The summer may be heating up, but there are plenty of cool book-to-screen adaptations in the forecast. Keep an eye out for our in-depth review of Season 4 of the Prime Video show Reacher, based on the bestselling mystery-thriller book series by Lee Child and starring Alan Ritchson as the tough drifter detective Jack Reacher. The lively first season, based on the Kirkus-starred and Anthony Award-winning Killing Floor (1997), was one of our favorite adaptations of 2022; this new one takes the twisty Gone Tomorrow (2009) as its inspiration and premieres on August 12. In the meantime, here are four other book-to-screen adaptations to while away the summer days:

August 5: The Shards (series premiere, FX/Hulu)

This new series is based on the 2023 novel by Bret Easton Ellis, which, according to our reviewer, “merges the sensibilities of [Ellis’] two best-known works, blending the coke-dusted high school milieu of Less Than Zero (1985) with the deliberately shallow and hyperviolent atmosphere of American Psycho (1991).” The book is set in 1981 at a Los Angeles prep school, where 17-year-old Bret Ellis is a student. (Yes, that would be the author himself.) When one of Bret’s classmates is murdered, he thinks it could be the work of a serial killer who may have a connection to a cult; he’s also intrigued by a mysterious new student named Robert Mallory. The show was created by Ellis and American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy—an intriguing combination that, judging by the trailer, seems to have yielded something resembling a gorier Gossip Girl. It features Igby Rigney (The Fall of the House of Usher) as Bret and Homer Gere (son of Richard) as Robert; American Beauty’s Wes Bentley appears as movie producer Terry Schaeffer, the father of Bret’s girlfriend.

August 7: Anna Pigeon (series premiere, USA Network)

Nevada Barr’s police-procedural mystery series, about a U.S. National Park ranger who solves murders at parks around the country, is the basis for this show, which stars the always-appealing Tracy Spiridakos (Revolution, Chicago P.D.). This first season adapts the first installment, 1993’s Track of the Cat, in which Pigeon investigates the suspicious death of a fellow ranger in Texas. The series’ showrunner and co-executive producer is Morwyn Brebner, who co-created the popular ABC cop show Rookie Blue. Lea Thompson, best known for her acting roles in Back to the Future and Caroline in the City, is also a co-executive producer, as well as a director. Ronnie Rowe (Star Trek: Discovery) co-stars as FBI agent Frederick Stanton, along with Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer as Pigeon’s sister, Molly.

August 28: Coyote vs. ACME (theatrical film premiere)

In 1990, Ian Frazier penned a New Yorker humor piece titled “Coyote v. Acme,” which later appeared in his 1996 collection of the same name. It reimagined the misadventures of hapless cartoon character Wile E. Coyote as the basis of a civil court case. This long-awaited film, directed by Dave Green (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows), combines animation and live action, and it expands on the source material by adding MacGruber’s Will Forte and Peacemaker’s John Cena as rival lawyers, as well as several famous Looney Tunes characters. The movie had a long journey to the screen: In 2023, executives at Warner Bros. controversially decided to take a tax write-off instead of distributing the film, despite positive test screenings. Ketchup Entertainment, a small distributor, bought the distribution rights last year, and now the movie is finally hitting theaters—much to the delight of animation fans.

August 28: The Dog Stars (theatrical film premiere)

In Peter Heller’s 2012 post-apocalyptic novel, the world has been severely depopulated by a terrible disease called “The Blood.” Survivor and widower Hig lives in an airplane hangar in Colorado and sometimes takes out a Cessna plane to look for survivors; a laconic old man named Bangley protects the area from horrific raiders by using long-range weapons. One day, Hig finds a man named Pops and his adult daughter, Cima, barely surviving on a small farm. The lonely Hig soon finds himself drawn to Cima, and she to him. Although the setup is a familiar one—our reviewer likened it to that of Cormac McCarthy’s Kirkus-starred 2006 bestseller, The Road—this film version, directed by multiple Oscar nominee Ridley Scott, is undeniably promising. It certainly has an impressive cast, including Jacob Elordi as Hig, Josh Brolin as Bangley, Guy Pearce as Pops, and Margaret Qualley as Cima.

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.