Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley explore the life of William Shakespeare and wife Agnes Shakespeare in the teaser trailer for Chloé Zhao’s feature Hamnet.
Focus Features releases the film in select theaters Nov. 27 before its wide release Dec. 12. Emily Watson and Joe Alwyn round out the cast for the movie that is based on author Maggie O’Farrell’s novel.
Hamnet follows the untold love story behind the classic Shakespearean play Hamlet, with Mescal as the famed playwright and Buckley as Agnes. The project is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.
“You touched me, and what did you see?” Mescal asks Buckley in the trailer. Buckley replies, “I saw a landscape.” She adds, “And spaces, caves, tunnels and oceans, undiscovered countries. Deep dark black void.”
Zhao helmed Hamnet from a script she co-wrote with O’Farrell. The movie adapts O’Farrell’s acclaimed 2020 novel that centers on a fictionalized story surrounding the 1596 death of William Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son Hamnet.
The film’s producers include Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Sam Mendes and Steven Spielberg. Zhao executive produces alongside Kristie Macosko Krieger and Laurie Borg.
Zhao won the best director Oscar for 2020’s Nomadland. Her other features include The Rider and Eternals.
“I was so surprised by how immersive and sensorial the book is — and not only that, but the book is written in a way that has almost the same heartbeat as how I would edit,” Zhao told Vanity Fair about Hamnet. “Maggie has a very unique way of writing. It feels like images are being edited as I’m reading.”