Hamnet. One Battle After Another. Train Dreams.
So many of our favourite films (and shows) start their lives as novels. In the literary review below, I outline three books that I believe are ripe for adaptation, ready to become future on-screen hits.
Butter - Asako Yuzuki
The rich culinary imagery in this novel from Japanese author Asako Yuzuki feels destined to be portrayed on screen.
Butter was originally published in Japan in 2018, only receiving its English-language translation in 2024 - yet it became a quick success with international readers, earning the Waterstones Book of the Year Prize that same year (previous winners of the award include Hamnet and Normal People).
The novel follows overworked journalist Rika, who becomes entangled in the enigmatic world of suspected female serial killer Manako Kajii while carrying out research for an article based on the killer’s life. The case attracts national attention because Kajii dated the three victims before they met their untimely demise, supposedly luring them into a romance through her moorish cooking and attentive love. This type of caregiver, who causes harm, is reminiscent of one of the most intriguing storylines in Phantom Thread.
After visiting the enticing yet snobby Kajii in prison, Rika starts to feel a strange draw to the case and the woman herself. Their odd conversations challenge her worldview, and her life starts to unravel. There is a charged journalist-criminal relationship between Rika and Kajii that is reminiscent of Netflix’s Inventing Anna (though not a true story, Butter was inspired partly by the real-life case of female serial killer Kanae Kijima).
The three female characters are the key point of the story. Each is wonderfully written, making them fantastic playgrounds for a talented cast; Rika is hardworking and independent, but easily influenced by the sway of others, leading her down a dangerous path. Kajii is a wonderfully complex villain, with a bizarre world-view that won’t budge an inch, whether people treat her with reverence or indifference. And Reiko, Rika’s best friend, is headstrong and fiercely loyal - her love for Rika and their relationship carries the story in wild directions. We believe this would work best with a local cast of Japanese actors, introducing them to an international audience, much like the talent of Squid Game or Money Heist.
Masami Nagasawa would also be a good choice to play Rika in Butter. She isn’t as well-known by Western audiences, but she’s big in Japanese TV and movies, has the right range and age. She has starred in two films which screened at Cannes - Our Little Sister (2015) and Before We Vanish (2017).
Butter would also do well as a series, especially if created by a Japanese team for Netflix or a similar streamer. It has the kind of quirky and rich story that other foreign-language series, (the aforementioned) Squid Game and Money Heist, brought to international acclaim.
The flexibility of a series would suit the storyline, which could be either split into multiple seasons or expanded upon. There could even be scope to incorporate Yuzuki’s other work in later seasons - she has a new book, Hooked: a novel of obsession, coming out this month that appears to follow similar themes to Butter and has built a lot of excitement among her audience.
Here’s the link to Butter.
Selfish Girls - Abigail Bergstrom
At the Cheltenham Literature Festival in October, amongst the new works by Richard Osman and Mick Herron, whose novels have both been adapted for the screen (The Thursday Murder Club and Slow Horses, respectively), a quietly dark family drama was creating buzz.
Selfish Girls is a 2025 novel by Abigail Bergstrom that feels like a modern-day gothic. After a miscarriage that leads to a life-questioning breakdown, Ines finds herself reluctantly moving from her cosmopolitan life in London to her isolated hometown in Wales. As soon as she gets there, it is as though she has stepped into a time capsule - an unchanging community that has held onto her family’s trauma for generations.
For the first time since childhood, Ines is living in the same town as her mother and her sisters - the self-hating Emma and the ego-bruised Dylan.
Berstrom said about her novel:
“With sisters, nobody will ever love you like that. It gives fertile ground to play out your dark fantasies on the subject, seeing sisters do terrible things to each other.”
The way these sisters have the unique ability to deeply understand and, subsequently, hurt each other adds a sadistic layer to the story that we don’t usually see in representations of modern families.
There is an almost Shakespearean element to the betrayal within the family unit that is perfect for an ensemble of classically trained actors to undertake. The main story is intertwined with flashes into the past, showing the events that led up to the deep-rooted trauma still scarring the family in the present day.
Today, we’re seeing an increased interest in films and series involving sisters.
