EXCLUSIVE: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are attached to star in the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel It ends with us which is in development with Wayfarer Studios and Sony Pictures. Baldoni is also set to direct, with Christy Hall adapting the screenplay.
Alex Saks will produce for Saks Picture Company, with Jamey Heath producing for Wayfarer Studios. Lively and Hoover are executive producing with Steve Sarowitz, Andrew Calof and Baldoni on behalf of Wayfarer, which is also co-financing. Hall also produces.
The story follows a girl named Lily who has just moved and is ready to start her life after college. Lily then meets a guy named Ryle and she falls in love with him. As she develops feelings for Ryle, Atlas, her first love, reappears and challenges Lily and Ryle’s relationship.
After becoming a “BookTok” cultural phenomenon with more than 2 billion views on her TikTok hashtag, Hoover is currently the best-selling novelist in the United States, with more than 20 million books sold, and she has written five of the 10 best-selling printed books of all genres in 2022. Published in 43 languages, It ends with us was the best-selling printed book of 2022, has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for more than 90 weeks.
The novel was picked up in 2019 by Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, who worked with Hoover, who is consulting on the film.
Lively just made her directorial debut with Taylor Swift’s 2021 music video for «I Bet You Think About Me,» which earned her two ACM Award nominations and a CMA nomination. Lively is set to reprise her role in the upcoming A simple favor sequel with Anna Kendrick and Paul Feig returning to direct. She will make her directorial debut for Searchlight with the adaptation of the graphic novel by Bryan Lee O’Malley secondswritten and produced by Edgar Wright, alongside Marc Platt.
Baldoni is known for his starring role on The CWs Joan the Virgin, but since then he has moved more behind the camera with films such as Clouds and five feet away among his directing and production credits. He hosts the Webby-nominated podcast The Enough Men Podcast, which studies the nuances of masculinity. More recently, he added the author to his credits, after writing his inaugural book Man Enough: Indefining My Masculinity in 2021 and more recently The boys will be humanwhich is a New York Times bestseller.
Hall co-developed and produced the 2020 Netflix/21 Laps series I don’t agree with this, an adaptation of Charles Foreman’s acclaimed graphic novel. She recently made her directorial debut with Dad, which she adapted from her play of the same name. Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn star in the film, which is currently in the works. Hall also wrote the English language remake of Joachim Trier’s film. Thelma for FilmNation and Craig Gillespie, and adapted hold back the stars for Dan Cohen at 21 Towers and Lionsgate, and Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon for Vertigo and Village Roadshow. She is also writing the screenplay for husband’s secretbased on Liane Moriarty’s bestseller and in development at Sony Pictures, In TV, Hall recently served as consulting producer at Apple Servant.
Lively is represented by WME, Entertainment 360 and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern. Hall is replaced by CAA, Grandview and Yorn Levine’s attorney Miles Metcoff. Baldoni is replaced by WME.