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Over the last few years, the Oscar for best adapted screenplay has been dominated by well-executed transformations of gripping fiction. Last year\u2019s winner, Conclave<\/em> writer Peter Straughan<\/strong>\u2014which turned a high-end airport novel into a delectably cinematic thriller\u2014is a veteran of the form, previously winning awards for screenplays based on the work of John le Carr\u00e9 (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy<\/em>) and Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall<\/em>). So is 2023 champ Sarah Polley<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> whose Oscar for Women Talking<\/em> came after she earned raves for adapting Margaret Atwood<\/strong> (Alias Grace<\/em>) and Alice Munro (Away From Her<\/em>).<\/p>\n This year\u2019s category should be no different. We\u2019ve got films based on fiction by modern masters including Denis Johnson and Thomas Pynchon,<\/strong> as well as classics by Mary Shelley and Ibsen, coming from a range of lauded directors like Guillermo del Toro<\/strong> (Frankenstein<\/em>) and Paul Thomas Anderson<\/strong> (One Battle After Another<\/em>). As discussed on this week\u2019s episode of the Little Gold Men<\/em><\/a> book club (listen below), we\u2019ve also got Oscar-winning filmmaker Chlo\u00e9 Zhao<\/strong> returning to the prestige space with her take on one of the best novels of the past decade, Hamnet<\/em>\u2014with a screenplay she cowrote with the book\u2019s author, Maggie O\u2019Farrell<\/strong> (who also joined the podcast this week).<\/p>\n Hamnet<\/em> centers on Agnes and William Shakespeare in the late 16th century, tracking their early courtship as well as the period following the tragic death of their eponymous 11-year-old son due to the bubonic plague. Agnes is our protagonist, the story unfurling as a richly textured portrait of her inner life and the powerful force of grief that hovers around her every move. The film\u2019s cast is stacked with Oscar nominees: Agnes is played by Jessie Buckley<\/strong> (The Lost Daughter<\/em>), while Paul Mescal<\/strong> (Aftersun<\/em>) portrays her famous husband. Emily Watson<\/strong> also stars as Mr. Shakespeare\u2019s mother, Mary.<\/p>\n The film will mark new territory for Zhao, who previously adapted Jessica Bruder<\/strong>\u2019s nonfiction book Nomadland<\/em> and worked on the comics-based script for Marvel\u2019s divisive Eternals.<\/em> She\u2019s not alone in that. Nia DaCosta<\/strong> will introduce her take on Ibsen\u2019s Hedda Gabler<\/em> at the Toronto International Film Festival; it stars Tessa Thompson<\/strong> and, in a gender-flipped role, Nina Hoss.<\/strong> DaCosta made a name for herself with her vivid Candyman<\/em> sequel, and like Zhao, tried her hand at Marvel. Hedda<\/em> will be her first adaptation not defined by box-office-proven IP, but rather by the esteem of its source material.<\/p>\n Guillermo del Toro is also taking on a literary classic, though this has become a more familiar move for him. His last feature, Pinocchio,<\/em> returned to the roots of the Carlo Collodi 1883 novel and delivered a darkly moving version of a beloved story; it went on to win the Oscar for best animated feature. He also recently took on the \u201940s noir Nightmare Alley.<\/em> But it feels like he\u2019s been working up to his Frankenstein<\/em> movie his whole career. He recently described the monster epic, starring Jacob Elordi<\/strong> and Oscar Isaac,<\/strong> as his bucket-list film<\/a> to Vanity Fair<\/em>: \u201cI\u2019ve been doing movies for 30 years. I\u2019m not going to be alive for 30 [more] years, I don\u2019t think.\u201d<\/p>\n This year\u2019s literary Oscar race won\u2019t stop there. Fresh off of their Oscar-nominated Sing Sing<\/em> script, Greg Kwedar<\/strong> and Clint Bentley<\/strong> are back with the intimate epic Train Dreams,<\/em> drawing from Denis Johnson\u2019s 2011 novella about a railroad laborer plunged into a deep grief through the 1920s in the American West. Paul Thomas Anderson will return with another chewy, singular Thomas Pynchon adaptation\u2014his last one, Inherent Vice,<\/em> netted him a best-adapted-screenplay nomination, and hopes are high for One Battle After Another,<\/em> said to be loosely taken from Pynchon\u2019s wild Vineland.<\/em> The Cannes Film Festival also launched a few starry adaptations of recent fiction, including The History of Sound,<\/em> based on Ben Shattuck<\/strong>\u2019s short story (he also wrote the screenplay) and starring Mescal and Josh O\u2019Connor,<\/strong> and Die My Love,<\/em> based on Ariana Harwicz<\/strong>\u2019s novel and starring Jennifer Lawrence<\/strong> and Robert Pattinson.<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, later this month, Little Gold Men<\/em>\u2019s book club will return to discuss Ballad of a Small Player,<\/em> featuring a screenplay by Rowan Joff\u00e9<\/strong> that is based on the 2011 novel by Lawrence Osborne.<\/strong> The movie is directed by Edward Berger<\/strong>\u2014who just so happened to helm last year\u2019s Conclave,<\/em> the reigning adapted-screenplay champ. In case things needed to get just that much more competitive.<\/p>\n
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