Anne Hathaway has locked down her next film project, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s thriller Verity.
The sketch comedy star–turned–filmmaker Michael Showalter (who helmed The Eyes Of Tammy Faye) is attached to direct, ᴅᴇᴀᴅline reported on Wednesday.
The H๏τly anticipated Amazon MGM studios film comes on the heels of another Hoover adaptation, It Ends With Us, which was released in August and starred Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
But the news wasn’t well received by fans on social media, most of whom seemed to be responding to Hoover’s reputation for being a less-than-sterling prose stylist.
Hoover’s writing will reportedly be filtered through Nick Antosca, who wrote the current version of the screenplay.
Anne Hathaway has locked down her next film project, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s thriller Verity, according to ᴅᴇᴀᴅline
The Colleen Hoover thriller is about a writer who agrees to complete a series of novels after the original writer, Verity Crawford, suffers a mysterious accident
He’s just the latest to take a stab at the adaptation, after Hillary Seitz, Angela LaManna and Will Honley & April Maguire penned previous drafts of the screenplay.
The film will be a reunion for Hathaway and Showalter, who directed her and co-wrote her film The Idea of You, which was released by Amazon earlier this year.
Read More Anne Hathaway reacts after NBA star OG Anunoby nearly crashes into her
According to ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, Verity focuses on a character named Lowen Ashleigh, who is a down-on-her-luck writer who gets an unexpected lifeline with a dream offer.
Verity Crawford (played by Hathaway) is a mᴀssively successful thriller writer, but her husband Jeremy asks Lowen to finish the final books in an ongoing series that Verity began after she has a mysterious and seemingly debilitating accident.
But once Lowen begins work at the couple’s opulent estate, she discovered a unfinished manuscript that threatens to reveal dark secrets about Verity and her husband’s pasts.
The young writer is forced to continue her work for Jeremy while trying to determine if Verity’s writings are merely fiction, or a disturbing warning from a dangerous woman.
Verity, which is described as a ‘psychoSєxual thriller,’ was self-published by Hoover in 2018.
The author, who holds the distinction of having the first self-published book to ever top the New York Times Best Seller list (2012’s Hopeless), also self-published Verity in 2018, before it was bought by Grand Central Publishing in 2021 after it had already become its own sensation.
Verity will be directed by Michael Showalter (The Eyes Of Tammy Faye), who previously directed Hathaway in The Idea Of You, released earlier this year; seen in March in Austin, Texas
Even though Verity was a best seller, fans didn’t seem excited for Hathaway to star in an adaptation of it due to Colleen Hoover’s poor critical reputation; seen October 8 in NYC
Hoover, who primarily writes romance and young adult fiction, has been lambasted by some critics for her writing style and alleged repeated use of plot cliches.
Even though Verity was a best seller, fans didn’t seem excited for Hathaway to star in an adaptation of it, and they expressed their displeasure on X (formerly Twitter).
One fan included a clip of a woman writing an insult — ‘ur nasty and a b****’ — and jokingly attributed it to ‘anne hathaway’s agent.’
Others thought a Colleen Hoover adaptation was beneath the Oscar-winning actress.
‘anne hathaway you are queen of genovia you do not need to stoop to these levels,’ wrote one fan.
Another fan was even more blunt, writing, ‘not even anne hathaway will convince me to watch anything with colleen f***ing hoover as a the blueprint [sic].’
‘anne hathaway’s come back about to be all these awful books shouldn’t even see a daylight is real tragedy [sic],’ bemoaned one post.
After reading that Hathaway would be in an adaptation of Colleen Hoover novel, one person joked, ‘anne hathaway in a what…’ and included a humorous gif of SpongeBob SquarePants’ Squidward with a twitching eye.
One fan included a clip of a woman writing an insult — ‘ur nasty and a b****’ — and jokingly attributed it to ‘anne hathaway’s agent’
Others thought a Colleen Hoover adaptation was beneath the Oscar-winning actress
Another fan was even more blunt, writing, ‘not even anne hathaway will convince me to watch anything with colleen f***ing hoover as a the blueprint [sic]’
‘anne hathaway’s come back about to be all these awful books shouldn’t even see a daylight is real tragedy [sic],’ bemoaned one post
After reading that Hathaway would be in an adaptation of Colleen Hoover novel, one person joked, ‘anne hathaway in a what…’ and included a humorous gif of SpongeBob SquarePants’ Squidward with a twitching eye
One fan called for ‘an investigation into why anne hathaway continues to attach herself to the worst book to movie adaptations’
Some fans seemed to have given up hope for Hathaway’s projects and weren’t at all surprised by her choice to star in an adaptation of Verity
Some fans managed to look on the bright side, with one person saying Verity could be Hathaway’s ‘Gone Girl’
Another user called Verity ‘the only good things that colleen hoover has ever put out’ and said anne was ‘perfect for lowen,’ though she will reportedly be playing the тιтle character instead
One fan called for ‘an investigation into why anne hathaway continues to attach herself to the worst book to movie adaptations.’
Some fans seemed to have given up hope for Hathaway’s projects and weren’t at all surprised by her choice to star in an adaptation of Verity.
‘”anne hathaway this isn’t you” not it is, it’s exactly her I fear,’ joked an X user.
Some fans managed to look on the bright side.
‘Hate this but Anne Hathaway finally has her own Gone Girl [heart emoji,]’ one person wrote.
Another user called Verity ‘the only good things that colleen hoover has ever put out’ and said anne was ‘perfect for lowen,’ though she will reportedly be playing the тιтle character instead.
Verity will reportedly be released in theaters, but a date has not been announced yet.