From beachy rom-coms to pulse-pounding thrillers, some of your favorite page-turners are getting the Hollywood treatment. Here are the biggest book-to-film adaptations arriving this year—what they’re based on, who’s starring, and why readers can’t wait to see them come alive.
“Hamnet” by Maggie O-Farrell
Set to star Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, Joe Alwyn, and Emily Watson.
Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet adapts O’Farrell’s novel imagining the private grief behind Shakespeare’s later work, focusing on Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) after the death of their 11-year-old son. The film premiered at Telluride in August 2025 and rolled out theatrically in late 2025 in the U.S., with a UK release set for January 9, 2026.
If you’re framing this as “coming to screens this year,” the UK/intl rollout is the clean 2026 hook.