After the $346 million box-office success of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us film adaptation this summer, it was only a matter of time before the other CoHo hits began attracting A-list Hollywood talent. A second Hoover fan-favorite, the bestselling psychological thriller Verity, is next in line for the screen treatment—and a book-to-screen aficionado will lead its cast.
In November, Amazon MGM Studios announced that Anne Hathaway (she of the beloved book adaptations The Idea of You, Eileen, The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada, and several others) will play Hoover’s protagonist, the very meta bestselling thriller author Verity Crawford. The project will reunite Hathaway with director Michael Showalter, who worked with her on the adaptation of Robinne Lee’s The Idea of You, also under the Amazon MGM banner.
Ahead, a quick overview of everything we know about Verity (the movie, not the book or the character) so far.
What is Verity about?
Verity, self-published by Hoover in 2018 before it was acquired for traditional publication by Grand Central Publishing in 2021, has become the kind of phenomenon frequently compared to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. And though I wouldn’t call the book autofiction, the story certainly takes some cues from the life of Hoover herself.
According to the official film synopsis, “Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of best-selling thriller author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series that his wife is unable to finish after a mysterious accident. Upon arrival at the lavish Crawford estate, Lowen slowly learns that things are not exactly as they seem with the discovery of a secret, unfinished manuscript that may divulge chilling admissions about the family’s past. As Lowen ingratiates herself with Jeremy and his young son Crew, she must discern if Verity’s writings are merely lurid works of fiction or an ominous warning by a deranged psychopath.”
Who else will be in the cast?
No other cast members beyond Hathaway herself have been announced yet.
Who’s leading the creative team behind Verity?
Showalter will direct, with a script penned by Nick Antosca—with prior contributing writers including Hillary Seitz, Angela LaManna, Will Honley, and April Maguire. Among the film’s producers are Hathaway, Hoover, Showalter, Nick Antosca, Alex Hedlund, Jordana Mollick, Stacey Sher, and Lauren Levine.
When will Verity come out?
We can’t be sure yet, but with Hathaway’s casting now official, expect much more news in the near future.
This story will be updated.
Lauren Puckett-Pope is a staff culture writer at ELLE, where she primarily covers film, television and books. She was previously an associate editor at ELLE.
