Hollywood’s appetite for books shows no signs of slowing down, and we’re certainly not complaining. Film and television adaptations can have an enormous impact on book sales, introducing stories to entirely new audiences and giving older titles a whole new lease of life, sometimes decades after their original publication. According to UK research from NielsenIQ BookData, an estimated 27 million books purchased in the UK in 2025 were discovered or chosen because of a film or television adaptation. And when Netflix released its adaptation of David Nicholls’ One Day in 2024, UK print sales of the novel surged, with more than 143,000 copies sold in the following six months, compared with just over 3,200 in the six months before its release.
Anything that gets more people reading, puts money in authors’ pockets and helps make writing books a more viable career is a very good thing in our eyes. But please, can we stop with the film and television tie-in covers? We understand the commercial logic behind them, of course. They’re designed to capitalise on Hollywood’s enormous marketing budgets and attract viewers who might not otherwise pick up the book. But I’m yet to see one that improves on the original, and there will always be something deeply strange about seeing actors’ faces plastered across the covers of books.
And while we’re more than happy to see our favourite stories brought to life on screen, we’ll always encourage you to read them first, because the book is always better than the adaptation. Sorry, we don’t make the rules.
With that firmly established, here are some of the biggest book-to-screen adaptations that have either recently been released or are heading to our screens very soon.
And if you want to keep tabs on everything Hollywood has in the works, you can find our full list of books currently being adapted for film and television here.
Here Are the Books Still Coming to Your Screens in 2026
Taika Waititi has adapted Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun for the big screen, and he’s even filmed it right here in Aotearoa, with Jenna Ortega starring as Klara alongside Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Steve Buscemi and Natasha Lyonne.
Speaking to Vanity Fair about making the film, Waititi admitted he initially thought it might be one of the easiest films he’d ever make because, as he put it, “nothing happens.” The quiet, meditative nature of Ishiguro’s novel proved deceptive, however, and Waititi ultimately described it as one of the hardest things he has adapted: “The more you read the book and the more you’re trying to delve into the relationships, the more you unlock and the more complicated it gets.”
Klara and the Sun is set to hit cinemas 22 October 2026.
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is now streaming on Netflix in a new seven-part limited series, written and executive produced by Zoe Kazan, whose grandfather Elia Kazan directed the 1955 film adaptation. Florence Pugh leads the cast as Cathy Ames, alongside Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist, Hoon Lee and Tracy Letts. The series will tell the story across multiple generations of the Trask and Hamilton families, giving Steinbeck’s sprawling novel considerably more room than its previous big-screen adaptation.
All seven episodes of East of Eden are now streaming on Netflix.
Colleen Hoover’s psychological thriller Verity is now on the big screen, with Anne Hathaway starring as bestselling author Verity Crawford alongside Dakota Johnson as struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh and Josh Hartnett as Verity’s husband, Jeremy. Directed by Michael Showalter, the adaptation takes on one of Hoover’s darker and more unsettling novels, following Lowen as she is hired to finish Verity’s bestselling book series and discovers a manuscript containing some deeply disturbing secrets.
Verity is showing in cinemas now.
Nearly 30 years after Practical Magic first hit our screens, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as sisters Sally and Gillian Owens for Practical Magic 2. Directed by Susanne Bier, the sequel is based on Alice Hoffman’s The Book of Magic, the fourth and final novel in her Practical Magic series.
Bullock and Kidman are joined by Joey King and Maisie Williams as Sally’s daughters, with Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing also returning as the beloved Owens aunts. The story brings the generations of Owens women together once again as they confront the family curse that has followed them for centuries.
Practical Magic 2 is showing in cinemas now.
Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping is the next Hunger Games novel heading to the big screen, taking us back to Panem 24 years before Katniss Everdeen’s story. The film follows a young Haymitch Abernathy as he is selected to compete in the 50th Hunger Games, otherwise known as the Second Quarter Quell, where twice the usual number of tributes are sent into the arena.
Joseph Zada stars as Haymitch, alongside Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Ralph Fiennes as President Snow and Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set to hit cinemas 19 November 2026.
Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling romance The Love Hypothesis has made the leap from BookTok favourite to the screen. Lili Reinhart stars as PhD candidate Olive Smith, alongside Tom Bateman as intimidating professor Adam Carlsen, whose impulsive kiss with Olive turns into a mutually beneficial fake-dating arrangement and, naturally, something considerably less fake. Rachel Marsh, Nicholas Duvernay, Jaboukie Young-White and Arty Froushan round out the cast, with Claire Scanlon directing.
The Love Hypothesis is steaming globally on Prime Video now.
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is getting another big-screen adaptation, this time with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles taking on the roles of sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Directed by Georgia Oakley, with a screenplay by Australian bestselling author Diana Reid, the film also stars Caitríona Balfe, George MacKay, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum and Fiona Shaw. The new adaptation promises to put the relationship between the two Dashwood sisters firmly at its heart, as they navigate love, heartbreak, money and an uncertain future.
Sense and Sensibility is set to hit cinemas on 15 October 2026.
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is returning to our screens once again, this time adapted by bestselling author and screenwriter Dolly Alderton. The new six-part Netflix series stars Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy, with Olivia Colman and Rufus Sewell as Mrs and Mr Bennet. They’re joined by a stacked cast including Freya Mavor, Daryl McCormack, Louis Partridge, Fiona Shaw, Rhea Norwood and Jamie Demetriou.
Alderton has described Pride and Prejudice as “the blueprint for romantic comedy” and says her adaptation will find both familiar and fresh ways of bringing Austen’s much-loved novel to life. Netflix says the series will remain a faithful, classic adaptation of the original story.
Pride and Prejudice will arrive on Netflix 3 December 2026.
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