Paramount Lands “The Midnight Library” With Florence Pugh Set to Star
The feature adaptation of Matt Haig’s novel “The Midnight Library” was a hot title at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, and Paramount is now poised to win the rights to the film adaptation. The Midnight Library will be directed by Garth Davis and star Florence Pugh. Both Davis and Pugh just wrapped an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden for Netflix. Puck first reported on Paramount’s deal.
Paramount outbid Focus Features and Sony to land the North American distribution rights, with Studiocanal distributing the film in the U.K., France, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Paramount will handle distribution for the rest of the world.
Pugh will play Nora Seed, the protagonist of Haig’s book, who finds herself in an enchanted library that straddles life and death. The library’s shelves are filled with books that let her see the lives she could have lived, and, guided by a librarian, she can “try on” these other lives to see whether they would have been happier or more fulfilling than her own.
Davis directed the 2016 Oscar-nominated film Lion, starring Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, and Rooney Mara, as well as episodes of the Jane Campion-created thriller Top of the Lake, starring Elisabeth Moss.
Pugh is always busy, with three massive titles coming this year. The aforementioned East of Eden, and two major features: Avengers: Doomsday, where she’ll return to the MCU again as Yelena Belova, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three, where she returns as Prince Irulan.
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Featured image: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 22: Florence Pugh attends the European Premiere of Marvel Studios’ ‘Thunderbolts*’ at Cineworld Leicester Square on April 22, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for The Walt Disney Company Limited)
