Release date revealed for Chloé Zhao’s ‘Hamnet,’ starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley

Literary adaptation Hamnet, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley and directed by Chloé Zhao, will officially open in limited release on November 27th. The movie will then expand nationwide on December 12th.

Gladiator II star Mescal will play William Shakespeare. He will star opposite I’m Thinking of Ending Things actor Buckley, who will play his wife Agnes. Joe Alwyn will play Bartholomew, and Jacobi Jupe will play the eponymous Hamnet.

Maggie O’Farrell published the best-selling novel in 2020. It fictionalises the life of the Bard’s son, who died young. It recounts the powerful story of grief that inspired what is considered Shakespeare’s greatest play, “Hamlet.”

The book has sold two million copies in the United States and the United Kingdom, it also has been translated into 40 languages.

Of the book, Mescal told Vogue: “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.”

O’Farrell and Zhao co-wrote the screenplay, while Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes are among the producers on Hamnet. Zhao is the second woman to win the Oscar for best director, for 2020’s Nomadland.

Having risen to fame in recent years, Mescal was recently cast as Paul McCartney in Mendes’ upcoming series of Beatles biopics. The Irish actor will share the screen with Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon.