Netflix is developing a film adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2017 best-selling novel “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” with Anna Kendrick set to direct, according to multiple outlets. Variety reports Kendrick has been hired to lead the project. The same reporting notes that earlier filmmakers—including Maggie Betts and Leslye Headland—were attached at different points but later left the adaptation for reasons that were not specified.
The novel centers on Evelyn Hugo, a fictional Old Hollywood star, as she recounts her rise to fame and her relationships, including her seven very public marriages. Sources also describe the story as incorporating an LGBTQ relationship, including a long-rumored or secret romance involving Celia St. James, alongside its focus on love, ambition, and the pressures faced by women in the film industry.
Deadline describes Kendrick’s hiring as following her directorial debut, “Woman of the Hour,” and frames the project as a high-profile Netflix adaptation. Other outlets confirm the same core information: Kendrick’s directorial role and the source material being Reid’s book.
