Book Riot – The Podcast

Episode: Fall Adaptation Preview
Release Date: August 20, 2025
Hosts: Jeff O’Neal & Rebecca Schinsky

Overview

In this timely episode, Jeff and Rebecca dive into the stacked lineup of fall 2025 book-to-screen adaptations—covering movies, miniseries, and even stage-to-screen projects. Their discussion ranges from cozy mysteries and Oscar hopefuls to a new spin on classic tragedies and buzzy genre reboots. Fans of literature, film, or both will find lively opinions, in-depth industry context, and some hot takes on trailers, directors, and what’s likely to hit with audiences.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Stage for Adaptation Season

• Jeff and Rebecca agree summer was light on standout adaptations (“nothing to watch this summer,” Rebecca, 01:36), but fall's calendar is “stacked.”
• Adaptation-heavy fall aligns with Oscar-bait strategy: “Oscar contenders tend to come out [now], and a lot of Oscar contenders historically are based on books.” (Rebecca, 02:30)

2. Big-Name Series Returns: Slow Horses Season 5 (September 24)

• Notable as an adaptation mainstay: “This is just what we drag out every fall to make ourselves feel better.” (Jeff, 02:51)
• Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas return, with new cast members joining.
• Rebecca reiterates its appeal for both spy lovers and the uninitiated; it’s “clever, funny, sometimes crude” (03:26).
• “They’ve been pumping them out… We get the fall and we get the spring.” (Rebecca, 03:05)

3. Netflix Cozy Mystery: The Thursday Murder Club (August 26)

• Jeff deems it one of the surest bets in recent memory—a “High Floor, Low Ceiling” franchise, suggesting reliability rather than riskiness (03:35).
• Starring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie; directed by Chris Columbus.
• Chris Columbus’s track record as “reliably family-friendly” and capable with valuable IP is discussed at length—“Chris Columbus is who you get when you don’t get Ron Howard. Competent filmmakers: Are they gonna blow your doors off? Probably not. Are they gonna screw it up? Also, probably not.” (Jeff, 06:18)
• Rebecca is won over by the trailer: “This trailer looks charming as shit. Like, I will be watching this.” (05:23)
• Boomers will flock to it: “I sent a missive out to the boomers out there … and let me tell you, the boomers know.” (Jeff, 07:21)
• The fifth book in the series, The Impossible Fortune, drops in September—timed for binge-watchers to roll right into reading. (Rebecca, 06:46)

4. Dark Comedy Remake: The Roses (formerly War of the Roses)

• New adaptation, gender-flipped with Olivia Colman (as a star chef wife) & Benedict Cumberbatch (as stay-at-home dad).
• Tone shift from the 1989 “dark and spiky” original: “This looks like a farce.” (Rebecca, 09:46)
• Script by Tony McNamara (Poor Things), aiming for more comedy: “What if we took this idea but made it funny instead of really dark and kind of thrillery?” (Rebecca, 09:47)
• Big question: Is divorce still a compelling subject? “I feel like the divorce as subject for art making is a little played out and you need to be like Leslie Jamison level sentence writer.” (Jeff, 11:28)
• Rebecca’s main take: “This looks like an airplane movie to me.” (12:35)
• Paperback tie-in has an endorsement from Gillian Flynn, which the hosts consider very appropriate. (Rebecca, 10:38)

5. Artful Gay Historical Drama: History of Sound (September 12)

• Based on Ben Shattuck’s short story, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.
• The pitch: Two young men in WWI travel the US recording voices/music—and fall in love. “You don’t do any better than those guys right now.” (Rebecca, 12:59)
• Jeff notes the trade-off typical in period LGBTQ+ dramas: “The trade off is that it doesn’t really wrestle with the now… You have the immediate pathos of, wow, things were so hard then.” (Jeff, 13:02)
• Rebecca’s all in: “I’m gonna go see anything that Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor are in together. That’s a good use of my 10 bucks a month movie pass.” (Rebecca, 14:18)

