Netflix adaptation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo suffers blow as director quits

The Netflix adaptation of one of the most popular books in recent years has suffered a blow after director Leslye Headland stepped down. Leslye had been attached to direct the film The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which is based on the 2017 novel by US author Taylor Jenkins Reid. It follows the story of the titular character, a former Hollywood star, who is approached by a journalist to recount her life story and her marriages to seven different men.

The series was originally planned to be adapted for TV in 2019, and Jenkins Reid was attached to write, but the series didn’t move forward. Leslye Headland, who had already produced successful works for Netflix including Russian Doll, was originally attached to bring the project to life. However, in an interview with Variety, Headland has confirmed that she is no longer working on the Seven Husbands adaptation for the streaming giant.

‘I am no longer working on that project,’ she revealed to the American publication. ‘I remain a huge, huge fan of the book and of the people working on it.’. She continued: ‘It’s one of those things where you know it’s going to be a huge success. I thought, “Damn it. It’s not going to work out with me involved in it, but it is going to be wildly successful.”‘. Heaping more praise on Jenkins Reid, she added: ‘It is the type of book that if I’d read it in my twenties, I would have had a completely different life. It’s so beautifully done.’.

It’s also not known who Netflix plans to replace Headland with, and it’s not been confirmed if the project will continue to move forward without her. Many had high hopes for the Seven Husbands adaptation after Headland’s Russian Doll series won several awards, including three Emmys in 2019. No cast information had been revealed, but many fans of the novel hoped that one of Jessica Chastain or Aubrey Plaza would land the two lead roles.

However, Chastain quickly ruled herself out of contention, saying there was ‘zero possibility’ of the project moving forward with her being given top billing. Speaking to E! News, she said: ‘[There’s] zero possibility. But I love how excited the fans are … I look forward to watching it, and I’m sorry to disappoint everyone out there.’. Across 2017 and 2018, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo spent 54 weeks on the New York Times’ bestseller list for paperback novels.

Split into seven parts for each of the seven husbands, the novel also tells the story of how the fictional Evelyn fought her way into Hollywood during its mid-20th century golden age. Cineworld is going all out for the release of Wicked, and we couldn’t be more excited. On GoodReads – a website that allows users to rate and review the books they read – it has a whopping 4.41 score (out of five) based on over three million ratings.

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