Ever since the beginning of film as a medium, filmmakers and writers have looked to their favorite books and authors to create content.
Some of the most classic films in movie history have been inspired by books and literature, making the book-to-movie pipeline a lucrative one when it comes to cementing an author’s legacy differently.

1.Women Talking

Women Talking which has been garnering buzz with critics at the film festivals, was originally adapted from a 2018 book by Miriam Tows that has the same name. The movie – and novel – were inspired by real-life events that happened in a deeply conservative colony in Bolivia called Manitoba. InWomen Talking, the year is 2010, and a group of women lives in isolation at a colony. When they realize the extent of what the men in their colony did – including drugging and raping them – the foundations of the life they have lived there begin to crumble completely.

2. The Pale Blue Eye
A mystery thriller, Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye thrusts viewers back into the 1830s when several murders have been occurring at the United States Military Academy. Retired detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) is asked to investigate, and along the way, he enlists a young cadet from the academy: Edgar Allan Poe. With the clues left behind for them, they soon come to realize that there’s a potential serial killer on the loose, and they need to find the individual before it’s too late.The Pale Blue Eyes adapted from a novel by Louis Bayard that came out in 2003.

3. A Man Called Otto
Tom Hanks stars in A Man Called Otto, where he portrays Otto Anderson. Otto is an older man who lives alone in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, and he’s not the most pleasant fellow on the block despite being a stickler for rules and his daily routine. However, Otto is just misunderstood, as his wife recently died, and he’s grieving over her. When a new family moves across the street, they make it their mission to try and bring Otto into their lives.A Man Called Ottois an adaptation of the novelA Man Called Ove, which had a successful Swedish film version in 2015.

4. Knock At the Cabin
M. Night Shyamalan’s latest feature in 2023 is Knock at the Cabin, which stars Dave Bautista and Jonathan Groff in the leading roles. Based on the novelThe Cabin at the End of the Worldby Paul G. Tremblay, this horror film starts with a family trying to take a simple vacation to get away from their normal lives. They rent a cabin in the woods, but things start to go awry when four strangers appear at their door and demand one of them be chosen for a sacrifice. If they do not comply, then the apocalypse is going to happen.

5. Emily
Emily is Frances O’Connor’s debut as a director and selects the writer Emily Bronte as her subject. Emma Mackey portrays Bronte during the events that led her to write the classical novelWuthering Heights. A fictionalized take on the writer’s life begins with her dying and transitions to a flashback format, one where Emily, still a young woman who has not had a formal education yet, meets a man that captures her heart. However, this is where the movie takes its creative liberties:this male lead did not exist in real life.

6. The Color Purple: The Musical
Alice Walker came out with her novel The Color Purple back in 1982, and, in 2005, a Broadway musical adaptation of the novel was made to moderate success. Now, in 2023, a third adaptation – Steven Spielberg made a film version in 1985 with Whoopi Goldberg – is making its way into theaters. This version retains elements of the musical, specifically the songs. Set in the American south during the early 1900s, a young girl named Celie must cope and survive with her sister in a world that’s seemingly against
them.

7. 0ppenheimer
Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is one of the most anticipated releases of summer 2023, but it was adapted and sourced from a book along with actual history. The movie tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was a critical figure in the Manhattan Project during World War II. With his and so many others’ research, they were able to create atomic bombs and nuclear weapons. The movie will follow his life and research leading up to the creation of the bomb, as well as its impacts of it. Oppenheimer was based on the biographyAmerican Prometheus, which was written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

8. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
TheHunger Gamesseries was one of the most beloved franchises of the early 2010s, rising to the levels – but not quite – of the mania theHarry Potterfranchise had once created. Author Suzanne Collins came out with a prequel to the series in 2020, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, one that introduced president Coriolanus Snow sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games. An orphan in the book, he is selected to mentor a girl from District Twelve in the Hunger Games and ends up accidentally in the games with her. Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth will star.

9. Wonka
Timothée Chalamet will star in Wonka, a musical that serves as a prequel for the well-knownCharlie and the Chocolate Factory. Directed byPaddington’sPaul King, the movie will open up the backstory of Willy Wonka to show when he was a young man just getting started in the world and his career. Set years before he ever opened his chocolate factory, he has a plethora of adventures to go on before becoming the character the world knows today.Wonkawill include a few musical numbers as well, making this the first time Chalamet will star and sing in a musical.

10. Text For You
Priyanka Chopra will star in the upcoming Text For You, which is a remake of a German movie from 2016. The German movie, in turn, was inspired by a novel by Sofie Cramer. Chopra is Mira Ray, a woman who just lost her fiancé. To cope with her grief, she continues to text his number. Little does she know that it now belongs to someone else, who, with the help of Celine Dion, wants to win over Mira’s heart.