These Are The Page-To-Screen Adaptations We’re Most Excited For In 2019

If you’re the kind of person who likes reading the book before seeing the movie, then this list is for you. We’ve rounded up eight upcoming films that have been adapted from books, all set for release in the latter half of the year. The earliest ones premiere in August, so get to those books before all the spoilers come out!

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer | August 2019

Adapted from the novel by Irish author Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl is Disney’s take on the science-fiction fantasy novels about a teenage boy, Artemis, who attempts to restore his family's fortune. It’s directed by actor-director Kenneth Branagh and stars Ferdia Shaw as the protagonist. 

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple | August 2019

Cate Blanchett stars in this mystery dramedy about an agoraphobic architect who goes missing after a family trip to Antarctica. “When she disappears,” the premise goes, “it’s her daughter Bee's mission to find out where she’s disappeared to and what really happened to her.” The film is directed by Richard Linklater, director of the Before trilogy. 

The Kitchen by Ollie Masters, Ming Doyle, and Jordie Bellaire | August 2019

Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, and Tiffany Haddish star in this crime thriller based on the Vertigo comic book miniseries from DC Entertainment. The three actresses portray 1978 Hell’s Kitchen housewives whose mobster husbands are sent to prison by the FBI. The ladies take the Irish mafia’s matters into their own hands—proving to be unexpectedly adept at everything, “from running the rackets to taking out the competition... literally.”

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein | August 2019

Mamma Mia’s Amanda Seyfried and everyone’s favorite tv dad Milo Ventimiglia star alongside The Bodyguard’s Kevin Costner in this dramedy in which Costner voices Enzo, a golden retriever raised by Denny (Ventimiglia), a race car driver, and his wife, Eve (Seyfried). The film is based on the book by Garth Stein, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for 156 weeks, and we can already feel our hearts twinge a little (or a lot. Let’s be honest here, it’s a lot). 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt | September 2019 

Ansel Elgort stars in the adaptation of Donna Tartt’s beloved novel, The Goldfinch, as Theodore Decker—a young man whose mother dies in a bombing at The Met Museum, an incident that changes the course of his life. Sarah Paulson, Luke Wilson, and Finn Wolfhard round out the cast.

The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell | November 2019

The Rhythm Section is an action thriller film based on Mark Burnell’s novel of the same name. Starring Blake Lively (who is almost unrecognizable in this film), Jude Law, and Sterling K. Brown, this movie follows the story of Stephanie Patrick, a woman who seeks to uncover the truth behind a plane crash that killed her family. The movie was initially scheduled for a February 2019 release, but production was temporarily suspended when Blake injured her hand last year.

CATS by T.S. Eliot | December 2019

For a fun time, we’ve thrown in an adaptation of an adaptation: Cats, coming out in December of this year, is the movie adaptation of Cats the Musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber—the Great White Way’s fourth longest-running show, and adapted from Old Possum’s Book of Cats by T.S. Eliot. The trailer was released just last week, and it’s celebrity-filled and absolutely chaotic. We’d put in a summary of the movie, but at this point, no one seems to care much for the plot (probably because the CGI human-cat hybrid costumes are too much) actually goes on (because no one is sure about what’s going on), so we’ll just leave you with the trailer. 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott | December 2019

Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig’s take on Little Women will star powerhouse actors Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Laura Dern, and Timothée Chalamet. This adaptation will be the eighth version of Alcott’s 1868 novel, which explores the lives of the March sisters in 1860s Massachusetts. The coming-of-age period drama is scheduled to come out Christmas day in the United States.

BONUS:

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn | 2020 (initially scheduled for October 2019)

After her stellar turn in the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects, Amy Adams returns to the silver screen by way of The Woman in the Window, a mystery thriller drama based on the 2018 novel of the same name by A.J. Finn. The Woman in the Window follows an agoraphobic child psychologist (Adams) who witnesses a crime while spying on her new neighbors. This film was originally scheduled to be released in October of this year, but it’s been pushed back “as Disney plans to retool the film due to the negative test audience response towards the third act.”