As an avid reader, I personally can’t help but envision the events of a story as if I were watching a full-length film. Often, the descriptive language, quick changes in perspectives, and outstanding setting location, to me, almost warrant a great film adaptation. Here are three of my favorite books that I believe would make amazing film adaptations, along with some of their potential casts, crews, film elements, and locations.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
He knew then that the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children’s children for as long as the line continued. – Yaa Gyasi
Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing revolves around two half-sisters in colonial Ghana, Effia and Esi, and their descendants, told from their perspectives as the slave trade splits them further apart and how their descendants eventually reunite.
Homegoing is one of my favorite books of all time, and I mainly like it due to the incorporation of the different perspectives of each family member. Each chapter represents the respective experiences of descendants of Effia and Esi, and I believe that in movie format, this could be a very strong element that would set it apart from many movies coming out today.
On the online source myCast.io, media fans can submit suggestions for actors to play roles in their favorite series. On the myCast for Homegoing, the top suggestions for Effia and Esi are Diamond White and Yara Shahidi. The casting for the descendants is as follows:
Richard Madden as James Collins,
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ness,
Marcus Scribner as Quey,
Kylie Bunbury as Maame,
Octavia Spencer as Baaba,
Don Cheadle as Cobbe Otcher,
Shameik Moore as Marcus,
and Mahershala Ali as Sam.
While these casting choices seem good for the most part, I believe that a lot of the choices seem centered on Western actors, and there might be a better connection to the themes of the book if Ghanaian actors were cast. While successful movies like The Woman King, which centered on the impact of colonialism on West African nations, have a wide assortment of actors who are mostly from Britain and America, I am a firm believer in casting more unknown and accurate talent in movies to get a look that is as representative of the culture highlighted in the film as possible. I would also make sure that the actors cast phenotypically fit with the storyline, as some of these choices don’t seem like they fit with a story surrounding Ghanaian tribes and ancestry.
Producing this potential film would be Viola Davis, as she has produced a lot of movies with Black relationships and history at the forefront, like The Help (2011), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020), and The Woman King (2022).
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
I only know the stony plain, wandering, and the gradual loss of hope. I am the sterile offspring of a race about which I know nothing, not even whether it has become extinct. Perhaps, somewhere humanity is flourishing under the stars, unaware that a daughter of its blood is ending her days in silence. There is nothing we can do about it. – Jaqueline Harpman
Harpman’s novel contains a mystifying tale about a dystopian world where forty women are imprisoned in an underground bunker with no recollection of their pasts until one day, the guards leave, and they are freed.
This novel’s myCast casts Thomasin McKenzie and Elizabeth Debicki as the narrator and her older self, respectively. The rest of the women in the bunker are also cast, with actors like Andie Macdowell, Keke Palmer, and Isabella Merced potentially playing Anthea, Rose, and Laura.
The setting is one of the most intriguing parts of the story as it is constantly changing from the bunker at the beginning of the novel, the vast abandoned towns and mountainous areas that they go to, and the final house that the narrator lives in. While the group of women is traveling to see whether or not any other people survived, their surroundings are described very interestingly and remind me of America’s abandoned towns. A lot of these bunkers are described to have been in taverns and shops in the book, which often remind me of ghost towns and St. Elmo, Colorado, or Custer, Idaho, and they would serve as good filming sites because not only do they have a small population, which would make filming logistically easy, but they would also successfully portray the scenery well.
I would want Denis Villeneuve, director of Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Dune (2021), to direct this film, as he is very experienced with directing dystopian films. While I Who Have Never Known Men does not contain much action like Blade Runner 2049 and Dune, Villeneuve has multiple films like Incendies (2011) that include less action and more drama/emotional elements and production.
Heatwave by Victor Jestin
Oscar is dead because I watched him die and I did nothing. – Victor Jestin
Heatwave is about a French teenager, Leo, on a family vacation, where one night, he witnesses his acquaintance, Oscar, commit suicide. Instead of attempting to save him, he buries him after he stops breathing in the sand on the beach. Over the next 24 hours, he deals with the outcome of his actions and his overwhelming guilt.
Directing this potential film would be Damien Chazelle, director of La La Land (2016) and Whiplash (2014). Chazelle would serve as a perfect director for Heatwave, as his films, specifically Whiplash, have very fast-paced yet clear and enticing narratives. He also employs dramatic color shifts that add a fun element to the plot. The cover of Heatwave itself evokes both the warm tones and particular images associated with summer, as well as dark shades of worry and regret.
The novel takes place at a campsite in Landes, a popular vacation spot in the Southwest of France. The ins and outs of the campsite were a particularly important part of the story because Leo was essentially trapped in the campsite while figuring out his next steps. Le Saint Martin, a seaside campsite in Landes, would serve as an amazing potential filming site.
I would cast Paul Kircher as Leo and Thomas Chomel as Oscar. These two are both French actors who have acted in roles in films that I enjoy, with Chomel in Parallels (2022) and Kircher in And Their Children After Them (2024), where he played a 14-year-old. While they are slightly above the age of the characters, they fit the role with Kircher embodying the awkward and Chomel embodying the youthful, alluring, and composed but vulnerable look.
