Curious about the books becoming movies in 2024? Here are the most likely books to movies of 2024, including upcoming tv adaptations.
Every year, I compile a list of books becoming movies and tv shows, and every year it is a royal pain. Researching titles to see which movies based on books are coming soon and coping with ever-shifting release dates drives me nuts every year. Add in the prevalence of book adaptations on streaming services, and it’s not an easy task.
That’s not even factoring in a writers’ strike.
Even though theaters have made a comeback since the pandemic, movie release dates are still shifting constantly. I’d love to say that this is the definitive list of books being made into movies in 2024, but let’s face it. No one can foresee what the future will hold.
For your benefit, I’ve split my list of books to movies 2024 into three sections. First, I’ve got all the books becoming movies in 2024 with an actual release date. After that, I’ve got my most likely 2024 book adaptations, and then a list of books turning into movies under development. If we are lucky, we’ll see some of those this year.
If it seems like this list has changed since you last looked at it, it has! Release dates are changing all the time, so I will update periodically to reflect the newest information available.
If you love seeing your favorite books come to life on screen or want to discover some new books to read before they hit theaters (or Netflix), here is my list of the books to movies in 2024.
Books to Movies 2024
The Tiger’s Apprentice
Lauren Yep
Tiger’s Apprentice, January 19, 2024 – In one of the kids’ books becoming movies in 2024, Tom Lee is just an ordinary boy until one day he meets a talking tiger named Mr. Hu. Joining Mr. Hu’s ragtag group, Tom finds he has magical powers and important responsibilities. They must keep an ancient talisman out of the hands of their enemies for the safety of the whole world.
Argylle
Elly Conway
February 2, 2024 – When a Russian magnate tries to restore his nation to greatness again, he ticks off a series of events that will spiral the world out of control. Only the CIA’s legendary spymaster Frances Coffrey can save the day. But she needs the help of Argylle, a troubled man with the exact set of skills needed for the mission. In a twist for a debut novel, Argylle is releasing just a month before its high-budget film adaptation. To make things more meta, in the movie, writer Elly Conway discovers her spy novels are hitting a little too close to the truth and she and her cat find themselves in a covert world she thought she was just inventing.
Force of Nature
Jane Harper
Force of Nature: The Dry 2, February 8, 2024 – In the Australian Outback, when five women set out on a hike for a corporate retreat but only four return, Federal Police Investigator Aaron Falk is drawn into the case. The missing woman was to be a key witness against the company, giving her coworkers plenty of motives to want her dead.
It Ends with Us
Colleen Hoover
February 9, 2024 – On the day of her father’s funeral, Lily meets Ryle, a handsome neurosurgeon, and sparks immediately fly. Although Ryle is notoriously commitment-phobic, he can’t seem to stay away from Lily. As Lily and Ryle’s relationship goes through ups and downs, Lily takes to reading her journals about her first love, Atlas. When Atlas reappears in her life, everything Lily has built with Ryle threatens to come tumbling down. One of the most anticipated books to movies in 2024, It Ends with Us is a steamy love story that shifts to a tale of domestic violence that has taken TikTok by storm for the last few years.
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
Lisa Frankenstein, February 9, 2024 – You probably already know the story. Grieving his mother, young ambitious scientist Victor Frankenstein conducts a series of unorthodox experiments to create life and ends up creating a creature 8 feet tall. Horrified by his creation, Frankenstein spends the rest of his life haunted and trying to destroy the thing he has made. With a mix of comedy and horror, a new film adaptation details a teenage girl who reanimates a handsome Victorian corpse and rebuilds him into her dream guy.
Dune
Frank Herbert
Dune: Part Two, March 15, 2024 – Meet Paul Atreides, the heir apparent to the House of Atreides. At the beginning of the novel, his family takes control of the desert planet Arrakis, the source of the most sought-after commodity in the galaxy. Power like that breeds many enemies who will stop at nothing to take over Arrakis. Mixing politics, religion, and mysticism with a whole lot of adventure, Herbert sends you on an epic journey worthy of any science fiction reader. After the massive success of the first film (which is a must-see if you haven’t already), the second half of the novel is being adapted in 2024.
Mickey7
Edward Ashton
Mickey7, March 29, 2024 – In one of the most-anticipated science fiction books to movies in 2024, Mickey7 is an Expendable, a disposable human sent to perform jobs too dangerous for normal humans. On the ice planet Niflheim, Mickey7 is prematurely replaced by his clone and must hide his existence. As the native creatures grow curious about human settlers, Mickey7 is the only one who can bridge the gap between cultures, if he can just stay alive.
