Despite the announcement of the beloved novel’s adaptation to the streaming screen, many instead wished it would be stretched out into a miniseries.
As first reported by Deadline, Netflix has today announced it will adapt the New York Times bestselling novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, into an original film.
Written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, the book spent 54 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller Paperback list, four years after publishing, and even exhibited fame on TikTok.
The announcement by Netflix about the book’s film adaptation said:
“Bestseller THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO is coming to Netflix!
“This hugely popular tale centers around reclusive Hollywood legend Evelyn Hugo, who chooses an unknown reporter, Monique Grant, to tell her life story. Evelyn recounts her time in the Golden Age of Hollywood, her rise to fame, and her seven marriages—revealing stunning secrets and lies. But through it all one question remains: Why has she chosen Monique for her final confession?
“The book will be adapted for film by Liz Tigelaar.”
Liz Tigelaar served as creator, executive producer and showrunner for Emmy-nominated limited series Little Fires Everywhere, and is currently working on another book-to-screen adaptation by Reid for Hulu, Malibu Rising.
While the popular novel has garnered much praise for receiving a screen debut, many fans have criticised the decision to limit the runtime to just a film length, instead of a miniseries.
As evident in the title, Evelyn Hugo marries seven times within the novel, and with data revealing the most average runtime for a Netflix film is 97 minutes long, each husband would be dedicated around 14 minutes each if divided evenly and adhering to the average runtime.
Given the scale of the novel’s popularity and the stripped format a seven-episode miniseries could provide, it’s a surprising move by Netflix to only commission a film order on this occasion.
Further interestingly, in 2019 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was in development at Freeform Productions as a series, with author Reid attached as screenwriter.
Ilene Chaiken (The L Word, Empire) and Jennifer Beals (The L Word) were set to executive produce with Fox 21 Television Studios.
In June 2021, Reid confirmed in an interview that the rights were no longer owned by Freeform and would be produced on another platform, now revealed as Netflix.
Just how Netflix will condense seven marriages into the space of one Original film is something sure to keep an eye on, as is the cast and who will play both the younger and older depictions of Evelyn Hugo.
As more information is revealed, there’s no doubt loyal fans will be watching Netflix’s every move.
Soooo true, I don’t why Netflix decided this should be a movie when out of all books this should be the first one to be made into a limited series, plus it’s hugely popular so it would drag out the hype for longer than a movie.
Certainly a missed opportunity, it seems Jen!