Taking Stock of Some Tentpole Forthcoming Adaptations

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

A whole bunch of book adaptation news flew across my desk over the last few days. Let’s take stock of a few of the more interesting projects and see where they are, why they might be exciting and/or what to wonder about them.

First Poster for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey

What It Is:
Nolan’s star-studded, bank-busting, epic-looking adaptation of The Odyssey coming next year.

Where Are We With It:
Apparently there was a trailer shown in-person somewhere that got on TikTok, and then immediately came down. Then came this poster, which is obviously cool.

How Confident Are We That This is Going to Be Good:
Probably as confident as you can be about something like this. It will certainly look and sound amazing. Damon is a sturdy foundation for any kind of a movie. The rest of the cast is as close to a Hollywood pantheon as you will find. Real people Greek gods almost never works for me, so that is a concern but you could not lash me to a mast to keep me away from seeing this on the largest screen possible.

First Trailer for Edgar Wright’s The Running Man

What It Is:
The second crack at adapting Stephen King’s 1982 novel of the same name.

Where We Are With It:
It’s go time. This first, full, frenetic trailer is getting quite a bit of buzz. And with a prime November release date, this has the juice.

How Confident Are We That This Is Going to Be Good:
Look, we know this concept works: someone trying to escape being killed/captured. The Hunger Games. Squid Game. The Fugitive. Director Edgar Wright is a winningly inventive filmmaker who has shown that he can combine action, comedy, and not a little pathos. Powell is white hot right now. And Coleman Domingo and Josh Brolin cannot find enough screen to eat in this thing. I have zero relationship with either the source material (which weirdly was set in 2025) or the first film, but I am ready for this one.

Jennifer Aniston to Star in I’m Glad My Mom Died Series

What It Is:
Aniston has signed on to play Jeanette McCurdy’s mom in an Apple TV+ series based on McCurdy’s runaway best-selling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. It’s a showbiz mother-daughter story of co-dependence, emotional abuse, making it, and Nickelodeon.

Where We Are With It:
It was inevitable we were going to get an adaptation here, and I can only imagine that a lot of people were lining up for the plum role of the mom. Aniston and Apple have had a good (or at least long-running) thing going with The Morning News. So there is star-power and cash to get this thing up and going.

How Confident Are We That It is Going to Be Good:
McCurdy is going to co-write and executive produce the show with Ari Katcher, whose previous projects I am not familiar with. Neither have AAA credits for TV, so that is a wildcard. This show is going to hinge on Aniston: she needs to be terrible, nuts, sympathetic, magnetic: a tragi-comic character that somehow gives a new take on the stage mom trope. McCurdy’s voice is what made the memoir exceptional, so finding a way to make that into the show is going to be key. This will be the most challenging role of Aniston’s career. High risk, high reward.

Jac Shaeffer Rumored to Showrun Fourth Wing Adaptation at Amazon

What It Is:
Speaking of high-risk, high-reward, Amazon has been developing a Fourth Wing series. They have already burned through one writer/producer.

Where We Are With It:
Still looking for a showrunner. The idea that Schaeffer might be the one to bring this thing to your TV is pretty encouraging. WandaVision was terrific. Strange, inventive, with big set pieces and a pretty wild conceit. These are adjectives that will be useful for anyone taking on the Empyrean Series.

How Confident Are We That It Is Going To Be Good:
All we really have at this point are Yarros’ books and Amazon’s cash. Having read the first book and seen big expensive Amazon projects that did not work at all, I don’t think we can have a lot of confidence. The attention will be huge. I am of the mind that a really good showrunner can elevate the source material (though I still have no idea what they are going to do about the sex scenes). I think we are still years away from having any idea what this will be like.

Deal of the Day

Very, very good line-up of downpriced ebooks ahead of the holiday weekend. I’ll single out Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, which I, and a bunch of other folks (Amazon, The New York Times, etc) thought was one of the best books of 2024. Kushner has been a National Book Award finalist twice and this book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. An intriguing, complicated story about belief, being adrift, and a little spycraft. On sale for $2.99 (check your preferred ebook retailer too).