The film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel “It Ends With Us” has set Feb. 9, 2024 as its theatrical release date despite its halted production in the wake of the WGA writers’ strike.
The Columbia and Wayfarer Studios film will star Blake Lively as Lily Bloom, a Boston resident who finds an unexpected kindred spirit in neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni). Their relationship takes some twists and turns, and Lily’s high school love interest Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar) comes back into the picture to complicate things further.
According to a Deadline report from June’s shutdown, less than half the movie has been shot. Filming is paused until the completion of the writers’ strike following the production’s failure to persuade the guild last month that Wayfarer Studios’ cofinancing of the project made it an indie film, which would have allowed it to continue filming within the strike’s guidelines.
“It Ends With Us” became the highest-selling print book of 2022, with Hoover also writing five of the top 10 bestsellers that year. Her thriller “Verity” received the same treatment as “It Ends With Us” on Booktok, with Hoover collecting over 2 billion views on her TikTok hashtag. Her prequel book “It Starts With Us” arrived in October 2022.
Baldoni will direct in addition to star, with a script adapted by Christy Hall. The book was optioned by Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios in 2019. Baldoni will executive produce alongside Hoover and Lively as well as Steve Sarowitz and Andrew Calof on behalf of Wayfarer Studios, which is coproducing and cofinancing the film with Sony. Producers are Alex Saks for Saks Picture Company and Jamey Heath for Wayfarer Studios.
Critics of the film have lately scrutinized the fashion choices for Lively’s Lily, which include colorful ensembles that mix and match, but deliver a potentially “frumpy” look. Hoover responded to the criticism, expressing that she is “not worried about it” because it means people “care” about the film adaptation.
