Perfect for miniseries or multiple seasons! Little Fires Everywhere, Big Little Lies and You are among the best-selling books that made their way to the small screen in the form of TV adaptations.
Reese Witherspoon is at the center of many of the most successful TV shows based on books, thanks to her passion for bringing fresh stories to a new medium while also shining a light on writers with something unique to say. “It’s nice to highlight authors who don’t have a track record of selling a lot of books,” the actress told Vanity Fair of her book club in her April 2020 cover story. “To watch what happens to them is extraordinary, and really emotional for us.”
The Oscar winner is responsible for optioning Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies and Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere for television. She not only stars in the projects but also executive produces.
“I always knew from the time I was 7 that I wanted to be storyteller or an actor or a singer,” Witherspoon recalled. “Or a writer. I always wanted to be a writer. I think that’s why I’m in awe of writers because I’ve tried to sit down and do it. I have ideas for stories all the time. I could never figure out how things ended. I always have ideas about how things begin but I never know how they end.”
Of course, adaptations must balance creating their own material and staying true to the source. One such example is You, which strays from Caroline Kepnes’ novels. “It’s a show about love and obsession and where the line is between the two of those — and the character of Joe will always look outside himself for this thing that completes him,” showrunner Sera Gamble said on Us Weekly’s “Watch With Us” podcast in January 2020. “He has the perplexity to see a girl and think that she’s The One. I don’t see any signs of stopping that, but we never want to make a season that feels like it’s trying to replicate the one before.”
Scroll through to explore TV shows based on best-selling books!
Credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix
'Bridgerton'
The hit Netflix show is based on the book series by Julia Quinn which follows each Bridgerton sibling in their own separate novel.
Credit: Jason Merritt/Radarpics/Shutterstock; Nils Jorgensen/Shutterstock
Red Queen
Six years after Victoria Aveyard’s young adult fantasy novel debuted in 2015, Peacock landed the series for development. Elizabeth Banks is set to play a major role in the potential show, as well as direct.
Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
Firefly Lane
The coming-of-age series, debuting on Netflix in February 2021, is based on the best-selling 2008 book of the same name written by Kristin Hannah. Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke star.
Credit: Hulu
Little Fires Everywhere
Witherspoon (Elena Richardson) and Kerry Washington (Mia Warren) struggle with issues of race and class in the Hulu limited series, inspired by Ng’s 2017 novel. The show premiered in March 2020.
Credit: Jennifer Clasen/HBO
Big Little Lies
Witherspoon (Madeline Mackenzie), Nicole Kidman (Celeste Wright), Laura Dern (Renata Klein), Shailene Woodley (Jane Chapman) and Zoë Kravitz (Bonnie Carlson) star as women brought together by a murder mystery and their children’s Monterey elementary school. Though the show, based on Moriarty’s 2014 book, was supposed to be a miniseries, HBO picked up the Emmy winner — which aired from 2017 to 2019 — for season 2.
Credit: Abc Family/Alloy Entertainment/Warner Horizon Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock
Pretty Little Liars
Troian Bellisario (Spencer Hastings), Ashley Benson (Hanna Marin), Lucy Hale (Aria Montgomery) and Shay Mitchell (Emily Fields) portrayed a group of teens haunted by a texting bully after the disappearance of their friend. Sara Shepard’s series of books, which launched in 2006, inspired the Freeform show to run for seven seasons, from 2010 to 2017.
No comments:
Post a Comment