Poets & Writers Theater

Watch the trailer for The Friend, a film adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s National Book Award–winning novel of the same name. Written and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, the film stars Ann Dowd, Bill Murray, Naomi Watts, and Bing the Great Dane.

Watch the trailer for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, a film adaptation of the 2013 novel of the same name by Helen Fielding. Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, and Emma Thompson reprise their roles in this fourth installment of the Bridget Jones film series, which follows the titular character navigating romance as a single mother and widow.

Watch the trailer for Mickey 17, a science fiction film based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Mickey7. Written, produced, and directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Robert Pattinson, the film follows a man who is hired to die and be cloned repeatedly while exploring a dangerous planet.

Watch the trailer for Nightbitch, a film adaptation of the 2021 novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder. Written and directed by Marielle Heller, the film stars Amy Adams as an artist who pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mother and finds her maternal instincts beginning to manifest in canine form.

Watch the film trailer for Queer, a film adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s 1985 novel of the same name. Directed by Luca Guadagnino with a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes, the film stars Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, and Jason Schwartzman.

Watch the trailer for the short film Greta, directed by Benjamin Font and based on the short story of the same name by Miciah Bay Gault, which was first published in Switchyard magazine.

Watch the trailer for The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, a film adaptation of the 2013 best-selling novel of the same name by Edward Kelsey Moore. Directed by Tina Mabry, and starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan, and Uzo Aduba, the film follows three lifelong best friends through life’s challenges and joys over four decades.

Watch the Apple TV+ trailer for Lady in the Lake, a film adaptation of the 2019 novel of the same name by Laura Lipmann, directed by Alma Har’el and starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram. The thriller mystery takes place in 1960s Baltimore and revolves around two women connected by a mysterious death.

Directed and cowritten by Ethan Hawke, Wildcat is a film based on the short stories and letters of Flannery O’Connor and explores both her characters and her life. Starring Maya Hawke and Laura Linney, the film dramatizes some of O’Connor’s most famous short stories and delves into the author’s craft and faith.

All of Us Strangers is a British romantic fantasy film directed by Andrew Haigh and based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. Starring Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, the film follows a screenwriter who develops a relationship with a mysterious neighbor that triggers memories of his past and draws him back to his childhood home.

Leave the World Behind is a film adaptation of the 2020 best-selling novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam. The psychological, dystopian thriller directed by Sam Esmail stars Mahershala Ali, Kevin Bacon, Ethan Hawke, Myha’la, and Julia Roberts.

American Fiction is a film adaptation of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure, a satire about a frustrated Black author and professor who uses a pen name to write a successful book playing into racial stereotypes and tropes. Directed by Cord Jefferson, the film stars Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, and Sterling K. Brown.

“He’s been such a mirror for pop culture, but now he’s his own pop culture.” In this trailer for King on Screen, a documentary about the many film and television adaptations of Stephen King’s stories and novels, directors and screenwriters discuss what makes King the master of horror.

Eileen is a psychological thriller film based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s award-winning debut novel of the same name, with a screenplay by the author and her husband Luke Goebel. Directed by William Oldroyd and starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie, the film is set in a 1960s juvenile detention facility and follows the life of a young correctional officer and her entanglements with a charming prison psychologist.

Watch the trailer for the film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s short story “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” a short film directed by Wes Anderson. The Netlfix film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, and Ben Kingsley.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, this film adaptation of journalist David Grann’s 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI stars Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Lily Gladstone. Set in 1920s Oklahoma, the film depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation.

“That’s the thing about writing. It’s about sitting with the problem.” In this Behind the Curtain video, screenwriter and director Greta Gerwig talks about adapting Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel Little Women into a film and the challenges of the writing process.

Watch the trailer for Dune: Part Two, the second chapter of the film saga adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic 1965 science fiction novel. The film is directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Florence Pugh.

Watch the trailer for the theatrical adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. Directed by Blitz Bazawule with a screenplay by poet and playwright Marcus Gardley, the film stars Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, Halle Bailey, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, and Taraji P. Henson.

Watch the trailer for Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, a film adaptation of Judy Blume’s classic novel of the same name starring Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates, written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig.