This one’s gunning for awards season.
Chloé Zhao’s ‘Hamnet’ adaptation, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, will be released in select theaters November 27, everywhere December 12, according to Focus Features.
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 Shakespeare, as she grapples with the grief that will soon come in losing her child to the plague.
The film also explores the connection between the death of Hamnet and the creation of Shakespeare's famous play Hamlet. He’s absent during Hamnet's final days, and this creates emotional distance between him and his wife. Agnes is consumed by her sorrow, feeling betrayed by his absence.
In August 2024, Focus acquired U.S. rights to Zhao’s “Hamnet.” Zhao actually replaced original director Sam Mendes, who is now in the middle of hard prep to shoot four Beatles films. “Hamnet” is an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell prize-winning Novel in what sounds like primo Oscar-bait. Lukasz Zal (“The Zone of Interest”) is cinematographer on this one.
I’ll just put it out there that “Hamnet” test screened a month ago. You can read the reactions, with a grain of salt, but Focus is confident enough with what they’ve got here that they will release it during the thick of awards season.
Zhao, who made waves with her 2017 indie “The Rider,” is coming off the MCU debacle “Eternals,” before that one she had won Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars for “Nomadland.”