heathcliff’s bitterness and vengeance is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.
Addition
Toni Jordan
We were delighted when we heard Melbourne local Toni Jordan's debut novel was being turned into a feature film! And now it's finally here.
Grace counts everything: the steps she takes, the groceries she buys, the bristles in her toothbrush … You might say she has a thing about numbers. Then she meets Seamus, who has the sexiest hands Grace has ever seen and who thinks she might be better off without the counting. If she could hold down a job, say. Or open her kitchen cupboards without conducting an inventory.
So now Grace has a thing about numbers and a thing about Seamus. Something's got to give.
check out other great titles by Toni Jordan here!
Sunrise on the Reaping (A Hunger Games Novel)
Suzanne Collins
It's almost here! The highly anticipated movie adaptation of the most recent Hunger Games book. November can not come soon enough.
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem.
This year, in honour of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. But when Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes.
As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight … and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
Sense and Sensibility
Jane Austen
Another classic getting a fresh adaptation this year is Jane Austen's first novel! And this one stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, with a script by Aussie author Diana Reid! Coming to our screens in September.
Elinor is as prudent as her sister Marianne is impetuous. Each must learn from the other after they are they are forced by their father’s death to leave their home and enter into the contests of polite society. The charms of unsuitable men and the schemes of rival ladies mean that their paths to success are riddled with disappointment, but together they attempt to find a way to happiness.
The Magician’s Nephew
C. S. Lewis
In Greta Gerwig we trust. And I certainly trust her to direct an epic adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew, especially with an incredible cast! I'm counting down the days to its November release!
On a daring quest to save a life, two friends are hurled into another world, where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. But then the lion Aslan’s song weaves itself into the fabric of a new land, a land that will be known as Narnia. And in Narnia, all things are possible.
Verity
Colleen Hoover
CoHo (Colleen Hoover) fans are being absolutely spoilt this year with not one, but two adaptations! Verity, starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, is coming out in October and Reminders of Him is here even sooner, releasing in March.
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford hires her to complete the remaining books in a successful series that his injured wife, bestselling author Verity Crawford, is unable to finish.
Lowen uncovers an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions … Lowen decides to keep it secret, But as her feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her …
H is for Hawk
Helen Macdonald
One for the bird enthusiasts and for those who love a good cry! The multi-award winning H is for Hawk is now a movie starring five different goshawks playing the role of Mabel – out now.
As a child, Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer, learning the arcane terminology and reading all the classic books. Years later, when her father died and she was struck deeply by grief, she became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She bought Mabel for £800 on a Scottish quayside and took her home to Cambridge, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.
H is for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald’s struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk’s taming and her own untaming. This is a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to reconcile death with life and love.
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
Did you love The Martian movie starring Matt Damon? And/or the The Martian book by Andy Weir? Well then I have some good news – another Weir title is being adapted! And the series stars Ryan Gosling! Coming our way in March.
A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined.
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission – and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery – and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species …
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
Rufi Thorpe
Nicole Kidman. Elle Fanning. Nick Offerman. Need I say more? The TV series will be here in April!
As the child of an ex-pro wrestler and a Hooters waitress, Margo Millet's always known she'd have to make it on her own. When she finds herself pregnant by her English professor and in need of cash fast, she comes up with a plan: she'll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, producing content and writing storylines unlike anything else out there.
Luckily, what Margo lacks in options she makes up for in ingenuity, and before she knows it, she's an online phenomenon. Could this be the answer to all of Margo's problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?
