It is one of the most-read novels of the past decade, the kind of book that migrated from airport paperback to book-club staple to TikTok reading list without ever really leaving any of them. Now Matt Haig's The Midnight Library is heading to cinemas, and it has landed one of the most bankable names in the business to carry it there.
Florence Pugh is set to star in and produce the adaptation, according to a report by Deadline published Tuesday. Garth Davis — the Australian director whose 2016 feature Lion earned six Academy Award nominations — is attached to direct. The project is launching for the Cannes market this week, where producers will be shopping it to distributors and financiers.
Haig's novel, published in 2020, follows a woman who finds herself in a library between life and death, each book on the shelf representing a life she could have lived had she made different choices. It debuted at number one in the UK and has since sold in excess of four million copies in the English language alone, with translations running into dozens of countries.
Pugh's involvement as a producer as well as lead is notable. Since her breakthrough in Midsommar and her Oscar-nominated turn in Little Women, she has built a profile that travels across prestige drama, franchise blockbusters, and awards-season fare. A Davis-Pugh collaboration positions The Midnight Library squarely in that awards-adjacent lane.
A production timeline and distribution deal have not yet been confirmed.