Booker Prize books that have been adapted for film and television

The Remains of the Day (1993) - Adapted from the 1989 Kazuo Ishiguro novel, the film was directed by James Ivory with a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, herself a Booker winner. Anthony Hopkins takes on the role of the ageing butler, with Emma Thompson, Christopher Reeve and Hugh Grant also starring. Hopkins won Best Actor at the 1993 BAFTA awards for his performance, and the film won three London Film Critics Circle awards.

Heat and Dust (1983) - A British historical romantic drama, with a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, based on her own 1975 novel. Directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant, it stars Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor and Julie Christie. Heat and Dust was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival and earned eight nominations at the 1984 BAFTAs, including Best Film, and went on to win Best Adapted Screenplay for the author.

Possession (2002) - Two modern-day academics uncover a secret affair between famous fictional poets. Based on 1990’s gloriously exhilarating novel of wit and romance by A.S. Byatt. The screenplay, with its considerable deviations from the book, was written and directed by Neil LaBute and stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart.

Hotel du Lac (1986) - A television adaptation of 1984’s winning novel by Anita Brookner. It stars Anna Massey and Denholm Elliott and was directed by Giles Foster. The story focuses on a novelist who takes refuge from life in a hotel on the misty shores of Lake Geneva.

Life of Pi (2012) - Yann Martel’s 2002 modern classic about a boy who finds himself on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a tiger named Richard Parker. In an adaptation directed and produced by Ang Lee, the film stars Irrfan Khan as the adult Pi, Rafe Spall as The Writer, Tabu as Pi’s mother, and Adul Hussain as Pi’s father. It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, including Best Picture - Drama and Best Director, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. It was also nominated for 11 awards at the Oscars in 2013, and won four, including Best Director for Lee.

Last Orders (2001) - Sorrow and resentment mingle with passion and regret in Graham Swift’s 1996 testament to a changing England, and enduring mortality. The film adaptation, written and directed by Fred Schepisi, stars a who’s who of British film acting talent, including Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren and Ray Winstone.

The Sense of an Ending (2017) - A middle-aged man is forced to reconsider his life when confronted with his imperfectly remembered past. Based on the 2011 book by Julian Barnes, the film adaptation was directed by Ritesh Batra and written by Nick Payne. It stars Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Billy Howle, Emily Mortimer and Michelle Dockery.

To the Ends of the Earth (2005) – Adapted from the book Rites of Passage by William Golding which won the Booker Prize in 1980, this is a haunting account of an epic sea journey, which profoundly affects all those who set sail on it. The tv series stars Benedict Cumberbatch and includes all three books in Golding’s Sea Trilogy. Produced for the BBC, it was directed by David Attwood and was nominated for six BAFTA awards.

Atonement, Eileen, Staying On, The Dressmaker, Room, Figures in a Landscape, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, On Chesil Beach, Breakfast on Pluto, Cloud Atlas, Notes on a Scandal, Restoration, Morality Play (re-named The Reckoning), The Butcher Boy, Brick Lane, The Van, The Bookshop, The Little Stranger, A Month in the Country, The Comfort of Strangers, Empire of the Sun, The Garden of Evening Mists, Fingersmith (re-named The Handmaiden), The Driver’s Seat, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, An Artist of the Floating World, Never Let Me Go, The Night Watch, Pascali’s Island, Waterland, The Handmaid’s Tale, Arthur & George, The Old Devils, The Luminaries and Alias Grace 

Atonement (2007) – This romantic war drama was directed by Joe Wright and stars James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan, and Vanessa Redgrave. Based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Ian McEwan, the film chronicles a crime and its consequences over the course of six decades, beginning in the 1930s. Atonement received seven Golden Globe nominations, winning two, including Best Motion Picture Drama. The film also received 14 BAFTA nominations, including Best Film, Best British Film and Best Director, and seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Eileen (2023) - Based on the novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, William Oldroyd directs the film adaptation of Eileen, starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway. Shortlisted for the Booker in 2016, this taut psychological thriller sees a young woman pushed into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.

