“Hamnet” is coming to the big screen. Chiara Atik has been tapped to pen an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning novel for Amblin Partners, Hera Pictures, and Neal Street Productions. Deadline broke the news.
Published in 2020, “Hamnet” tells the story of Agnes, the wife of playwright William Shakespeare, as she struggles to cope with the loss of her only son, Hamnet. A work of historical fiction, the novel “charts the emotional, familial and artistic consequences of that loss, bringing to life a human and heart-stopping story as the backdrop to the creation of Shakespeare’s most famous play, ‘Hamlet,’” the source writes.
“It’s every parent’s worst and most visceral fear that you will lose your child. That – and the idea you couldn’t save them or weren’t able to safeguard them,” O’Farrell told The Guardian. ” I cannot imagine the agony of having to bury a child. It must be unlike anything else.”
“Hamnet’s” many accolades include the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Fiction Prize at the National Book Critics Circle Awards.
Liza Marshall, Sam Mendes, and Pippa Harris are producing the adaptation.
O’Farrell’s other books include novel “The Distance Between Us” and memoir “I Am, I Am, I Am.”
Atik penned the script for “Beautiful Ruins,” an upcoming drama set in an Italian seaside village in 1962. Set to be directed by Niki Caro, the pic tells the story of a man who runs a hotel and the American starlet he falls for. Also a playwright, Atik’s plays include “Women” and “Poor Clare.” The latter will have its world premiere in LA in September.
