8 films that began as plays

Back in the golden age of Hollywood, American’s theatres provided a steady supply of would-be hits ripe for adaptation. These days, fewer plays make it to the silver screen but those that do usually prove their worth. Here are eight recent picks well worth watching: 

Una (2016), Amazon – to rent 

Blackbird, a jet-black thriller about a tense reunion between a twenty-something woman and the man who groomed her as a teenager, caused a storm at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005 before enjoying sell-out runs in the West End and on Broadway. Despite the name-change, Benedict Andrews’ Una is an extremely faithful adaptation of the original, perfectly capturing its darkness, ambiguity and underlying menace. Rooney Mara and Aussie-export Ben Mendelsohn take on the leading roles, with Riz Ahmed and The Crown’s Tobias Menzies completing the cast.

One Night in Miami (2020), Amazon Prime – from 15 January 

Kemp Powers’ 2013 play One Night in Miami (which bagged excellent reviews at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 2016) explores a fateful meeting between Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali and his controversial mentor Malcolm X that took place just after Clay’s first world heavyweight title win.