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

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix’s adaptation of the Tauylor 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. Liza Chasin will produce for 3Dot Productions along with Brad Mendelsohn for Circle Management + Productions.

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. Taylor Jenkins Reid and Margaret Chernin will exec produce.

Leslye Headland was on board to direct but last month during the Sundance Film Festival confirmed she was no longer on board. Netflix is still very on the project and had their 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 Amazo and starred 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.