Be on the lookout for our in-depth column on H Is for Hawk, a new film based on Helen Macdonald’s acclaimed 2015 memoir, which was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. It stars The Crown’s Claire Foy and was directed by Misbehaviour’s Philippa Lowthorpe, who co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Emma Donoghue; it premieres on Jan. 23. In the meantime, here are four more book-to screen adaptations coming soon:

January 9: People We Meet on Vacation (film premiere, Netflix)

Our reviewer called Emily Henry’s Kirkus-starred 2021 romance novel “a warm and winning ‘When Harry Met Sally…’ update that hits all the perfect notes.” Poppy Wright, a devil-may-care New York travel writer, and Alex Nilsen, a reserved Ohio high school teacher, became best friends in college, and now take fun summer vacations together every year in various far-flung locales. Their platonic friendship takes some twists and turns over the years, and finally, both must come to terms with how they really feel about each other. This new film is directed by Brett Haley (All the Bright Places) and stars Emily Bader (who was quite charming in My Lady Jane, a short-lived 2024 Prime Video series adaptation of a lively YA fantasy romance novel) and Tom Blyth (who notably starred in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes).

January 11: The Night Manager (Season 2 premiere, Prime Video)

Tom Hiddleston is perhaps best known for his role as the complex Asgardian villain Loki in various Marvel movies, but he’s also starred in an impressive range of other projects, including Guillermo del Toro’s excellent 2015 gothic-horror movie Crimson Peak and the wonderful 2025 film The Life of Chuck, which was based on a novella from Stephen King’s Kirkus-starred collection If It Bleeds (2020). In 2016, Hiddleston also led an excellent cast in a BBC/AMC series adaptation of John le Carré’s 1993 spy novel The Night Manager. In it, he played Jonathan Pine, a British night manager at a Cairo hotel; after he makes a poor decision that leads to an acquaintance’s death, he becomes entangled in a spy mission to bring down Richard Roper, a dangerous arms dealer, played with startling menace by House’s Hugh Laurie. The first season changed some details of the original novel, replacing Colombian drug lords with Middle Eastern warlords and recasting Pine’s male spy handler as a pregnant woman, played with panache by the great Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter). She and Hiddleston return for this second season, which returns Colombian cartels to the mix, but also ventures into new territory.

January 18: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (series premiere, HBO)

The HBO show Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s bestselling (and, notoriously, still unfinished) fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, was a pop-culture phenomenon during its eight seasons. In 2022, the network followed it up with a prequel series, House of the Dragon; it drew on Martin’s 2018 doorstopper, Fire & Blood, which told the story of three kings of the Targaryen dynasty. This new spinoff is set after House of the Dragon but before Game of Thrones, and concentrates on the episodic and often violent adventures of a knight, Ser Duncan the Tall (known as “Dunk”), and his young squire, Egg (Prince Aegon Targaryen, who will eventually become king). It’s based on a trilogy of well-regarded novellas, collected in the Kirkus-starred 2015 volume that gives it its title, and it seems tailor-made to appeal to Martin’s large fan base. Peter Claffey (Small Things Like These) stars as Dunk, and child actor Dexter Sol Ansell (who also had a small role in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) plays Egg.

January 29: Bridgerton (Season 4, Part 1 premiere, Netflix)

Each season of this hit Netflix show is based on a different Regency romance series entry by bestselling novelist Julia Quinn. This time around, it’s an adaptation of 2001’s An Offer From a Gentleman that centers on the London high-society romance between Benedict Bridgerton (Misbehaviour’s Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha, who was a standout in the underseen Paramount+ SF series Halo). In the novel, Sophie’s story is the stuff of fairy tales—indeed, one particular fairy tale: She works as a servant for her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, and, without their knowledge, secretly attends the biggest event of the season: a masquerade ball. There, she meets the rakish Benedict, who’s captivated by the mysterious masked woman; then she runs off at the stroke of midnight, leaving a single glove behind. This familiar but fun setup carries over to this season, whose first four episodes drop on Jan. 29; fans will have to wait until Feb. 26 for the rest of the series, which will reveal whether the couple does, in fact, live happily ever after.

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.