A Production Weekly posting states that Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet” will start production in the summer of 2024.
Why the delay?
I would guess it has to do with Zhao’s other project which she’s described as a Dracula western. Robert Pattinson is rumored as the lead for that one. Maybe it’ll shoot before “Hamnet.”
“Hamnet” is set to start two of the biggest Irish actors working today, Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley — both are said to be in talks to star in in the film, per Deadline.
Replacing original director Sam Mendes on “Hamnet, Zhao will adapt Maggie O’Farrell prize-winning Novel in what sounds like primo Oscar-bait:
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 William Shakespeare, as she grapples with the loss of their only son.
Zhao is coming off the “Eternals” debacle, her first big studio venture which bombed hard for Marvel. Before that, she won an Oscar for her direction in “Nomadland,” a film that also won Best Picture. I don’t think it’s aged well at all, but, as The Dude so eloquently says … that’s just, like, my opinion, man.