6. The Big Literary Prestige Event: One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson adapts Pynchon’s Vineland)

• Touted as “the adaptation of the season” (Jeff, 14:38).
• PTA adapts an “extraordinary, literary, and surreal” Thomas Pynchon novel — “It’s both heady and bawdy, zany and intellectual, all at the same time.” (Jeff, 17:56)
• Leonardo DiCaprio stars; trailer shows him “having the time of his life” (Rebecca, 20:47).
• The big question: Read the book first, or after? “My intuition is… there’s a real chance they are distinctly different works and that hopping from one to the other may be interesting, but I don’t know how illuminating it will be.” (Jeff, 21:00)
• PTA likely to take liberties: “Even when a movie is better than the underlying source material, it rarely is a deepening. It usually is a simplification and a clarification.” (Jeff, 21:00)

7. Notable October-November Adaptations

Ballad of a Small Player (Netflix, October 15)

• Colin Farrell stars as a gambler in Macau, with Tilda Swinton. Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front). Blind-watch confidence: “This is a very easy press play for me.” (Jeff, 23:13)

Hedda Gabler (Theatrical, date TBA)

• Modern adaptation starring Tessa Thompson and Imogen Poots, directed by Nia DaCosta. Jeff contextualizes: “Hedda Gabler and Lady Macbeth might be the two canonical female roles in Western theatrical experience.” (23:15)
• Rebecca highlights resonance with “desperate housewife” themes and feminist literary history. (24:37)

Nuremberg (November 7)

• Based on nonfiction, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. Cast: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon.
• Rebecca on Shannon: “Michael Shannon, obsessed with R.E.M… I love Michael Shannon in anything.” (26:53)
• Drama between scene-chewer titans Crowe and Malek anticipated: “Rami Malek interviewing as a psychiatrist interviewing Nazi war crimes—I could find myself being very compelled by his eyes and his sort of affect and that whole tension thing.” (Jeff, 27:48)

Train Dreams (Dennis Johnson, November 7 theatrical, Netflix November 21)

• Quiet, literary Americana starring Joel Edgerton. “Train Dreams is extraordinarily good… It is short, so even if you don’t like it, it’s gonna be over.” (Jeff, 30:54)
• Adapted by the Sing Sing (Oscar-nominated) script team, highly endorsed by Jeff: “You would like this book. I don’t think there’s any question about that.” (30:40)

8. Blockbusters, Reboots, and IP Adaptations

The Running Man (Stephen King, November 7)

• Action reboot starring Glen Powell, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace.
• “It actually trends a lot more toward the Hunger Games...” (Jeff, 32:40)
• “This looks like fun. I will not have problem getting myself to see this.” (Jeff, 33:37)
• Glen Powell’s star trajectory discussed; both expect him to do well.

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (Netflix, November, date TBA)

• Stacked cast (Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth), but trailer worries both hosts.
• Jeff: “Frankly, the trailer looks pretty bad. So that’s where I am on Frankenstein.” (34:54)
• Rebecca’s skepticism: “A piece of art that has been worked over for that long often does not come out well.” (35:33)
• Release date ambiguity spurs further doubt: “If it were great, I think they’d put it out right before Halloween…” (Rebecca, 36:49)

Wicked: For Good (November 23)

• Second half of the beloved musical adaptation.
• New songs teased; hosts wonder if excitement can match last year’s hype: “The real draw here…is we have new songs.” (Jeff, 39:12)
• Tween audience is “fit to be ready.” (Jeff, 39:00)
• Enduring fanfare anticipated—“A lot of juice behind [it]” (Jeff, 40:19)

9. Oscar Bait and Literary Adaptations

Hamnet (Theaters December 12)

• Adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s hit novel about Shakespeare’s family, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, helmed by Chloe Zhao.
• “Hamnet looks fantastic. I think both those will be really solid moviegoing experiences.” (Rebecca, 53:17)
• Jeff recommends reading the novel before seeing the film. (42:58)

