All of the UK & US April Books to Screen Releases!
FILM
How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Andreas Malm (2020, Verso Books). Adapted by Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol, and Daniel Goldhaber.
Directed by Daniel Goldhaber. Starring Lukas Gage, Ariela Barer, and Kristine Froseth.
Produced by Neon, Tandem, Vertigo Releasing, Elevation Pictures, Madman Entertainment and The Searchers.
Summary: The science on climate change has been clear for a very long time now. Yet despite decades of appeals, mass street protests, petition campaigns, and peaceful demonstrations, we are still facing a booming fossil fuel industry, rising seas, rising emission levels, and a rising temperature. With the stakes so high, why haven’t we moved beyond peaceful protest?
Released April 7th in the USA and April 21st in the UK.
Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire (2011, Simon & Schuster). Adapted by Roger Kumble.
Directed by Roger Kumble. Starring Dylan Sprouse, Virginia Gardner, and Autumn Reeser.
Produced by Warner Bros, and Voltage Pictures.
Summary: The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand. The first book in a trilogy.
Released 4th April in the UK and April 12th in the US.
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2016, Washington Square Press). Adapted by Taylor Jenkins Reid and
Alex J. Reid.
Produced by Volition Media Partners, Buffalo 8 Productions, and Gosdom Entertainment.
Directed by Andy Fickman. Starring Simu Liu, Luke Bracey, and Phillipa Soo.
Summary: Emma and Jesse are living the perfect life together, until Jesse disappears in a tragic helicopter crash on their first wedding anniversary. Four years later, Emma finds happiness again as she’s about to marry her best friend. However, when Jesse miraculously resurfaces, Emma soon finds herself torn between two great loves.
Released April 14th Online (Paramount+).
Rare Objects by Kathleen Tessaro (2016, Harper). Adapted by Katie Holmes and Phaedon A. Papadopoulos.
Directed by Katie Holmes. Starring Purva Bedi, Candy Buckley, David Alexander Flinn, and Katie Holmes.
Produced by Lafayette Pictures, Yale Productions, and IFC Productions.
Summary: Mae Fanning seizes on a job at a tiny, exclusive Boston antiques shop as the fresh start she desperately needs. It opens a window to new world, one peopled with rare and rich characters. But the day that enigmatic socialite Diana van der Laar walks in, Mae’s hidden past returns. Moving from Jazz-Age New York to Boston in the grip of the Great Depression, Rare Objects is a rich and gripping story of what it means to reach for a braver, bolder life.
Released April 14th online.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami (2006, Vintage). Adapted by Pierre Földes.
Directed by Pierre Földes. Starring Amaury de Crayencour, Mathilde Auneveux, and Arnaud Maillard.
Produced by Miyu Productions and Cinémadefacto.
Summary: Collection of twenty-four stories – From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit his ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and relentlessly entertaining. Here are animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an iceman, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. Whether during a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece, a holiday in Hawaii, or in the grip of everyday life, Murakami’s characters confront grievous loss, or sexuality, or the glow of a firefly, or the impossible distances between those who ought to be closest of all.
Released April 14th in the US.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (1970, Bradbury Press). Adapted by Kelly Fremon Craig.
Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig. Starring Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, and Kathy Bates.
Producer by Gracie Films and Lionsgate.
Summary: Margaret Simon, almost twelve, likes long hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain, and things that are pink. She’s just moved from New York City to Farbook, New Jersey, and is anxious to fit in with her new friends—Nancy, Gretchen, and Janie. When they form a secret club to talk about private subjects like boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret is happy to belong.
Released April 28th in the US.
Peter Pan & Wendy (Org. Peter Pan) by J.M. Barrie (1911, Hodder and Stoughton) . Adapted by David Lowery & Toby Halbrooks.
Directed by David Lowery. Starring by Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, and Jude Law.
Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Whitaker Entertainment, and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films.
Summary: Peter Pan, the mischievous boy who refuses to grow up, lands in the Darling’s proper middle-class home to look for his shadow. He befriends Wendy, John and Michael and teaches them to fly (with a little help from fairy dust). He and Tinker Bell whisk them off to Never-land where they encounter the Red Indians, the Little Lost Boys, pirates and the dastardly Captain Hook.
Released April 28th (Disney+).
