Novel Adaptations Are The Hottest Trend For Streaming Sites

A look at 5 new shows that are coming to your streaming services, and the books that inspired them…

While there may have been delays in productions as Hollywood scrambles to meet new shooting guidelines that will allow them to continue film upcoming projects, there hasn’t been a delay in script acquisitions. There have been countless new scripts circulating around Hollywood and, just in the past few years, there has been a huge increase in novel adaptations coming to the big screen and streaming services

Not only are there an abundance of novels available to be adapted, but there has also been critical acclaim that have come to be associated with these Limited Series portrayals. Take “Big Little Lies”, which debuted in the Spring of 2017 and earned recognition from most of the major Awards, The Emmy’s, The Golden Globes and SAG Awards. Series like these are being appearing left and right. Just this year, “Normal People” and “Little Fires Everywhere”, both novel adaptations, have earned nominations for the Emmy’s. These shows are working and are almost guaranteed to be a success because they already have established fan bases that are easy for studios and streaming sites to identify revenue from.

Due to these novel adaptation’s massive success and praise, there are more on the way.

1. “Nine Perfect Strangers” by Liane Moriarty (Coming to Hulu)

Liane Moriarty wrote and produced the 2017 HBO hit, “Big Little Lies” and is coming back to the screen with her latest 2018 Novel “Nine Perfect Strangers.” Deadline first reported the series is headed to Hulu in 2021 and already has a stacked cast behind the project. Nicole Kidman is re-teaming with Moriarty on this project, they had previously worked together on Season’s 1 and 2 of “Big Little Lies” and will also be joined by Melissa McCarthy, Luke Evans, Regina Hall, Michael Shannon , Bobby Cannavale and Manny Jacinto - to name a few of the cast members connected to the project.

The adaptation will be written as a Limited Series and centers around nine strangers who come together at a health and wellness retreat where they become enraptured with the retreat’s leader and guru. Each person attending the weekend is there for a different reason and as they spend time together, they realize that their circumstances are not what they seem.

2. “They Wish They Were Us” by Jessica Goodman (TBD)

Here is an instance where a novel’s rights are snatched up prior to the books actual release. “They Wish They Were Us” is a novel debut from new author Jessica Goodman that has already been grabbed with Sydney Sweeney (“Euphoria”, “Sharp Objects”). Sweeney is set to star as the lead in the project with Jean-Marc Vallée in the director’s chair with Nathan Ross on-board to help produce. Vallée is most famously associated with “Big Little Lies”, as he directed most of the episodes in Season 1, and has also worked with Sweeney in the past on HBO’s 2018 dark drama “Sharp Objects”, another book adaptation, this time from author Gillian Flynn.

Deadline first broke the story on July 31st, a week prior to the book’s release. “They Wish They Were Us” is going to be re-named “The Players Table” for the series adaptation and centers around an elite high school just outside of New York City, where the students are still reeling from the death of a classmate three years prior. The story centers around the “players”, top members of the senior class that are forced to look back at the night where their friend died and question if the killer is still at large. The adaptation marks the first acquisition of Sydney Sweeney’s production company Fifty, Fifty and Sweeney will be portraying the role of Jill Newman, the lead in the series. More to come!

Sydney Sweeney will produce and star in the adaptation “They Wish They Were Us” re-named for Series as “The Players Table”

3. “Daisy Jones & The Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Coming to Amazon Prime)

Plucked from the shelves of Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club, “Daisy Jones & The Six” is headed for Amazon Prime. The series has already been cast and production was underway earlier this year. This series, like many others, have been impacted due to COVID production halts and the status of filming is still questionable. The story follows the rise of “The Six” the band that comes together to form what people are referring to as “Fleetwood Mac” as they rise to fame in the 1970s becoming a global phenomenon. Daisy Jones in the story is rumored to be Stevie Nicks as she finds her way throughout the novel and discovering her voice in the midst of the chaos around her.

Amazon has promised the series to have at least 12 episodes and is rumored to hit the site in 2021. The lead of Daisy will be played by Riley Keough. Keough has been acting for years in smaller roles and parts, but is slated to have an impressive year starring in “The Devil All The Time” (2020) due this fall and “Zola” (2020) which debuted with critical acclaim at Sundance Festival this year. Sam Claflin is also starring in the series playing The Six’s front man and lead singer and will be joined by Suki Waterhouse and Camilla Morrone comprising other members of the band.

This will be a large project for Amazon Prime and the acquisition demonstrates their desire to compete with other, larger, more established streaming sites.

From Left to Right: Riley Keough will star as Daisy in the series adaptation and Camilla Morrone will play Camilla, wife of The Six’s front man, Billy.

4.     “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennet (Coming to HBO)

Deadline reported that HBO won the rights to Brit Bennett’s “The Vanishing Half” earlier this year and is set to adapt the best-selling novel into a limited series. After week’s at the top of the New York Time’s Best-Seller List, HBO acquired the series with a seven-figure value where Deadline reported that 17different bidders were vying for the rights to the series.

The book tells the story of multi-generational identical twins who run away at the young age of sixteen and go on to lead drastically different lives. Taking place over the course of many years, “The Vanishing Half” explores the lives of the twins from 1940s – 1990s and examines the framework of race and how it systematically operates in their lives throughout the years. The novel was published in June 2020 and has already sparked discussions around the books discourse. Britt Bennett, the author, will stay on board as an executive producer on the limited series.

Brit Bennett, author of “The Vanishing Half” coming soon to HBO.

 5.     “Conversations with Friends” by Sally Rooney (coming to Hulu)

If you haven’t seen BBC Three / Hulu’s latest series “Normal People,” it’s about time you checked it out because there is more content like it on the way. Based on the rapid success and critical acclaim of the novel turned Limited Series, Hulu is snagging up the rights to another novel written by the same author, Sally Rooney. Hulu has already set its sights on Rooney’s debut novel, “Conversations with Friends” just a few months after the original adaptation “Normal People “ aired.

Sally Rooney is an Irish-Writer who found success with the publication of her first novel, “Conversations with Friends” in 2017 and if you watched the series Normal People, thinking the content there was scandalous, get ready for “Conversations with Friends”. Rooney’s debut novel focuses on the lives of two twenty-year old friends living together in Dublin who become intertwined within the complicated dynamics of a married couple’s relationship, throwing all partners in the affair into an upheaval. Drawing on similar ties of Normal People, the book is set in Ireland and ties very closely to the similar themes of friendship and relationships and the unclear boundaries that coincide between the two. Set to return to the directors’ chairs are Lenny Abrahamson (Room) and Hettie Macdonlad after their massive success with their first adaptations.

While these are just a few of the highlights coming to streaming services in 2021, there are certainly more on the way. Hollywood knows that if they can guarantee a fan base, they can guarantee viewership. In a world where streaming sites are vying for top placement, they will do whatever they can to secure content that resonates with its audiences. This isn’t the last time we will see novel adaptation announcements, there will be more to come.