Whether we like it or not, this is Colleen Hoover’s world, and we’re all just living in it. In the publishing world, Hoover is bigger than Jesus; her romances have become an utter phenomenon. And this year proved her stories also have legs at the box office with the solid success of It Ends With Us, the domestic abuse drama/love triangle romance starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Now, Anne Hathaway is lending Hoover nation some serious credibility by signing on to star in Verity, directed by The State alum and rom-com auteur Michael Showalter, according to Variety.
To be clear, Verity is not a rom-com—it fits squarely in the Hoover wheelhouse of dark and twisty romantic drama. (Dark and twisty in a soap opera way, not in, like, a Paul Verhoeven way.) Hathaway will play the titular character Verity Crawford, a best-selling author who is incapacitated in a mysterious accident and unable to complete her work. Her husband Jeremy hires a struggling writer, Lowen Ashleigh, to complete Verity’s manuscript. While working at the Crawford home and sorting through Verity’s notes, Lowen discovers Verity’s autobiography that reveals dark secrets about the family and the death of their daughter. Per the Goodreads synopsis, “Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.”
Despite their credentials (as an Oscar-winning dramatic actor and a niche comedy icon, respectively), Hathaway and Showalter obviously aren’t above some chick lit. Earlier this year they worked together on the Harry Styles x MILF fanfic film The Idea Of You, the source material for which wasn’t exactly up for the Pulitzer Prize. But Idea Of You was frothy, romantic fun, whereas Hoover’s books usually aim for the tearjerker end of the spectrum. This one’s billed more as a dark romantic thriller, so the film has appropriately recruited Nick Antosca (Channel Zero, The Act, Candy, etc.) to adapt the screenplay. The roles of Jeremy and Lowen have yet to be cast.
Verity is one of several Hoover adaptations currently in development. Alison Williams, McKenna Grace, and Dave Franco are currently signed on to star in Regretting You, while Universal is working on an adaptation of Reminders Of Him. An It Ends With Us sequel seemed like a sure bet following that film’s success, but tension amongst the cast might hinder the project from getting off the ground.