Pop culture news for readers: October 23, 2026

Here's how pop culture and literature have been intersecting lately ... 

Movies

• Did you realize that the movie Wicker, premiering tomorrow, is based on a short story by Ursula Wills? (Deadline) 

• A Lilo & Stitch producer is helping adapt Aaron Blabey‘s middle-grade book series, Game of Pets, into an animated movie (Deadline). 

• Johanna Watts will direct the movie adaptation of the YA fantasy romance series House of Night by P.C. and Kristin Cast (Deadline). 

• Author Brian Selznick will adapt his queer young adult novel Run Away With Me into a movie (Deadline).

• The novel Home Economics by Katy Hays isn't even out yet, but it's already set to become a movie starring Julia Roberts (People).

TV

• Actresses Lucy Fry and Amanda Brugel have been cast in the TV series Rules of Prey, based on John Sandford's novels (Deadline). 

• Amazon has renewed the TV series adaptation of Carrie, based on the Stephen King novel, for a second season (Variety). 

• Check out the trailer for season three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Variety). 

Other

• Actor Rupert Grint is voicing all of the characters for a serialized audiobook adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (The Hollywood Reporter).

• Normal People stars Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones are among those speaking out in support of Sally Rooney, who wrote the book upon which the TV series was based (The Hollywood Reporter).

• Hacks actress Jean Smart is writing a memoir; Smart Mouth comes out September 28 (People).