Focus Features has boarded worldwide rights to Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet and announced that Steven Spielberg has joined as producer, while Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn have joined the cast.
Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal star in the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, which Amblin Partners, Hera Pictures and Neal Street Productions are producing in association with Book Of Shadows.
Principal photography began in Wales last month on the story, which sees upcoming Gladiator II star Mescal portray William Shakespeare in a fictionalised account surrounding the death of his only son, Hamnet, who inspired the name of arguably his most famous play, Hamlet.
Buckley, who recently starred opposite Olivia Colman in Wicked Little Letters, plays Shakespeare’s wife who raises the family in his absence. Zhao, who won best directing and best picture Oscars for Nomadland, adapted the screenplay with O’Farrell.
Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Sam Mendes and Spielberg serve as producers, and the executive producers are Kristie Macosko Krieger, Nic Gonda, and Laurie Borg.
Watson’s credits include HBO series Chernobyl, Punch-Drunk Love, and Breaking The Waves, Alwyn has starred in Kinds Of Kindness and Hulu series Conversations With Friends, as well as the upcoming Hamlet opposite Riz Ahmed.
Focus will release Hamnet in the US and Universal Pictures International handles the rest of the world.
The Focus slate includes the upcoming world premiere at Telluride of Piece By Piece, Morgan Neville’s animated biopic about the life of music star Pharrell Williams told through Lego bricks.
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