Anna Kendrick is officially stepping behind the camera for "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo," and by her own account, she could not be happier about it. The actress-turned-director is attached to helm the long-gestating adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid's bestselling novel, a project that has been circling Hollywood for years and has finally landed with Kendrick at the helm. While no release date, runtime, or cast members have been confirmed yet, the news marks a significant milestone for a film that has been one of the town's most talked-about unproduced properties.
Kendrick, whose profile as a filmmaker has risen steadily in recent years, inherits a story that spans decades of Hollywood history and a protagonist whose life was built as much on fabrication as on fame. The novel, a fixture on bestseller lists since its 2017 publication, has amassed a devoted readership that has been waiting impatiently for a screen version ever since the book's rights were first optioned.
A Golden Age Story With a Modern Frame
"The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" centers on a reclusive screen legend who, late in life, selects an unknown reporter named Monique Grant to write the definitive account of her story. What follows is a sweeping recollection of Evelyn's years in the Golden Age of Hollywood, her climb to stardom, and the seven marriages that punctuated her public life. Along the way, the novel unspools secrets and lies that reframe everything readers thought they understood about its narrator, all while a single question hums beneath the surface: why Monique? Why, of all the journalists in the world, did Evelyn choose an obscure writer with no obvious connection to her?
That structure gives the material its dual identity. It is at once a romance, a drama, and something of a mystery, with the interview framing device allowing Evelyn's past and Monique's present to comment on each other. For a director, the book offers an unusually rich set of challenges: period detail from the studio era, multiple marriages to cast and choreograph, a nested narrative, and a central relationship between two women separated by generations and circumstances. It is the kind of project that can make a filmmaker's career, or break it.
Kendrick's Directorial Trajectory
Kendrick first became a household name in front of the camera, earning an Academy Award nomination for her work in "Up in the Air" and winning over audiences in the "Pitch Perfect" franchise. More recently, she has moved into directing, and her enthusiasm for this particular project appears to be genuine rather than purely professional. The "over the moon" framing of her reaction suggests a filmmaker who has found material she connects with on a personal level, not simply a star attaching herself to a hot property.
That matters for a book like this one. "Evelyn Hugo" is told from the perspective of a woman looking back on a life of calculated performance, and it asks hard questions about the cost of ambition, the compromises of fame, and the difference between the story a person tells and the life she actually lived. A director who understands performance - and who has spent years navigating the machinery of celebrity herself - brings an intuitive feel for that material.
A Long Road to the Screen
The adaptation has been in development for years, passing through various hands before landing with Kendrick. That history is typical for a novel of this scale and popularity. The book's fanbase is vocal, its set pieces are expensive to mount, and its timeline requires a production capable of moving convincingly between mid-century Hollywood and the present day. Any filmmaker taking it on faces pressure from readers who already have a fixed image of Evelyn, Monique, and the seven husbands in question.
For now, the confirmed details remain sparse. The cast has not been announced, which means the two most important roles - Evelyn and Monique - are still open questions. No release window has been set. The project is listed as a Hollywood production in English, with genres spanning romance and drama, and no rating has yet been established.
What is clear is that Kendrick is enthusiastic, the source material is beloved, and the film now has a director with a clear personal stake in getting it right. For a story about a woman who spent her whole life controlling her own narrative, handing the reins to a filmmaker eager to do the same feels appropriate. The next question is who will play Evelyn - and whether audiences will accept anyone but the version they have built in their own heads.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter