1. Shadow and Bone
This has to be my most anticipated book-to-movie adaptation this year, it looks like Netflix really went big on this production and invested a big budget, which is what the story deserves. Leigh Bardugo has managed to create such a unique and interesting world and it has the potential to translate really well into the big screen.
Based on the bestselling book series by Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone follows the story of the orphan Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), a mapmaker who holds a power beyond anyone’s imagination and might just be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free and saving the world. In an attempt to save her friend Alina summons sunlight, a rare power even among “Grisha”. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina finds herself in a very different world filled with adventure and betrayal, trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. The adaptation doesn’t only focus on Shadow and Bone book but also includes characters from Leigh’s spin-off series “Six of Crows” which follows a gang of criminals completing dangerous heists. The eight-episode first season drops on the streaming service on 23 April! Make sure not to miss it!
2. DUNE
Dune, one of the greatest classics of sci-fi literature is being adapted into a movie. If I could describe Dune in a small sentence (because you can’t possibly describe it in one word) it would be: Game of Thrones in space. I don’t think that description does it justice, but it does carry the same epicness and high-stakes story as game of thrones. And judging by the trailer it’s a high scale production whose budget is comparable to Marvel movies. The CGI effects and cinematography look so clean and realistic, you can tell a lot of blood, sweat and tears are put on this production.
So what is it about?
Dune takes place so many millennia into the future, where humanity lives in a galactic empire that barely remembers Earth. The story begins with the Atreides family, rulers of the planet Caladan, receiving an assignment from the Emperor to relocate to Arrakis. There, the family take over mining of melange, a substance that prolongs human life. Joining them on the planet are Duncan Idaho, played by Momoa, and Gurney Hallack, played by Brolin, two fighters that help train the family’s son Paul (Chalamet) in battle.
Soon after their arrival on the planet, Atreides family is betrayed by one of their own and Paul and his mother are left tofight and survive on their own Eventually, the two come into contact with people native to Arrakis, called Fremen. There they join forces with them to take back Arrakis and avenge their family.
The casting for the main roles, especially that of Chalamet did raise some eyebrows, but I believe he is fantastic actor and he will do the role justice so I can’t wait to watch it on the big screen.
3. The Nightingale
This story the lives of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle , living in France, who are torn apart at the onset of World War II. Soon after Vianne says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, who joins the Front lines at war, her home gets requisitioned by a German captain, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.
Isabelle, on the other hand, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France–a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
The movie is currently in production. More information to be released.
Wheel of Time
The Wheel of Time takes place millennials in the future, during a time known as the “Third Age,” where society resembles a whole lot medieval Europe. The first season of Amazon’s adaptation is based off of the first book in the series, The Eye of the World, which follows Aes Sedai (an all-female magic organization) member Moiraine Damodred as she attempts to find the Dragon Reborn, a prophesied figure whose actions will eventually save or doom humanity. Amazon prime is set to adapt this fictional world to the big screen. Even though production began in September 2019, no release date has been announced. Although it’s currently unknown how the pandemic will impact the release date, Season 1 is still expected in 2021.
5. The Dig
In May 1939, as Britain is preparing for war, amateur excavator/archaeologist Basil Brown, hired to dig up the huge mounds on Edith Pretty’s property in Suffolk. The widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure, as a skeleton of an 88-foot ship dating to the Anglo-Saxon period is discovered. A burial chamber within the ship is filled with perfectly-preserved artefacts made from gold, but soon what starts as an amazing discovery leads to all kinds of jealousies and tensions.