The Watchers
A. M. Shine
June 7, 2024 – When Mina’s car breaks down, she doesn’t realize she has entered the boundaries of a mysterious forest. Walking into the woods, she encounters a screaming woman and flees with her to a concrete bunker. Finding herself in a room full of glass, Mina realizes the humans are being caged like zoo animals for the Watchers. Desperate for answers, Mina will not settle until she understands what the Watchers want and who they are.
It’s Not Summer Without You
Jenny Han
The Summer I Turned Pretty: Season 2, July 14, 2024 – Season Two of The Summer I Turned Pretty covers Jenny Han’s second book in the series. Belly used to anticipate summer all year long but this year she is dreading its return. When Jeremiah calls saying that Conrad has disappeared, Belly must return to Cousins Beach to make things right in what is likely to be their last summer together.
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Crockett Johnson
August 2, 2024 – The beloved children’s picture book about Harold who creates a magical world with his purple crayon is getting a live-action book to movie adaptation in 2024. Details are slim on how closely the film will follow the original book, but we know the film is starring Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel, Lil Rel Howery, and Ravi Patel.
Heartstopper: Volume 2
Alice Oseman
Heartstopper Season 2, August 3, 2024 – Best friends Charlie and Nick charmed in the first season of Heartstopper, where a gay Charlie falls in love with his best friend Nick. In season two, Nick is ready to come out to his family and friends, a process that will teach him a lot about his loved ones and himself.
The Amateur
Robert Littell
November 8, 2024 – Working as a cryptographer for the CIA, Charlie Heller is a quiet man in a quiet desk job. When terrorists kill his fiancée and the agency doesn’t retaliate, Heller embarks on a journey to take justice into his own hands. Starring Rami Malek as Charlie, The Amateur is an action-packed espionage book to movie adaptation hitting screens in November.
Wicked
Gregory Maguire
Wicked: Part 1, November 27, 2024 – Gregory Maguire imagines the life of the Wicked Witch of the West, a misunderstood little green-skinned girl named Elphaba who was not as wicked as our preconceived notions tell us. Maguire’s book, which garners mixed reviews, inspired the hit Broadway musical which is the basis for the film which has been delayed repeatedly over the last few years. Cross your fingers that this one will stay on the Books to Movies 2024 list this time instead of being pushed yet again.
The Two Towers
J. R. R. Tolkien
Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, December 13, 2024 – The second book in Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings series introduces the Kingdom of Rohan, a land of horsemen famed for its unstoppable calvary, The Rohirrim. In an animated backstory, The War of the Rohirrim will tell the tale of a legendary King of Rohan who must defend his lands from the Dunlendings.
Books Becoming Movies in 2023 (Hopefully)
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas
In her popular adult fantasy series, Sarah J Maas introduces you to Feyre, a teenage girl turned huntress doing all she can to provide for her poor yet ungrateful family. After she kills a faerie disguised as a wolf, Feyre is taken to an enchanted land run by her captor, a powerful man who can turn into a beast. Maas starts the story as a typical Beauty and the Beast retelling but transforms it into her own original work.
A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by the Bolsheviks and sentenced to spend the rest of his life on house arrest. Thus the wealthy count is forced to move from his suite at the Metropol, a grand hotel across from the Kremlin, to a servant’s room in the attic. Over the ensuing decades, he witnesses Russia’s tumultuous history from his window and must ponder what it means to be a man of purpose. This glorious literary fiction novel is one you’ll want to read slowly, savoring every word.
A Man in Full
Tom Wolfe
Once a college football star, Charlie Crocker has built a massive business conglomeration in Atlanta which is now on the brink of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, a young father is laid off from his Crocker job and finds himself tangled in the legal system. When a black Georgia Tech running back is accused of date rape of the daughter of a prominent white businessman, the racial tension puts the political and business interests on edge in this novel from the author of The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman
In the sequel to American Gods, Fat Charlie Nancy’s life is changed forever when his father drops dead. Returning to America for the funeral, Fat Charlie is shocked to discover his father was a god .. and he has a brother. Now Fat Charlie must navigate the world of the gods in this novel set in the same world as American Gods, but not directly connected to the first novel.
Blackout
Dhonielle Clayton, Et. Al.
During a summer heatwave, New York City is plunged into darkness from a citywide blackout. Told in six interlinking short stories written by six prominent Black authors (Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon), Blackout tells of first love, friendship transformations, and new possibilities when the lights go out and is set to be produced by the Obama’s Higher Ground Media.
