Netflix Taps <em>The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo</em> New Director
Evelyn Hugo is the legendary, fictional ‘Old Hollywood’ starlet whom Netflix has tasked Maggie Betts to bring to life.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a New York Times Bestseller by legendary author Taylor Jenkins Reid, making this her third novel to be adapted for the screen. Netflix obtained the rights to an Evelyn Hugo adaptation in 2022, with mixed reactions from book fans. The adaptation is a hot topic on BookTok, but opinions on the potential adaptation are mixed. Die-hard fans believe the book’s material is too dense to be limited to two hours, not without removing much source material.
On June 29, 2023, Netflix tapped Russian Doll show-runner Leslye Headland to direct the adaptation. However, just last month, Headland confirmed that she had parted ways with the project. On Tuesday, Deadline broke the news that Maggie Betts would take over.
Betts has directed several films, the most recent being The Burial, starring Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. She and Liz Tigelaar (Little Fires Everywhere and Tiny Beautiful Things) will write the screenplay, and Reid will executive produce the film.
So, will this be it? Will this finally be the push this project needs to get out of pre-production limbo? Or will it be returned to the back burner of projects that never make it to our screens?
Taylor Jenkins Reid is a bestselling author known for telling stories of women who are equal parts ambitious, bold, and realistically imperfect. She is the mind behind the Prime Video limited series Daisy Jones and the Six, starring Riley Keough, Sam Claflin, and Suki Waterhouse.
Decades after her rise to fame, reclusive starlet Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell all. So she reaches out to magazine Reporter Monique Grant to help write a tell-all biography about Evelyn’s eventful life and scandalous career.
Moving to Los Angeles as a teenager in the 50s and retiring in the 80s, this icon is ready to teach the world: everything they know about her life is only the image she allows them to see.
So the question is, why? Why now? Why Monica? What is Evelyn hiding? And who, of all those husbands, is the true love of her life?
In the meantime, you can buy your copy of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo here.
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