Movie
The All of Us Strangers actor will play William Shakespeare alongside Buckley as his wife in the film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel
Paul Mescal will play the young William Shakespeare in a big-screen version of Maggie O'Farrell's novel Hamnet directed by Chloé Zhao.
Chiara Atik will write the screenplay for the film, an adaptation of Lolita Chakrabarti's stage play, which had sold-out runs in Stratford-upon-Avon and the West End.
Mescal will star alongside Jessie Buckley as Shakespeare's wife Anne Hathaway, called Agnes, in the book, which deals with the loss of her 11-year-old son to the plague.
Speaking to Vogue to promote his latest film, All of Us Strangers, Mescal called the novel “devastating.” “I can’t wait,” he continued. “If I told a younger version of myself that would be the case [shooting] This year I wouldn’t believe it.”
Mescal and Buckley co-starred in Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter but did not share screen time together. “I think she’s one of our greats today,” Mescal said of Buckley.
Buckley will soon be seen in Wicked Little Letters alongside Olivia Colman from The Lost Daughter. Both she and Mescal are current Olivier winners – Buckley for “Cabaret” and Mescal for “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Zhao won multiple Oscars in 2021 for her debut film Nomadland; its Marvel sequel “Eternals” was received less enthusiastically.
“Chloé is someone I can’t wait to work with,” Mescal said, “and get into the heads of these characters.”
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