Which books by Emily Henry are being made into films? “Book Lovers” and more

Novelist Emily Henry has now adapted four of five of her latest novels for the big and small screen. Henry wrote romantic comedies that Beach readingwhich came out in the summer of 2020. Since then, she has published a book every year, with People we meet on vacation will be released in 2021, Book lovers Arrival in 2022, Happy place will be released in 2023 and Funny story will hit the shelves this year.

Three of Henry’s books have received film adaptation options, two of them with directors attached. As of 2022, several studios have decided to adapt various Emily Henry books into films. The writers’ and actors’ strikes have likely delayed any casting decisions, but a fourth novel was just optioned by Jennifer Lopez’s production company for a television series adaptation at Netflix.

Read on to learn more about the people behind the film adaptations of Emily Henry’s books.

People we meet on vacation

3000 Pictures hired Brett Haley to direct its adaptation of People we meet on vacation based on the adapted screenplay by Yulin Kuang.

Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey and Isaac Klausner of Temple Hill serve as producers, and Laura Quicksilver is overseeing the project for Temple Hill, with Erin Siminoff and Sophie Kaplan serving as studio executives.

People we meet on vacation follows Alex and Poppy, who have nothing in common. She’s spontaneous, he wears khakis. She has an insatiable wanderlust, he prefers to stay home with a book. But since a fateful carpool home from college many years ago, they’ve been the best of friends. They live far apart for most of the year – she in New York City and he in their small hometown – but for the past decade they’ve taken a glorious week’s vacation together every summer.

RELATED: 3000 Pictures Sets Brett Haley to Direct Adaptation of ‘People We Meet On Vacation’

Haley has a background in directing Hulu’s In search of Alaska Adapted from John Green’s bestseller and All bright places Adapted from the novel by Jennifer Niven, starring Elle Fanning and Justice Smith.

At the time of this announcement, Kuang had just completed her feature film adaptation of Maureen Goos’ novel I believe in a thing called love to Netflix with A-Major, Lee Byung-hun and Charles Pak as producers and Lee Byung-hun in the lead role. She also sold an original pitch to New Line called Jade PalaceOn television, Kuang is adapting/directing a series based on the film 27 dresses with Aline Brosh McKenna as producer for ABC Studios and a Jane Austen-inspired series called Hopeless romantics for Paramount TV.

Beach reading

Yulin Kuang adapts and directs the film adaptation of Beach reading for 20th Century Studios with original film production. Development was announced in April 2023.

The novel tells the story of two writers who have known each other since graduate school and switch genres for the summer to overcome writer’s block on contracts they should be working on. January and Augustus meet by chance while on their own secluded writer’s retreat on Lake Michigan.

Kuang’s debut novel How to end a love story – about two screenwriters with a troubled past who have feelings for each other – was released in April 2024 and was recommended by Reese Witherspoon’s book club.

Book lovers

In March 2023, Tango announced its intention to acquire Henry’s Book loverswhich was released in 2022. Sarah Heyward is set to write the screenplay for the feature film, which comes from the producer of Sundance pic defects and aftersun as well as Never Rarely Sometimes Always And Astronaut.

Book lovers tells the story of Nora, an unscrupulous literary agent who is persuaded by her sister to spend an August vacation in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. There she keeps running into Charlie, a well-read, brooding editor from the city. It would be a meet-cute if the two hadn’t met many times before and it never was cute. Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, and Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they keep getting brought together – in a series of coincidences no real editor would allow – the discoveries they make may upend the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

Heyward is best known as the writer and producer of the Emmy-winning HBO film. Girlfor which she received a WGA Award. She also worked on Modern LoveAmazon’s Emmy-nominated adaptation of the successful New York Times column and SKAM Austin on Facebook Watch.

Happy place

Happy place has been optioned by Jennifer Lopez’ Nuyorican Productions. The story will be adapted into a television series at Netflix as part of Nuyorican’s multi-year first-look deal with the streamer.

Published in Berkeley, Happy place follows Harriet and Wyn, who have been a perfect couple ever since they met in college–they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and biscuits. Only now, they’re not, for reasons they still won’t discuss. They broke up five months ago, but when their friend group calls an emergency vacation meeting at the Maine beach house where they spent most of their summers, they both answer the phone, but they still haven’t told their best friends about the breakup. They now share a bedroom in the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s annual getaway destination for the past decade, and continue to shamelessly lie to their friends about their relationship status.