Die My Love (Nov 7)

• Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson star; based on Ariana Harwicz novel.
• Rebecca’s take: “The two and a half minute trailer… looks like a theater class warm-up exercise. But it was compelling.” (51:38)

10. Holiday Season Genre Fare

The Housemaid (Christmas Day)

• Adapted from Frieda McFadden’s viral thriller, starring Sydney Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar.
• Rebecca questions its suitability as a Christmas movie for multi-gen families: “That is a challenging thing, if you have multiple generations, you got to pick a movie…” (46:59)
• Sydney Sweeney’s ubiquity discussed: “She’s everywhere. And that’s good exposure for her face on a movie poster.” (Rebecca, 47:56)
• Jeff wonders if this is her shot to become a box office headliner: “This could be a franchise.” (Jeff, 48:15)

Honorable Mentions

• Regretting You (Colleen Hoover), Verity (Anne Hathaway attached), and Devil Wears Prada 2 (Anne Hathaway returns).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This trailer looks charming as shit.” — Rebecca (05:23), on Thursday Murder Club
• “It’s both heady and bawdy, zany and intellectual, all at the same time.” — Jeff (17:56), on One Battle After Another
• “Who's like, I want to go see people fight comedically about divorce?” — Jeff (11:44), on The Roses
• “The Oscar’s love Shakespeare.” — Rebecca (41:21), on Hamnet
• “In my experience, even when a movie is better than the underlying source material, it rarely is a deepening. It usually is a simplification...” — Jeff (21:00)
• “Michael Shannon, obsessed with R.E.M… I love Michael Shannon in anything.” — Rebecca (26:53)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic/Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------| | 01:21 | Episode starts, hosts introduce adaptation theme | | 03:05 | Slow Horses season 5 preview | | 03:54 | Thursday Murder Club detailed breakdown | | 07:47 | The Roses (War of the Roses reboot) | | 12:40 | History of Sound | | 17:56 | One Battle After Another/Vineland | | 23:13 | Ballad of a Small Player | | 23:15 | Hedda Gabler modern adaptation | | 26:25 | Nuremberg (Crowe, Malek, Shannon) | | 29:16 | Train Dreams | | 32:05 | The Running Man reboot | | 34:54 | Frankenstein (del Toro) | | 39:12 | Wicked: For Good | | 42:58 | Hamnet | | 47:56 | The Housemaid | | 51:38 | Die My Love (Lawrence/Pattinson) | | 52:19 | Confidence picks, predictions, hosts' curiosities |

Final Thoughts & Picks

Most Confident Picks for Success:

• Rebecca: One Battle After Another & Hamnet (“I think both of those will be really solid moviegoing experiences.” 53:17)
• Jeff: “I have Vineland one.” (54:02); also excited for “Ballad of a Small Player” (54:02)

Biggest Curiosity:

• Rebecca: The Roses ("...it just looks so different from the source material and it's hard to tell from the trailer exactly what it's going to be...high curiosity level," 55:23)
• Jeff: Train Dreams ("They take away my card if I don't say Train Dreams," 56:01)

Tone & Style

• Smart, playful banter with deep dives into adaptation and literary culture.
• Hosts offer both industry insights and personal, relatable reactions (“airplane movie,” “fit to be ready”).
• Notes of affectionate skepticism and genre fandom throughout, never shying from strong opinions.

Summary for Non-Listeners

If you haven’t listened, this episode is your perfect cheat sheet on what to read and watch—and which adaptations might be overhyped. Jeff and Rebecca bring the wit and expertise of industry insiders with the enthusiasm of lifelong fans, mixing literary criticism, Hollywood analysis, and candid, sometimes spicy takes on the season’s biggest projects. Whether you want a cozy murder, a Shakespearean weepie, or Oscar buzz bait, you’ll come away with sharp context, plenty of recommendations, and more than a few laughs.