Churchill’s Secret Warriors
Damien Lewis
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – With the war looking bleak in the winter of 1939, Winston Churchill sought a new method of warfare. Quickly, officials recruited a different type of warrior. One they could deny if they were caught behind enemy lines, offering only glory in the face of impossible odds. Damien Lewis recounts the true stories of this unlikely band of brothers.
Cold Storage
David Koepp
While investigating a suspected biochemical attack, Pentagon bioterror expert Roberto Diaz found a terrifying organism capable of mutating and destroying the world. Diaz buried it in cold storage for decades, but the forgotten organism has finally escaped. With the help of two unwitting security guards, Diaz must find a way to contain it again in this thriller penned by the screenwriter of Jurassic Park.
Dark Matter
Blake Crouch
Walking home one night, Jason Dessen is kidnapped and forced into an alternate reality. He’s been thrust into the multiverse, a world where instead of marrying his wife when she got pregnant with their child, he single-mindedly persevered with with his research. Although the middle was a bit slow, Crouch’s premise will boggle your mind and the story concludes with a thrilling finale.
The Electric State
Simon Ståhlenhag
In a dystopian graphic novel, Ståhlenhag paints a vivid alternate reality of 1997 as a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through the United States. The ruins of massive battle droids are strewn across the countryside in a nation ravaged by technological consumerism. The closer she gets to the coast, the more the world seems to completely unravel, harkening the complete end of civilization.
Exit West
Mohsin Hamid
In a country on the brink of civil war, fierce Nadia and gentle Saeed begin an intense romance, nestled securely in love as the city erupts around them. As violence escalates, they begin to hear rumors of doors with the ability to whisk you away to a free land. One of the most powerful book to movie 2024 adaptations, Exit West is a tale of desperately clinging to the past while trying to forge a new future.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
The Brothers Grimm
Snow White, March 21, 2025 – In the 1800s, German linguists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected together a collection of tales from old books and friends and family. These legendary folktales have become common bedtime stories: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Rumplestiltskin, and Snow White. Greta Gerwig is set to adapt a new fantasy musical version whose release date was recently pushed to 2025.
High in the Clouds
Paul McCartney, Philip Ardagh, and Geoff Dunbar
When his homeland is destroyed, Wirral the Squirrel sets off to find Animalia, a land where all animals can live in peace. With the help of a frog with a hot air balloon, a clever rat, and a red squirrel, Wirral eventually decides they must free all the enslaved animals.
Lady in the Lake
Laura Lippman
In 1966, Maddie Schwartz leaves her twenty-year marriage to finally pursue a meaningful life. Working at the city’s afternoon newspaper, Maddie investigates the death of a missing woman found in the city park’s lake. But Maddie’s search for answers puts her loved ones in danger, even the dead woman’s ghost wants Maddie to leave her death alone.
Maybe Next Time
Cesca Major
On an ordinary Monday, Emma rushes out the door to work, not having time to deal with her husband Dan and their children, who all seem to be sad or on edge. After dinner, Emma has a blow-up fight with Dan. When Dan takes the dog for a walk, he is killed in a car accident. Waking up the next day, Emma finds it’s Monday again. Desperately trying to change their fate, Emma keeps reliving that awful Monday hoping that this time she might get it right. Reese Witherspoon is set to produce the movie adaptation of Maybe Next Time, hence its choice as her November 2023 book club pick.
My Lady Jane
Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows
Hand, Ashton, and Meadows collaborate to write a snarky and not very historically accurate portrayal of Lady Jane Grey, who was the Queen of England for nine days. To secure the throne for Jane instead of his Catholic half-sister, a dying King Edward marries Jane off to a stranger, Gifford. But when Gifford turns into a horse, Lady Jane sets off with him on an epic adventure to save England.
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
Set in a small village in occupied France, the story centers around two sisters. Forced to house a German officer in her home, the older sister Vianne Mauriac must decide, to protect her daughter, where exactly she should draw the line of being complicit with German demands. On the other hand, her younger sister Isabelle Rossignol feels committed to doing anything she can to resist the German occupation. Although one of my most anticipated books to movies, The Nightingale‘s release date still has been set and I’m not sure if we’ll actually be seeing this one in 2024.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
Another likely candidate for books into movies in 2024, is Márquez’s modern classic. Following seven generations of the Buendía family, whose patriarch José Arcadio Buendía founds the city of Macondo, Columbia, along a riverbank. For years, the town has little connection with the outside world until eventually is pulled into the politics of Columbia. Netflix has taken on the challenge of adapting this multigenerational family story to film.
