Book-to-screen adaptations are nothing new, but it seems the genre is seeing a sudden spike. With web series also entering the mix, there is a diverse range of such adaptations available on the various OTT platforms today. Here are is an assorted binge-list:  

Shōgun

Available on: Disney+ Hotstar

Set in feudal Japan, this brilliantly-made mesmerising samurai saga is a must watch. Created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, it is based on the 1975 historical fiction by James Clavell (it was earlier adapted into another television miniseries that was directed by Richard Chamberlain and starred Toshiro Mifune, and Yoko Shimada). It is the story of ‘the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds’ – John Blackthorne, an English ship pilot, a character loosely based on the real-life navigator William Adams who had sailed to Japan, and shogun Yoshi Toranaga, a character loosely based on Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first military dictator of Japan credited for unifying the country. 

Oppenheimer 

Available on: JioCinema

Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece starring Cillian Murphy as the eponymous scientist, that bagged seven (including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor) of the 11 Oscars it was nominated for, is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, co-written by Martin J. Sherwin and Kai Bird. Although Nolan is not new when it comes to book-to-movie adaptations, this is his first attempt at making a movie based on a literary non-fiction. It traces the life of theoretical physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer starting with his time at Cambridge to that of his taking a key role in developing the atomic bomb that killed over 200,000 Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the WW2.  

Three-Body Problem 

Available on: Prime Video 

Directed by Yang Lei and Vincent Yang, this 2023 Chinese series is based on Liu Cixin’s Hugo Award–winning Chinese sci-fi novel, The Three-Body Problem. It is about a nanomaterials expert who upon seeing a mysterious countdown superimposed in his field of vision and thereby finding himself under military investigation enters the VR game called ‘Three-Body’ in an attempt to make sense of the goings-on. It is most definitely among the best book-to-movie adaptations we have seen in recent times. 

However, this year, Netflix has also dropped an English adaptation of the same book. Titled 3 Body Problem, this series is created by David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and Alexander Woo and has already got the critics divided. 

Poor Things 

Available on: Disney+ Hotstar 

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, this is an adaptation of Alasdair Grey’s novel of the same name, it is a story of ‘love, discovery and scientific daring’ and also that of a woman finding her agency. Set in the Victorian era, it follows the Frankenstein-like scientific experiment called Belle Baxter (the brilliant Emma Stone). Willem Dafoe is Godwin Baxter, the brilliant and unorthodox, scientist with an absolute disregard for women’s voices. 

Red Queen 

Available on: Prime Video 

The Spanish thriller directed by Koldo Serra is based on the novel of the same name, Reina Roja, by Juan Gómez-Jurado. Antonia Scott, (Vicky Luengo), who works in an elite but covert European police unit has the IQ of 242 and is called the 'Red Queen'. The story follows her as she, along with the help of expelled cop, Jon Gutierrez (Hovik Keuchkerian), tries to solve a complex case of a double kidnapping and murder. It is a police procedural with a twist and offers an edge-of-the-seat experience. Both the lead actors give nuanced performances and their chemistry is spot on.

The Zone of Interest  

Available on: Jio Cinema 

Jonathan Glazer’s multiple Oscar-nominated German-language historical drama is loosely based on Martin Amis’s 2014 novel of the same name, and follows the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig who live in the ‘Zone of Interest’ – the area around the concentration camp complex reserved for the SS.  

We are privy to the mundane goings on at the Hoss residence where the wife is concerned about her garden and the husband is busy figuring out the best-possible design for a crematorium, as the Final Solution is underway. Their absolute indifference towards the inhumanity being perpetrated next door is bound to leave one shell-shocked. 

Killers Of The Flower Moon

Available on: Apple TV+

Co-written, produced, and directed by Martin Scorsese, this sprawling three-and-a-half-hour masterpiece starring Leonardo DiCaprio is based on Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the 2017 non-fiction book by David Grann that documents a true crime, involving a series of murders of around sixty wealthy Osage (an American Indian tribe) people, that rocked Oklahoma in the 1920s. This case was the first major criminal investigation conducted by the US government agency that later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

Society of the Snow 

Available on: Netflix 

Directed by J A Bayona this movie, based on Pablo Vierci's 2009 book of the same name, is about the poignant real-life incident that happened in 1972 where an aeroplane carrying the Uruguayan rugby football team had crashed into a glacier in the Andes mountains. Among the 45 passengers on board, 29 had initially survived the crash and the story follows their incredible attempt to make it out alive which also made them to eventually resort to cannibalism. 

Priscillia 

Available on: MUBI 

Sofia Coppola’s ambitious movie, Priscilla is based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, which details her tumultuous relationship with the rock-and-roll legend from 1959 until their separation in 1972. Although the book carefully veers away from addressing anything that can be remotely controversial, making it lack in depth, the adaptation is an interesting watch with Cailee Spaeny giving a brilliant performance as the eponymous wife. Her turn in the movie also got her the best actress nomination at the last Golden Globe Awards.