Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) will direct an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed Shakespeare-era novel “Hamnet” for Amblin Partners. Zhao is writing the screenplay with O’Farrell. Amblin Partners, Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions and Book of Shadows are all backing the project.
O’Farrell’s New York Times bestseller reframes the creation of William Shakespeare’s most famous play, “Hamlet,” through the lens of the playwright’s wife Agnes (a variation on Anne Hathaway, the name of Shakespeare’s real wife), as she grieves the death of her only son, 11-year-old Hamnet, to the bubonic plauge. The novel also traces the beginnings of Agnes’ relationship with young Shakespeare — who is never named, known only as the world’s most famous playwright. In 2020, “Hamnet” won the Women’s Prize for fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.
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Liza Marshall (“The End We Start From,”), Pippa Harris (“1917”) and Sam Mendes (“1917”) are producing, and Nic Gonda (“Tree of Life”) is executive producing for Book of Shadows. Jeb Brody, Amblin’s president of production, and Mia Maniscalco, SVP of creative affairs, will oversee the project on behalf of the studio.
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This will be Zhao’s first feature after the 2021 release of the Marvel Studios’ film “Eternals,” which grossed just over $402 million globally. That was on the heels of Zhao becoming only the second woman ever to win best director at the Oscars, for her contemplative 2020 film “Nomadland,” which also won best picture and best actress for Frances McDormand.
Zhao is repped by CAA, Pangea and Ilene Feldman Management, Linda Lichter of Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman & Clark, Inc., and IDPR. O’Farrell is repped by Conrad Williams at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency and Victoria Hobbs at AMHeath.
Deadline first reported the news.
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