How Hamnet Went From Decorated Novel to Awards-Bound Movie |
Little Gold Men has been hosting a summer book club this year, focusing on the fiction set to be adapted into some of this Oscar season’s most exciting contenders—and hearing from the writers who originally conceived those stories. This week, the hosts discussed Hamnet, the stunning 2020 novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who also joined the episode to discuss her experience cowriting the script for the upcoming movie with director Chloé Zhao. The bestselling, award-winning author has been publishing books for 25 years, but this is the first work of hers ever to make it to screen.
Hamnet focuses on the lives of Agnes and William Shakespeare (played by Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in the movie), from their early courtship to the grief they experience after the death of their 11-year-old son. It’s a richly internal novel that centers on Agnes, cannily reframing the Shakespeare story—historically, she’s barely been written about, which required O’Farrell to mostly imagine the character from scratch—and offering a moving, intimate examination of life in the Elizabethan age.
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When O’Farrell heard about Zhao’s interest in directing the movie, she found a kindred spirit: “I loved Nomadland and I loved The Rider.” The first time they spoke, though, she told the director she felt ready to move on from Hamnet, and that Zhao should write the screenplay herself. “By the end of the conversation, I actually had agreed to cowrite the screenplay. Chloé is a very persuasive person,” O’Farrell says. “She was a perfect fit for the story. I knew that she wasn’t going to make an antiseptic period drama where everyone was clean and shiny.”
And Hamnet is just one of many fascinating adaptations set to hit theaters in the coming months. Stick with us on Little Gold Men—our next Book Club installment, on Ballad of a Small Player, is only a few weeks away. |
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