In the aftermath of the huge success It Ends with Us enjoyed during its opening week, Colleen Hoover scored her next adaptation, and with Dave Franco in the lead.
Colleen Hoover is a very popular romance author and she has written multiple best-selling novels. Her books are focused on different difficult subjects, such as domestic abuse in 2016’s It Ends with Us or infertility in 2018’s All Your Perfects, and she has attracted a large following. However, Hoover is not without controversy. Her decision to market It Ends with Us as a romance novel instead of fiction, the additional idea to release a coloring book, as well as the allegations against her son, and her alleged attempts to defend him, led to countless criticisms.
It Ends with Us is her first movie adaptation, and it all happened thanks to Jane the Virgin‘s Justin Baldoni, who acquired the rights for the book in 2019, and has been working to make the film through his production company, Wayfarer Studios. While that is yet another project filled with backlash and criticism, the film did very well during its opening weekend. With $50 million domestically and $30 million on the international markets, It Ends with Us had a huge $80 million opening (via The Numbers), which is quite unexpected for the new drama. However, that led to Hoover getting another novel to the big screen.
Regretting You will be Colleen Hoover’s second adaptation starring Dave Franco
Love Lies Bleeding star Dave Franco has just joined the upcoming adaptation of Regretting You, Deadline confirms. The actor is James Franco’s younger brother, mind you, the non-problematic Franco, and Alison Brie’s husband. Franco will star alongside M3GAN‘s Allison Williams and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire‘s McKenna Grace. The Fault in Our Stars‘ Josh Boone is set to direct the upcoming indie project, with Susan McMartin writing the script, and Constantin Films producing.
Williams is set to play Morgan Grant, while Grace will play her daughter, Clara. Meanwhile, Franco will play Jonah, Morgan’s love interest following the loss of her husband.
While some fans were thrilled about the exciting cast, others asked studios to stop adapting Hoover’s novels: “can they please stop adapting her books like I’m begging,” write an X user with another, adding two vomit emojis, “quit adapting that woman’s books. I beg.”
Regretting You was published in 2019, and follows the difficult relationship between Morgan and her sixteen-year-old daughter Clara. Things get even more complicated after Chris, Morgan’s husband and Clara’s father, dies in a tragic accident, and the two have to find a way to cope. The novel was nominated for the Best Romance at the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards, and holds a rating of 4.13 on the same review-aggregator website.
Aside from Regretting You and It Ends with Us, Hoover has yet another adaptation in the works: the popular romance-thriller Verity. The 2018 novel was a big shift from her regular romance writing and will now become a feature film with Amazon MGM Studios. So far, there’s no announcement on who will star and direct the film, but writer Hillary Seitz will write the script, with Nick Antosca and Alex Hedlund producing.
Josh Boone has already done a wonderful job adapting John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, and Dave Franco, as well as Allison Williams and McKenna Grace have proven their skills many times, which could lead to a very successful Co-Ho adaptation. Hopefully, this time, without the behind-the-scenes drama that plagued It Ends with Us.