Room (2015) - The screenplay for this harrowing story had actually been written by Emma Donoghue before she wrote the book, which was published in 2010. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson, it stars Brie Larson as a young woman held captive in a suburban garden shed for seven years with her five-year-old son, who was born in captivity. Room has received multiple awards and nominations, including the Best Actress award from the Golden Globes, BAFTA, the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy Awards. The film received three other Oscar nominations - for Donoghue’s screenplay (also BAFTA nominated), Abrahamson’s directing and for Best Motion Picture of the Year. 

The Reckoning (2003) - This British-Spanish murder mystery drama film was directed by Paul McGuigan and stars Paul Bettany, Willem Dafoe, Tom Hardy, Gina McKee, Brian Cox and Vincent Cassel. The screenplay was written by Mark Mills and based on the 1995 novel Morality Play by Barry Unsworth. The late Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Roger Ebert rated it 3/4 stars and wrote that though there is too much emphasis on the mystery, the film works because of the characters.

Restoration (1995) - An American historical drama directed by Michael Hoffman, based on the 1989 book by Rose Tremain. It stars Robert Downey Jr. as a 17th-century medical student exploited by King Charles II. Also starring Sam Neill, Meg Ryan, Ian McKellen and Hugh Grant, the film won two Oscars - for art direction and also for costume design. 

The Handmaiden (2016) - This psychological thriller is directed by Park Chan-wook and stars Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo and Cho Jin-woong. The film is inspired by the 2002 book Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, with the setting changed from Victorian-era Britain to Korea under Japanese colonial rule. With a screenplay written by Park Chan-wook and Jeong Seo-kyeong, it won a BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language.

Fingersmith (2005) - This three-part BAFTA-nominated BBC mini-series is an adaptation of Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel of the same name. Set in an evocative Victorian underworld, it follows the linked fortunes of two very different young women, in an intriguing blend of mystery and suspense, secrets and betrayal. Directed by Aisling Walsh, with a screenplay written by Peter Ransley, it stars Sally Hawkins, Imelda Staunton, Elaine Cassidy, Rupert Evans and Charles Dance.

The Garden of Evening Mists (2019) - This Malaysian English-language historical drama was directed by Tom Lin Shu-yu, and stars Lee Sin-je, Sylvia Chang and Hiroshi Abe. Adapted from Tan Twan Eng’s 2012 book, the story follows a woman, still haunted by her experiences in a Japanese internment camp as a child, who travels to Cameron Highlands during the Malayan Emergency and becomes the apprentice of a mysterious Japanese gardener.

Brick Lane (2007) - Directed by Sarah Gavron, who received a BAFTA nomination for this directorial debut, and starring Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik and Christopher Simpson. The film is based on the 2003 novel by Monica Ali, with a screenplay written by Laura Jones and Abi Morgan .

The Van (1996) - Based on the novel by Roddy Doyle, who also wrote the screenplay, the film was directed by Stephen Frears. It stars Colm Meaney and Donal O’Kelly and is based on the hilarious third novel in Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy, which focuses on the senior Jimmy Rabbitte and his hugely unsuccessful business venture.

Identikit (1974) - (aka The Driver’s Seat)  - An Italian film directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Raffaele La Capria. Based on the 1970 book The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark, it’s a psychological drama starring Elizabeth Taylor and Ian Bannen, and featuring an uncredited Andy Warhol as an unlikely English lord.

Pascali’s Island (1988) - An historical fiction drama based on the 1980 novel by Barry Unsworth. The film is set in the summer of 1908 on a Greek island, where a Levantine informer in the pay of the Ottoman authorities, Pascali, has for 20 years been sending in his reports to Constantinople. Now, he fears that the Greeks on the island have discovered what he is, and that his days are numbered. The film was written and directed by James Dearden, and stars Ben Kingsley, Charles Dance, Helen Mirren and Kevork Malikyan.

Staying On (1980) - This television adaptation of Paul Scott’s 1977 sequel to The Jewel in the Crown stars Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson as the Colonel and his wife, deciding to stay on in India post independence, despite the general expat exodus to England and the Colonel’s failing health. The film was directed by Silvio Nasizzano, with the screenplay written by Julian Mitchell.

