Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao (Eternals, Nomadland) is getting behind the camera to direct an adaptation of Hamnet for Amblin Partners, Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions, and Book of Shadows. The concept is based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who joins Zhao in adapting the script.
Hamnet is a fictional novel depicting the life and times of Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare. The story takes audiences through a tumultuous tale of shattered realities, loss, and heart-wrenching inspiration behind Shakespeare’s world-famous Hamlet.
Per Amazon, the official description for O’Farrell’s Hamnet reads:
England, 1580. A young Latin tutor—penniless, bullied by a violent father—falls in love with an eccentric young woman: a wild creature who walks her family’s estate with a falcon on her shoulder and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer. Agnes understands plants and potions better than she does people, but once she settles on Henley Street in Stratford, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in her young husband’s life. His gifts as a writer are just beginning to awaken when their beloved twins, Hamnet and Judith, are afflicted with the bubonic plague, and, devastatingly, one of them succumbs to the illness.
A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a hypnotic recreation of the story that inspired one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing and seductive, an impossible-to-put-down novel from one of our most gifted writers.
Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, and Sam Mendes produce Hamnet through Neal Street, with Nic Gonda executive producing through Book of Shadows. While Zhao has not officially announced her next project, Hamnet is one of several endeavors on her shortlist. Her 2021 film Nomadland won some of the most significant prizes at the Oscars, including Best Picture, Actress, and Director awards.
Did you read O’Farrell’s novel? If so, does this project fit Zhao well? I’m curious to know who gets cast in the film and what tone it will take on as Zhao tackles this intriguing fictional work.
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