Onward, upward, adapted While Hollywood figures out its labour crisis, here are three impending series inspired by beloved books By: Jen Zoratti Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Tuesday, Sep. 5, 2023 Last Modified: 8:46 AM CDT Tuesday, Sep. 5, 2023 Updates

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This article was published 05/09/2023 (956 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the ongoing writers and actors strikes will no doubt shake up the fall schedule on network TV, there are still several new streaming series worth adding to your watchlist.

In this instalment of Don’t Sleep on This — a regular series in which the Free Press Arts & Life department will offer up (spoiler-free) recommendations of the shows you should be watching — we look ahead at fall’s release calendar, which features three buzzy adaptations of beloved books.

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Lessons in Chemistry

• Premières Oct. 13
• Apple TV+

After 100-some rejections for previous projects, Bonnie Garmus finally released her debut novel, Lessons in Chemistry, in 2022 — and she had a hit on her hands. In the space of a few months, it rocketed up the bestseller lists and became an international success, with rights sold in 40 countries, and was Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year.

And now, it’s going to be an Apple TV+ series. (Not bad for a first-time author in her 60s, proof positive it’s never too late to write that book.)

Brie Larson will star as the indefatigable Elizabeth Zott, scientist in 1960s California who is facing an uphill climb owing to the rank institutional sexism at her all-male lab.

A few years later, she becomes the unlikely star of America’s top cooking show, Supper at Six, and her unconventional chemist’s approach to cooking — “combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride” — resonates with women across the country, who are learning about way more than just cooking.

It’ll be interesting to see how the adaptation, created by Lee Eisenberg, handles some of the book’s quirks, such as the passages that are narrated by Elizabeth’s dog, Six-Thirty.

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All the Light We Cannot See

• Premières Nov. 2
• Netflix

Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2014 novel, All The Light We Cannot See, is a sprawling cinematic Second World War epic about an unlikely friendship between Marie-Laure, a blind French girl in hiding, and Werner, a German boy forced to fight for the Nazis, who find a connection through the radio.

In other words, rich material for screen adaptation.

This four-part limited series, developed by British screenwriter, producer and director Steven Knight, will star Mark Ruffalo as Marie-Laure’s father, Daniel, the master locksmith at the Museum of Natural History, and Hugh Laurie as her uncle Etienne, an eccentric recluse suffering from PTSD from the First World War. German actor Louis Hofmann (Dark) will play the role of Werner.

Newcomer Aria Mia Loberti will play Marie-Laure in what will be her first acting role. Loberti, like her character, is legally blind and landed the part after a global search for a blind or low-vision actor.

“It was a jaw-drop moment when we first saw Aria Mia Loberti, who is both a natural performer and an advocate for disability equity and representation,” said executive producer and director Shawn Levy in Netflix’s announcement. “I can’t wait to tell this beautiful story with her at the centre.”

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Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

• Premières Nov. 17
• Netflix

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s classic tale of boy meets girl, boy must defeat girl’s seven evil exes has been adapted before.

Director and co-writer Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) brought the graphic novel to the big screen with 2010’s live-action film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, starring Michael Cera as our title slacker hero and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, the enigmatic, rainbow-haired girl who steals his heart.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was a box-office bomb, but a critical darling and, eventually, a cult classic. And now, the original cast — a stacked slate that, in addition to Cera and Winstead, includes Kieran Culkin, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson (again!), Ellen Wong, Jason Schwartzman, Mae Whitman and more — are reprising their roles and lending their voices to a new anime series.

The medium makes sense; O’Malley’s original graphic novel series, which was released between 2004 and 2010, was heavily inspired by anime and manga. Working with Japanese studio Science Saru was “very exciting” to O’Malley, per a recent interview in the L.A. Times. “And I’ve always loved anime,” he told writer Tracy Brown. “I grew up on anime and never thought I would ever get a chance to make or even be anywhere near the process of it.”

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com