Chloe Zhao to Direct ‘Hamnet’ for Amblin

Chloé Zhao is adding another feature to the roster of films she has on her plate. The filmmaker has set her sights on Hamnet, which is in the works from Amblin Partners, Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions and Book of Shadows.

The feature is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s historical novel of the same name. It centers on Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare who is mourning the loss of her son, Hamnet.

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Zhao is a two-time Oscar winner for Nomadland, which landed her best director and best picture Oscars as a producer. The filmmaker followed that up with Marvel Studios’ Eternals, and she is also known for The Rider.

Zhao will pen the script for Hamnet with O’Farrell. Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes are producing, with Nic Gonda executive producing for Book of Shadows. Jeb Brody, Amblin’s president of production, and Mia Maniscalco, senior vp creative affairs, will oversee for the studio.

In addition to Hamnet, O’Farrell is the author of nine novels and the memoir  I Am, I Am, I Am. Hamnet won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction in the United Kingdom. It also took the Fiction Prize at the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award.

Hamnet is one of several films Zhao is attached to direct. She recently told The Hollywood Reporter she is currently writing a script for a sci-fi western Dracula movie that has been in the works since early 2021. It is unclear if Eternals 2 is still a possibility as well for her. (She declined to comment when asked by THR.)

Zhao is repped by CAA, co-managed by Pangea and Ilene Feldman Management, and attorney Linda Lichter of Lichter, Grossman. O’Farrell is repped by Conrad Williams at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency and Victoria Hobbs at AMHeath.

Deadline first reported the news.

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