Empire of the Sun (1987) - This epic coming-of-age war film, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tom Stoppard, is based on J.G. Ballard’s semi-autobiographical 1984 book. The film tells the story of a young boy, played by Christian Bale, who goes from living with his wealthy British family in Shanghai to becoming a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Empire of the Sun was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Cinematography, Original Music Score and Sound, and also nominated for Best Motion Picture (Drama) and Original Score at the Golden Globe Awards. It won three BAFTA awards for cinematography, sound design and music score, with nominations for three more.

The Night Watch (2011) - Based on Sarah Waters’ 2006 book about four Londoners whose lives and secrets during and after the Second World War connect in often startling ways. A made-for-television film, it was adapted by Paula Milne and directed by Richard Laxton, and first broadcast on BBC Two. The cast includes Anna Maxwell Martin, Claire Foy and Jodie Whittaker.

Arthur & George (2015) – The screenplay for this three-part British television drama was written by Ed Whitmore, based on the 2005 book by Julian Barnes, which was itself based on the real-life Great Wyrley Outrages of 1903. The story follows Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his trusted secretary as they investigate the strange case of a young Anglo-Indian solicitor, imprisoned for allegedly mutilating animals and writing obscene letters. Martin Clunes stars as Arthur Conan Doyle, alongside Arsher Ali, Charles Edwards, Art Malik and Emma Fielding.

The Old Devils (1992) – The novel by Kingsley Amis, published in 1986, was adapted for BBC TV by Andrew Davies. It stars John Stride, Bernard Hepton, James Grout and Ray Smith in a dark comedy about four Welsh couples, old university friends, now at the retirement phase of life and seemingly bent on growing old disgracefully.

The Luminaries (2020) - Eleanor Catton’s epic novel was adapted for television as a six-part series, directed by Claire McCarthy, with a screenplay written by the book’s author. Starring Eva Green, Himesh Patel and Eve Hewson, the series follows a young adventurer who has travelled from the UK to start a new life for herself in New Zealand during the 1860s West Coast Gold Rush.

Alias Grace (2017) – This six-episode miniseries, directed by Mary Harron and written by Sarah Polley, is based on Margaret Atwood’s 1996 captivating historical fiction novel about the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery. It stars Sarah Gadon, Edward Holcroft, Rebecca Liddiard, Zachary Levi, Kerr Logan, David Cronenberg, Paul Gross, and Anna Paquin.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North (release date tbc) - A five-part series is in production with Sony Pictures Television, to be directed by Justin Kursel and starring Jacob Elordi (Euphoria). It is based on 2014’s Booker-winning novel by Richard Flanagan about an Australian doctor haunted by memories of a love affair with his uncle’s wife and of his subsequent experiences as a Far East prisoner of war.

A Brief History of Seven Killings (release date tbc) - Potentially in development for Netflix and based on Marlon James’ 2015 Booker-winning novel, the story spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976 and its aftermath, through the NYC crack wars in the 1980s and a changed Jamaica in the 1990s.

Shuggie Bain (release date tbc) - Author Douglas Stuart, who won the Booker Prize in 2020 with this novel, will be adapting the story himself for this TV series, commissioned by BBC and due to be filmed in Scotland. The book is based in Glasgow, and tells the heartbreaking story of an alcoholic mother who dreams of the glamorous life she was supposed to have had, as her son juggles taking care of her and struggling to be a ‘normal’ boy.

The Overstory (Expected in 2024) - Currently being developed for Netflix by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, best known as the creators of Game of Thrones, the story is about nine strangers that are each summoned in different ways by the natural world to save it from catastrophe. It will be executive produced by Hugh Jackman, a huge fan of the 2018 novel by Richard Powers.

Small Things Like These (filming Spring 2023) - Irish actor Cillian Murphy is believed to be starring in and producing this film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novel, shortlisted for the Booker in 2022. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s production company is financing the film and it also stars Emily Watson and Ciaran Hinds. Set in an Irish town in the mid-eighties, a busy coal and timber merchant encounters the complicit silences of a small community controlled by the Church. The Wexford town of New Ross will provide the main filming location with additional scenes to be shot in Dublin. The screenplay has been written by Enda Walsh.

Elena Sabe (Elena Knows) due for release on Netflix in late 2023 - Starring Mercedes Morán and Érica Rivas, the film is directed by Anahí Berneri who co-wrote the screenplay with Gabriela Larralde. It is adapted from the book Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2022, and is being filmed in Buenos Aires, Argentina.