‘The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo’: Maggie Betts Takes Over Directing Duties For Netflix Adaptation

Justin Kroll
·1-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix’s adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s New York Times best-selling novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo has gained some momentum, as sources tell Deadline The Burial director Maggie Betts has come on to direct the film.

Betts will co-write the script with Liz Tigelaar, and Liza Chasin will produce for 3Dot Productions along with Brad Mendelsohn for Circle Management + Production.

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The 2017 book spent 120 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller Paperback list and has turned into a TikTok book phenomenon before Netflix landed the rights. The story is set during a long-awaited interview with a young journalist, where Evelyn Hugo, an aging Hollywood starlet, pulls back the curtain on her seven marriages. As she tells tales of Hollywood scandals, betrayals and woe, she unveils shocking truths about her own life and the lives of everyone around her. Jenkins Reid and Margaret Chernin will exec produce.

Leslye Headland was on board to direct but confirmed during the Sundance Film Festival last month that she was no longer on board. Netflix is still very high on the project and had its eyes on Betts for some time to take over directing duties.

For Betts, this marks a strong follow-up after directing the critically acclaimed The Burial from Amazon Studios, starring Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. That film came after another critical darling in the Sony Pictures Classics pic Novitiate.

She is repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

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