The newly announced Three Incestuous Sisters from Alice Rohrwacher (La Chimera), Kate and Rooney Mara acting together for the first time in Herzog’s Bucking Fastard, and the Fanning sisters appearing together in multiple projects. It is a good time for a project exploring the nature of sisterhood.
This kind of family drama would be perfectly suited for a mid-budget limited series by the BBC. This is partly due to it having the scope to reach a wide audience. But also because filming in Wales is essential, and the BBC has a great base and talent pool in Cardiff. The location is a character in and of itself in the novel, nostalgic and claustrophobically familiar, a realm that knows all the dark secrets the family attempts to bury. Photographing a quintessential small Welsh town amid verdant greenery and misty valleys will immediately set the correct tone for an adaptation.
A tonal mixture between Flowers and His Three Daughters. The dimly lit, cramped interior spaces of a faded childhood home, moody weather, and a tension between the sisters suggest sinister secrets of their past.
In terms of talent, the author mentioned she could picture Olivia Colman (The Roses) taking on the role of the troubled and complex matriarch of the family, Gwen. In terms of the sisters, Welsh actors Morfydd Clarke (Rings of Power) and Erin Richards (Gotham), who previously played siblings in Starve Acre, both have the talent to master the coded language used between relatives.
Here’s the link to Selfish Girls.
The Betrothed - Alessandro Manzoni
The Betrothed, or I Promessi Sposi, is one of the most important pieces of literature in the Italian canon, but to the rest of the world it has remained a lesser-known novel. Likened in national importance to Dante’s Divine Comedy, the novel received less-than-ideal English translations until a 2022 version by Michael F. Moore came along.
It is an epic tale following two young fiancées, Renzo and Lucia, who are separated by the cruel plans of a tyrannical lord who wants Lucia for his own plaything.
The plot jumps from one extreme drama to the next: riots over food shortages tearing apart the city of Milan as starving citizens break into the houses of the wealthy and drag them out to face justice; the devastating and horrific spread of the Bubonic Plague (The Italian Plague of 1629-31, an event which killed roughly a third of Northern Italy’s population); and a wave of sellswords (the Bravi) loyal to the corrupt elite stalking the lands to enact punishment on the innocent.
Our lead characters face constant torment - kidnapping, near-execution, starvation, and sickness - but they hold onto the hope that one day they will be reunited. Corruption is around every corner, and for each kind soul who attempts to help the couple, there is a shady lawyer, lord, or priest who benefits from betraying them.
With a film such as The Odyssey coming out this year, there is an understanding between studios and big-budget auteur directors that a modern audience can connect with a historical story, as long as its themes are universal.
The subjects dealt with in The Betrothed are dark, but the novel is packed full of humorous moments that could be accentuated and updated to modern tastes by a gifted screenwriter and a talented ensemble cast - there are many memorable characters with different levels of importance, meaning the cast could be an eclectic mix of established talent, character actors, and up-and-comers. Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) comes to mind as someone who could bring humour and levity to the cowardly priest, Don Abbondio, the character who refuses to marry the couple upon pain of death and ignites their troubled journey.
Although three Italian-language film adaptations exist (the most recent being 60 years old - watch the full thing here), it is time for an update: a large-budget epic would suit this story perfectly.
It would require a director who could portray the scale of the events that the characters face; although travelling across the towns of Northern Italy isn’t much of a challenge for us now, it would have felt like a monumental journey to 17th-century outlaws and needs epic, sweeping visuals.
The thought of a historical epic calls to mind the likes of Ridley Scott or Christopher Nolan, who could no doubt do it justice; however, there is romance at the core of this story that has as much in common with Romeo and Juliet as 300. For this reason, I believe a filmmaker like Chloe Zhao could be an interesting choice for this kind of story, mixing her experience with large-scale landscapes from Nomadland and historical romance from Hamnet.
To be bold in my hopes for this imagined project: if this precious piece of literature from the Italian canon is honoured, then a large-scale film could potentially be included in the Venice Film Festival, which could then lead to attention from The Academy (who are known for their fondness for historical stories).
Here’s the link to The Betrothed.
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