Chloé Zhao’s ‘Hamnet’ Has Begun Filming in Wales

Chloé Zhao’s ‘Hamnet,’ starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as Agnes Hathaway and William Shakespeare, has begun filming in Wales, United Kingdom, as confirmed by Screen Daily. The film follows the fictionalized life of Shakespeare’s family at the time of his son Hamnet’s death in 1596 and the writing of the play ‘Hamlet.’

The film is an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning novel of the same name. Zhao, best known for her Oscar-winning film ‘Nomadland,’ is directing and co-wrote the screenplay with O’Farrell. Hamnet won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Fiction Prize at the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Awards and was also shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

The New York Times bestselling historical fiction novel imagines the story of Agnes—the wife of the world’s most famous writer, William Shakespeare—as she struggles to come to terms with the loss of her only son, Hamnet. The novel charts the emotional, familial, and artistic consequences of that loss, bringing to life a human and heart-stopping story set against the backdrop of the creation of Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet.

In a recent interview with British Vogue, Mescal said he is excited to share the screen with Maggie Gyllenhaal and work with Chloé Zhao.

Mescal said, “That book – it’s just devastating. I can’t wait. If I told a younger version of myself that this would be [shooting] this year, I wouldn’t believe it. I’ve obviously been in a film with Jessie before [Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter] but we’ve never shared the screen or a working process together. I think she’s one of our present-day greats. And Chloe is somebody I can’t wait to get in the weeds with, and get into the heads of those characters.”

Produced by Liza Marshall of Hera Pictures, along with Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes of Neal Street, who produced the Oscar-winning World War I film ‘1917’ with Amblin. Nic Gonda is executive producing on behalf of Book of Shadows. Jeb Brody, Amblin’s president of production, and Mia Maniscalco, SVP of Creative Affairs, will oversee the project on behalf of the studio.

‘Hamnet’ does not have a fixed release date yet.

Source: Screen Daily, Deadline