Orion and the Dark
Emma Yarlett
In a darling picture book, Orion is afraid of lots of things. But Orion is most afraid of the dark, always sleeping with a night light on. Until one night, Dark pays him a visit and takes him on an unforgettable adventure.
Rockaway
Diane Cardwell
After a failed marriage and high-stress job, Diane Cardwell finds herself mesmerized by surfers on Rockaway Beach. Leaving it all behind, she buys a tiny bungalow on the neglected beach and finds a surf teacher. Teaching her not-so-athletic self to learn a new sport, Cardwell just begins to find her balance when superstorm Sandy hits, forcing the entire community to rebuild.
‘Salem’s Lot
Stephen King
The list of books to movies 2024 couldn’t be complete without at least one Stephen King adaptation. In his second published work, King depicts the tale of Ben Mears, a writer returning to the town of his childhood to write his next book. As a boy, he had a supernatural experience in a haunted house in Jerusalem’s Lot and thinks it would be a great inspiration. Though as he starts his book about the power of evil, vampires start to take over the small Maine town.
Spaceman of Bohemia
Jaroslav Kalfar
Spaceman – Raised in the Czech countryside by loving grandparents, Jakub Procházka has become a leading scientist and his country’s first astronaut. When he leaves on a dangerous solo mission to Venus, Jakub realizes too late how much his wife has sacrificed for his ambition. As he befriends an alien spider, Jakub spends his time in space pondering the deep questions of life, hoping to return home to give his marriage another chance.
The Field Guide
Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
The Spiderwick Chronicles – In this beloved children’s story, the Grace children – nine-year-old identical twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory – move into the crumbling Spiderwick Estate in Maine with their mom. When they discover a hidden library and a secret book, the children learn they are sharing the house with faeries with their own agenda. Roku recently picked up this tv series adaption after it was dropped by Disney+.
The Sympathizer
Viet Thanh Nguyen
In the days leading up to the Fall of Saigon, a South Vietnamese general, with the help of his trusted captain, sits making lists of who will receive places on the last flights out of the country as it evacuates. Settling into a new life in Los Angeles, the general and his friends are unaware that the captain is watching their every move, reporting everything back to the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer dives into the life of this captain and how he became a sympathizer for the communists.
The Three-Body Problem
Cixin Liu
3 Body Problem – During China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret project sends signals into space hoping to make contact with extraterrestrials. When their signal is received by an alien species intent on conquering Earth, mankind must decide how to respond. Do you acquiesce to superior beings since Earth is already so corrupt or do you fight against them, a seemingly impossible task?
Turtles All the Way Down
John Green
John Green’s young adult novel follows sixteen-year-old Aza as she investigates the mystery of a fugitive billionaire. Hoping to earn the $100,000 reward, Aza and her best friend Daisy befriend his son Davis hoping to find answers. John Green eloquently delves into Aza’s mental health issues with severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, which makes this novel especially significant for teenagers today.
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld
Good dystopian books for teens tap into their fears, and Uglies takes a hard look at self-image issues. Tally is thrilled to be turning sixteen soon so she can undergo an extensive procedure that will transform her from an ugly duckling to flawlessly gorgeous. Once you’re a pretty, you are welcomed into a life of luxury and amusement. When Tally’s best friend runs away to avoid the procedure, Tally is recruited to find her, or be refused the surgery herself.
We Were the Lucky Ones
Georgia Hunter
One of the best World War 2 novels released in recent years, We Were the Lucky Ones is based on the epic true story of the Kurc family. Separated during the war, they are determined to not only survive the atrocities but reunite together and be a family again. To make the story even more compelling – it’s a tale of the author’s own ancestors. If you love WWII historical fiction based on true stories, this is one to not miss of the books to movies in 2024.
Books to Movies In Development
What Books to Movies in 2024 Are You Most Excited For?
Do you enjoy watching books becoming movies? Which books to movies in 2024 are you most likely to go see? As always, let me know in the comments!
More Book Lists:
Adrienne says
What a huge list! I’m predicting that Dune is going to be a blockbuster.
I plan to read The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee. Amazon Prime is releasing the TV mini-series on January 26th. I lived in Hong Kong as an expat for 13 years and met Janice soon after her first novel was published. We’ll see if I can recognize any characters!