Focus Features has added Hamnet to its theatrical release slate. Two-time Oscar winner Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) adapted the novel with author Maggie O’Farrell and directs.
From publisher Hachette UK’s site: “On a summer’s day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.
Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress, and a glovemaker’s son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.”
The cast includes Academy Award nominees Jessie Buckley (Women Talking), Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers), and Emily Watson (Breaking The Waves, Hilary and Jackie). Joe Alwyn (The Favourite) also stars.
Focus Features will release the film in the United States, with Universal Pictures International distributing it internationally. Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Sam Mendes, and Steven Spielberg serve as producers. Kristie Macosko Krieger, Nic Gonda, and Laurie Borg executive produce. Hamnet‘s produced by Amblin Partners, Hera Pictures, and Neal Street Productions, in association with Book of Shadows.
Released in March 2020, Maggie O’Farrell’s earned a National Book Critics Circle Award as well as The Women’s Prize for Fiction.
