UPDATE: Focus just announced that they have acquired U.S. rights to Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet,” which is currently shooting in Wales. Furthermore, Steven Spielberg is boarding as producer and Emily Watson (“Breaking the Waves”) has joined the cast.
EARLIER: Two of the best Irish actors working today, Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, are set star in Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet.” It’s being produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Pictures. Production has just kicked off in Wales.
Replacing original director Sam Mendes, who now has to shoot four Beatles films, Zhao is adapting Maggie O’Farrell prize-winning Novel in what sounds like primo Oscar-bait.
Set against the backdrop of Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet, and during the Black Plague in 1580s England, “Hamnet” imagines the story of Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare, as she grapples with the loss of their only son.
Zhao also has her “Dracula” western in the works. It does look as though that one won’t be filming until at least next year Regardless, she’s coming off her clunker MCU film, “Eternals.” Zhao was originally showered with praise for her 2020 Oscar winning “Nomadland.”