Women's Health February 25, 2026 0 Comments

You Won’t Believe How Sally Field Transforms This Beloved Book Into a Netflix Masterpiece—Exclusive First Look Inside!

Ever wondered if an octopus could teach us a thing or two about second chances and self-love? Sounds wild, right? But Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, dives right into that quirky, heartwarming territory—and guess what—it’s now swimming its way to the big screen with the legendary Sally Field and the talented Lewis Pullman leading the charge. This story isn’t just about a grumpy octopus named Marcellus and a widow named Tova Sullivan finding unexpected friendship at an aquarium. It’s about untangling decades-old mysteries and discovering the lifelines we hold onto when the currents get tough. If you’re someone who cherishes stories that wrap you up in warm embraces of hope and honest human connection, this one’s going to hit home. Ready to see how an eight-armed curmudgeon might just be the smartest creature in the room? Dive in and LEARN MORE.

If you love comforting stories filled with themes of second chances and loving yourself, then you’ll love the bestselling novel Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Published in 2022, it is now being adapted into a movie starring none other than Sally Field and Lewis Pullman. And if that wasn’t enough, we finally have our first look at them in the film alongside Marcellus the octopus. To learn more, read on.

What to know about the ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ movie

Remarkably Bright Creatures follows a widow named Tova Sullivan after she began working at the Sowell Bay Aquarium in an effort to keep herself busy. While there, she befriends a grumpy octopus named Marcellus, who might just be the key that helps Tova discover what happened to her son Erik, who disappeared on Puget Sound over 30 years earlier. The movie adaptation, which Oliva Newman is directing, is expected to follow the same plot, which allows readers to finally get to meet the “real” Marcellus.

“It really started for me watching octopus videos on the internet, which is a wonderful way to pass the time if you’ve never gone down that particular rabbit hole,” Van Pelt told NPR in May 2022. “Watching them, they’re trying to escape. They get into all sorts of antics because they’re just bored. I just really felt like there was a character in there, the frustration that an animal must feel when it almost must feel kind of superior to the beings that have captured it.

remarkably bright creatures book cover — Ecco

“Octopuses are incredibly intelligent. We don’t quite know the limits of how intelligent they are or could be because it’s just such a different type of intelligence from what we as humans and mammals are used to,” she continued. “That’s where the curmudgeonliness really started for me. It’s kind of just a funny premise: ‘Gosh, that guy must be so grumpy if he’s trapped in there.’”

Meet the cast: Sally Field and Lewis Pullman join the adaptation

To many readers’ delight, the 79-year-old icon, Sally Field (Gidget, Sweet Magnolias and Forrest Gump), will be starring as Tova. It will be her first project since 2023’s 80 For Brady.

“The whole book is surprising and life-affirming, and it’s an homage to life, to creatures, and the connection that human beings have to creatures,” Field told People magazine earlier today. “We worked on it relentlessly just to get that screenplay. Even when we were shooting we were constantly noodling and fixing and letting it breathe and have its own existence outside of the book. It was a long journey.”

Field will be joined by Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick, Lessons in Chemistry and Thunderbolts*), who will play Tova’s long-lost grandson, Cameron Cassmore.

Lewis Pullman and Sally Field in 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' — Lewis Pullman and Sally Field in ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’Netflix

“I had read with a couple of other young actors, but the minute Lewis walked in, the minute I saw him, I just knew here he is,” Field said. “Not only is he just a dazzlingly wonderful actor and funny and talented in every way … to me, he just was this character. We just started improvising instantly and having fun with it and laughing. And we were almost uncontainable. He’s just so easy to be with and work with.”

Currently, there is no word on who will voice Marcellus the octopus, but Netflix did promise to release that information soon.

“He really does believe that he is the superior species. And he has endless amounts of time to watch the humans. And he has a very sharp observational capacity,” Van Pelt told NPR of Marcellus. “I think he relieves a lot of his boredom by sort of creating these little soap opera moments and just really honing his observations and his thoughts about humans and how we operate.”

‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ movie release date on Netflix

To catch every heartwarming moment of the adaptation, you can stream the Remarkably Bright Creatures movie exclusively on Netflix starting May 8, 2026. As a Netflix original film, it will be available to all subscribers worldwide at 12:01 a.m. PT/3:01 a.m. ET on its release date. If you want to be the first to watch Tova and Marcellus’s bond come to life, you can head over to the Netflix app or Netflix.com to add it to your “My List” so you receive a notification the moment it drops.

“This movie has so much heart,” Van Pelt told People. “Like the book, it’s a story that will make you both laugh and cry. Plus, the film version has even more Marcellus the octopus, and everyone loves Marcellus.”

“Watching Sally and Lewis work together was magical. I could not think of a better Tova and Cameron,” she concluded.