This is a list of movies scheduled to be released in 2023 that are based on books in the MCPL collection. Some of the release dates will likely change, and many may end up on streaming services rather than or in addition to theaters. Click on the release date or "TBA" (in parentheses) for more information about the movie.
"A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king." The animated adaptation stars the voice of Hugh Laurie as our title character. (February 3)
"The first full-scale biography of the 'father of the atomic bomb,' the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the fire of the sun for his country in time of war. After Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation." (July 21)
"Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a 12-year-old girl talks over her problems with her own private God." (April 28)
"Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek 'an original relation to nature,' drops out of Harvard and heads west in the 1870s. He washes up in Butcher’s Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere." (March 23)
"A seven-year-old girl and her fathers are confronted by four menacing strangers while vacationing at a remote New Hampshire cabin." (February 3)
"Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'dib." (November 3)
"Dreaming of life in the city while caring for her alcoholic father and working in a 1960s boys' prison, a disturbed young woman is manipulated into committing a psychologically charged crime during the holiday season." (TBA)
"The author recounts growing up in 1970s San Francisco with Steve Abbott, a gay, single father during an era when that was rare. Reconstructing their time together from a remarkable cache of Steve's writings, Alysia gives us an unforgettable portrait of a tumultuous, historic period in San Francisco, as well as an exquisitely moving account of a father's legacy and a daughter's love." (TBA)
"At a Halloween party, a hostile 13-year-old boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned. That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the 'evil presence.'" (September 15)
"The inside story of a band of entrepreneurial upstarts who made millions selling painkillers—until their scheme unraveled, putting them at the center of a landmark criminal trial." (October 27)
"Harold goes for an adventurous walk in the moonlight with his purple crayon." (June 30)
"Revisit the world of Panem 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games." (November 17)
Many Osage Native Americans in 1920s Oklahoma were some of the wealthiest people in America due to the oil found under their land. When a series of murders of the people who live on this land is uncovered, an early incarnation of the FBI begins to investigate a conspiracy. Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio bring the adaptation of this best-selling non-fiction work to screens." (Apple TV+ TBA)
"Alternately titled The Lost King, this tells the true story of the amateur historian's quest to find King Richard III's remains that were lost for over 500 years." (March 24)
This bestselling novel tells the story of "two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong." (Netflix TBA)
"An orphaned boy is told by a fortune teller that an elephant will help him find his lost sister who was presumed dead." (March 17)
"A love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life." (April 13)
"The classic adventures of the children in Never-Never Land with Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up." This new, Disney live-action adaptation is written and directed by David Lowery under the original, alternate title of the novel (which came after the stageplay) Peter Pan & Wendy. (TBA)
"What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?" (TBA)
"A journalist returns to his hometown to research the mysterious memories that have haunted him since childhood. But soon, the closely held secrets of small-town life turn into unimaginable terror when a fearsome stranger arrives—looking to sink his teeth into a new home." (TBA)
"An intergalactic odyssey of love, ambition, and self-discovery. Orphaned as a boy and raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Procházka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country's first astronaut. When a dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him both the chance at heroism he's dreamt of, and a way to atone for his father's sins as a Communist informer, he ventures boldly into the vast unknown." (Netflix TBA)
"After a heated argument, Clara's fiancé stormed out of their apartment, but before they have a chance to reconcile, he died a tragic accident. It's been two years, but she's still paralyzed with grief, and her friends are worried about her. So, to try to say what was left unsaid, she starts texting his old phone. What she doesn't realize is that the number has been reassigned." (May 12)
"A giant shark escapes from a California aquarium, creating havoc before heading to sea. As he probes the ocean depths in pursuit, biologist Jonas Taylor stumbles on a terrorist nuclear arms factory." (August 4)
"The first installment of Scott Westerfeld's New York Times bestselling and award-winning Uglies series—a global phenomenon that started the dystopian trend. Tally is about to turn 16, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks, she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun." (Netflix TBA)
"In R. J. Palacio's bestselling collection of stories, Auggie and Me, which expands on characters in Wonder, readers were introduced to Julian's grandmother, Grandmère. Here, Palacio makes her graphic novel debut with Grandmère's heartrending story—how she, a young Jewish girl, was hidden by a family in a Nazi-occupied French village during World War II, and how the boy she and her classmates once shunned became her savior and best friend." (August 25)