Jun 29, 2023
Leslye Headland To Direct Adaptation Of ‘The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo’ For Netflix
Netflix’s highly-anticipated adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s best-selling novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo looks to have found a director as sources tell Deadline, Leslye Headland is on board to helm. Liz Tigelaar penned the script with Liza Chasin producing for 3Dot Productions while Brad Mendelsohn will produce for Circle of Confusion. Jenkins Reid and Margaret Chernin will exec produce.
The book, which has spent 120 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller Paperback, six years after publishing, 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, and 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.
The project had every high-profile director in town chasing it for months and marks a major win for Headland who recently wrapped production on the highly-anticipated Star Wars series The Acolyte. That series became one of the big winners at the recent Stat Wars Celebration event in London, after early footage was shown that got the room buzzing.
Headland came up cutting her teeth on TV shows like Black Monday and Smilf at Showtime while also directing feature films like Bachelorette and About Last Night before her career launching break as showrunner on the Netflix series Russian Doll. The show was a massive hit for the streamer where she not only served as writer and showrunner but also directed a number of episodes. Off the success of that she partnered with Lucasfilm on Acolyte where she serves as creator, showrunner, writer and executive producer.
She is in a multi-year overall deal with the Disney-owned studio. As part of the deal, Headland will be looking to create, develop and direct series for network, cable and streaming platforms. She also recently exec produced and directed Freeform’s Single Drunk Female.
Tigelaar is is the creator and showrunner for Tiny Beautiful Things.
Headland is represented by UTA, Sugar23 and Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Younger & Light.