TV
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed (2012, Vintage Books). Adapted by Liz Tigelaar.
Starring Kathryn Hahn, Merritt Wever, and Michaela Watkins.
Produced by ABC Signature, Hello Sunshine, and Jaywalker Pictures.
Airing from April 7th on Disney+/Hulu. 8 Episodes (Mini-Series)
Summary: Tiny Beautiful Things is a collection of essays compiled from Strayed’s “Dear Sugar” advice column, which she wrote anonymously, on The Rumpus, an online literary magazine. The columns focus as much on her literary memoir as they do on advice and self-help.
Transatlantic (Org. The Flight Portfolio) by Julie Orringer (2019, Knopf). Adapted by Julie Orringer and Daniel Hendler.
Starring Gillian Jacobs, Lucas Englander, and Cory Michael Smith.
Produced by Studio Airlift and Cactus Films.
Airing from April 7th on Netflix. 7 episodes (mini-series).
Summary: In 1940, Varian Fry—a Harvard-educated American journalist—traveled to Marseille carrying three thousand dollars and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to rescue within a few weeks. Instead, he ended up staying in France for thirteen months, working under the veil of a legitimate relief organization to procure false documents, amass emergency funds, and set up an underground railroad that led over the Pyrenees, into Spain, and finally to Lisbon, where the refugees embarked for safer ports.
Obsession (org. Damage) by Josephine Hart (1991, Knopf). Adapted by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Benji Walters.
Starring Richard Armitage, Rish Shah, and Charlie Murphy.
Produced by Gaumont UK, Gaumont, and Moonage Pictures.
Airing April 13th on Netflix. 4 episodes (mini-series).
Summary: A the gripping story of a man’s desperate obsession and scandalous love affair. He is a man who appears to have everything: wealth, a beautiful wife and children, and a prestigious political career in Parliament. But his life lacks passion, and his aching emptiness drives him to an all-consuming, and ultimately catastrophic, relationship with his son’s fiancée.
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (2021, Simon & Schuster). Adapted by Laura Dave, Isaac Gomez, and Josh Singer.)
Starring Jennifer Garner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Angourie Rice.
Produced by 20th Television, Hello Sunshine, and Red Om Films.
Airing from April 14th on Apple TV+. 7 episodes (Ongoing).
Summary: Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey. Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. Bailey, who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered; as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss; as a US Marshal and FBI agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.
Dead Ringers (Org. Twins) by Bari Wood & Jack Geasland (1971, Signet). Adapted by Alice Birch.
Starring Rachel Weisz, Kitty Hawthorne, and Britne Oldford.
Produced by Amazon Studios, Annapurna Television, and Morgan Creek Entertainment.
Airing from April 21st on Amazon Prime. 6 episodes (ongoing).
Summary: A spellbinding novel of the bizarre lives and shocking deaths of twin doctors—bound together by more-than-brotherly love, damned together to a private hell of unspeakable obsessions.
Love & Death (Org. Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs) by John Bloom
and Jim Atkinson (1985, Bantam). Adapted by David E. Kelley.
Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Olivia Grace Applegate, and Jesse Plemons.
Produced by Blossom Films, David E. Kelley Productions, and Lionsgate Television.
Airing from April 27th on HBO Max.
Summary: Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore had a lot in common: They sang together in the Methodist church choir, their daughters were best friends, and their husbands had good jobs working for technology companies in the north Dallas suburbs known as Silicon Prairie. But beneath the placid surface of their seemingly perfect lives, both women simmered with unspoken frustrations and unanswered desires.
Tom Jones (Org. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling) by Henry Fielding (1979, Andrew Miller). Adapted by Gwyneth Hughes.
Starring Sophie Wilde, Solly McLeod, and Shirley Henderson.
Produced by Mammoth Screen, PBS Masterpiece, and Independent Television (ITV).
Airing from April 30th on PBS. 4 episodes (ongoing).
Summary: A foundling of mysterious parentage brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighboring squire—though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls. When Tom is banished to make his own fortune and Sophia follows him to London to escape an arranged marriage, the adventure begins. A vivid Hogarthian panorama of eighteenth-century life, spiced with danger and intrigue, bawdy exuberance and good-natured authorial interjections, Tom Jones is one of the greatest and most ambitious comic novels in English literature.
The Book to Screen Club 