EXCLUSIVE: Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are in talks to star in an adaptation of Hamnet for Amblin Partners, Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions and Book of Shadows. Chloé Zhao will direct the film is based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who will adapt the script with Zhao.
The New York Times bestselling historical fiction novel imagines the story of Agnes – the wife of the world’s most famous writer, William Shakespeare – as she struggles to come to terms with the loss of her only son, Hamnet. The novel charts the emotional, familial and artistic consequences of that loss, bringing to life a human and heart-stopping story as the backdrop to the creation of Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet.
Hamnet won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Fiction Prize at the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards, and was also shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
Liza Marshall of Hera Pictures and Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes are producing the adaptation on behalf of Neal Street, who produced the Oscar-winning World War I pic 1917 along with Amblin. Nic Gonda is executive producing on behalf of Book of Shadows. Jeb Brody, Amblin’s president of production, and Mia Maniscalco, SVP Creative Affairs, will oversee the project on behalf of the studio.
Know for her critically acclaimed roles in The Lost Daughter, Women Talking and I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Buckley can be seen starring alongside Riz Ahmed in Apple TV+ and Christos Nikou’s Sci-Fi Romance Fingernails, and she will reunite with Olivia Colman in the comedy-drama Wicked Little Letters. Buckley was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter, and won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, opposite Eddie Redmayne in London’s West End. She is repped by CAA. She is repped by United Agents, CAA, Relevant and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
Mescal has also been on a role as of late starting with him landing the highly-coveted role as the title character in Ridley Scott’s sequel to his smash hit Gladiator. He also earned an Oscar-nomination for his powerful performance in A24’s Aftersun and he was also recently seen in God’s Creatures, which premiered at Cannes.
Next up for him is the Garth Davis pic Foe, which also stars Saorise Ronan. He is repped by CAA and the Curtis Brown Group.
