SLOUGH, ENGLAND:
For any filmmaker worth their salt, books are the gifts that keep on giving. Without a book, there would be no Dune films, no Wicked, and no Bridgerton. And we would certainly not have had It Ends With Us, the project that sparked the ferocious legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Authors have much to answer for.
You will be pleased to learn that 2025 will not be the year to buck the books-to-screen trend. Like every year that has befallen us before, we can expect a film or television adaptation of an existing book. You book fans out there may weep copious tears that filmmakers have slaughtered your beloved literary characters and their arcs, but that in no way is stopping any filmmaker from turning the following books into films in the year ahead. If you have not already read these books, now would be the time to hunt them down so you can appreciate (or denounce) their upcoming adaptations with maximum fervour. Whether you swear allegiance to a solid chick flick, yearn to have the living daylights scared out of you, crave a trip to the past or just want a nice sanitary murder mystery, 2025 has got you covered.
‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’
If you were of the view that one Bridget Jones film was more than enough, you are three films too late. Not only did Renée Zellweger’s Bridget make a comeback in a sequel and a threequel, she and her escapades will be back in February for her fourth and hopefully final instalment. Sadly for Colin Firth fans, he will not be there to tide things over, as his Mark Darcy perished off-screen in a dreadful plane crash sometime before the film begins. However, to make up for his death, we have the reappearance of Hugh Grant’s lascivious Daniel Cleaver, who – as people are wont to do on screen – makes a rather triumphant return from the dead after having been killed off in the previous instalment nine years ago. Eye-candy fans can also look forward to performances from Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor. In Helen Fielding’s novel of the same name, we get an older but not necessarily wiser Bridget juggling single motherhood. Expect nothing less from the film.
‘Frankenstein’
Horror fans, mark your calendars. Where 2024 gave you Nosferatu and Terrifier 3, in 2025, Mexican filmmaker and gothic mastermind Guillermo del Toro is bringing us Frankenstein, his take on Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. Del Toro has promised viewers “the greatest” version yet of one of the OG works of horror. This epic emotional adventure is set in Eastern Europe during the 19th century, exploring the themes of fatherhood and human nature. A creature born out of the experiments of Dr Victor Frankenstein, after being presumed dead in a fire forty years before, is tracked down by another scientist, Dr Septimus Pretorius, who wishes to continue the experiments started by Frankenstein himself, played by Oscar Isaac. Fans of eye candy may be delighted – or perhaps disconcerted – to learn that the normally dishy Jacob Elordi stars as the monster, alongside Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz. If horror is your thing and if del Torro delivers what he has promised, Frankenstein should speak directly to your soul.
‘Hamnet’
Fans of historical literary fiction will be delighted with Hamnet, a film that will allow us all to peer through an unusual lens into the life of none other than William Shakespeare and his family. Fresh off his stint as a gladiator in Gladiator II, Paul Mescal returns as Shakespeare in this adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s rich, soulful novel. However, this is less the story of William and more of his wife, Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley, as she struggles to cope with the loss of her and William’s only son, Hamnet. In the novel, Hamnet’s death serves as the backdrop for the play literature students now revere (or at least know) as Hamlet. O’Farrell’s prose weaves the haunting tapestry of a parent’s grief after the death of a child and paints an exquisite picture of Elizabethan-era village life. If the Chloé Zhao-led film brings to life O’Farrell’s beautiful words, viewers would be strongly advised to strong-arm themselves with a box of tissues.
‘The Thursday Murder Club’
For those of you who adore a nice juicy murder mystery but are repelled by blood and gore, cosy crime is the genre for you – and few films will embody both ‘cosy’ and ‘crime’ in one fell swoop like The Thursday Murder Club, the on-screen adaptation of the first of British comedian Richard Osman’s mystery series. Think quiet, green British village containing four amateur Miss Marple-esque pensioners living it up in armchairs, and you will have some idea of what lies ahead. TTMC follows four amateur sleuths (Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan and Celia Imrie) who solve cold cases for fun in a retirement home, only to be pulled into a real-life mystery involving the death of a local property developer. With the considerable talents of director Chris Columbus leading the way, expect ample heart, a sprinkling of humour, and a dash of good old-fashioned homicide. If the source novel is any indication, it would be difficult to find a more wholesome murder mystery without the involvement of a wish-granting genie.
This post was originally published on here
