unfilmable

adjective

un·​film·​able ˌən-ˈfil-mə-bəl How to pronounce unfilmable (audio)
: not fit or able to be adapted to movies : not filmable
an unfilmable novel

Examples of unfilmable in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Emerging at the end of a big year for TV adaptations of unfilmable novels, from The Sympathizer to 3 Body Problem to Interior Chinatown, One Hundred Years of Solitude is among the best of the bunch. Judy Berman, TIME, 2 Dec. 2024 The book is in that pantheon of classics often deemed unfilmable. Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 27 Oct. 2024 The 23 best psychological horror movies of all time, ranked 'Salem's Lot' It has been called unfilmable, but Stephen King's Salem's Lot has, again, been filmed, and is again quite good. Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 5 Oct. 2024 Villeneuve, however, had the luxury of filming his adaptation of Herbert's famously unfilmable novel in two parts, the first released in 2021 and the second in 2024. and Kevin Jacobsen, EW.com, 30 July 2024 The Netflix adaptation of a brilliant novel so conceptually complicated that it has long been called unfilmable is perfectly decent (albeit simplified) sci-fi. Lili Loofbourow, Washington Post, 21 Mar. 2024 That’s one reason the material had long been deemed unfilmable. Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Feb. 2024 At the same time, the novel, with its shifting narrators and dreamlike structure that resists pat interpretations, was long considered all-but unfilmable. Mark Schilling, Variety, 15 Feb. 2024 Many books have been called unfilmable, but in the case of Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 best-seller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, that label would hardly be an exaggeration. Rebecca Sun, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of unfilmable was in 1928

Dictionary Entries Near unfilmable

Cite this Entry

“Unfilmable.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unfilmable. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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